What is Contingent Recruitment?

​According to recent data, 76% of companies report that attracting well-qualified candidates is their biggest hiring challenge, making recruitment a serious concern for most businesses.

Hiring a recruiting firm is the best way to find top-notch candidates for your open positions. While some recruiting agencies use a retainer model, others use a contingency agreement. How do you decide which approach is best for your needs?

With contingent recruitment, the recruiting agency only gets paid when they find and place a qualified candidate into the role they are hiring for on behalf of their client. Contingency recruiting fees are typically structured as a percentage of the candidate’s first-year base salary and can vary widely from one recruiting company to another based on geography, industry, and position level.

Why Use Contingency Recruiting?
Unlike retained search, where recruiting fees are typically paid in installments at the beginning and throughout the process, contingent recruiting is based on the idea of only paying once results have been achieved. Many companies prefer to work with a recruiting agency that uses a contingency model because it is often much less expensive, and the fees are easier to understand. It is reassuring to hiring companies, especially smaller businesses, to know that they will not be paying a recruiting fee until after a qualified candidate has been hired. 

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But most importantly, contingent recruitment typically produces candidates faster because the hiring agency is competing against other recruiters as well as internal recruiting efforts and only gets paid if one of their candidates is selected. This fee structure provides a financial incentive to get the role filled quickly. As a result, contingency recruiting is ideal for companies that need to fill a role urgently.

The Contingent Recruiting ProcessData from 2019 shows that the average time to fill a job opening is 39 days, making contingent recruiting a popular choice among businesses that are concerned with the turnaround time on internal hiring.

Contingent recruitment is a fast-moving process that aims to leverage a professional recruiting firm’s experience to find the best person for a job opening on behalf of a client that is hiring. The contingent recruiting process involves three main steps: learning, looking, and leading.

1. Learn
The recruiting firm will ask questions and do research to understand the client’s business needs. This step involves everything from studying the company to having conversations about their needs and desires for the role.

Activities may include:

• Speaking with hiring managers and key stakeholders
• Reviewing business operations
• Discussing challenges and opportunities
• Identifying goals for the role
• Developing search criteria
  
  

2. Look
With a solid understanding of the client’s perspective, the recruiting agency will begin looking for candidates. Finding and evaluating candidates is where professional recruiters shine because they have the skills needed to streamline this difficult and time-consuming step.

Activities may include:

• Creating job postings
• Searching for candidates on hiring platforms and social media
• Personally reaching out to professional networks
• Evaluating qualifications
• Screening applicants
• Checking references
• Contacting prospective candidates to assess interest
  
  

3. Lead
Once candidates have been identified that may be a good fit for the role, the recruiting agency will assist the candidates and their clients with interviewing and subsequent steps – leading them through the hiring process from start to finish. 

Activities may include:

• Generating interview questions
• Presenting candidates to clients
• Coordinating interviews
• Gathering interview feedback
• Utilizing additional rounds of interviewing
• Putting together compensation packages
• Handling salary negotiations

For more information on the specific steps included in contingent recruiting for financial roles, please read our helpful resource: The Recruiting Process for Finance and Accounting.