Contingency and Executive Search in Recruiting
Differences Between Retained Executive and Contingency Recruiting
Jun 2, 2009
The major differences between contingency and retained executive recruiting are:
- structure of the fee the company has to pay for the service
- level of service an external recruiter provides
- approach to sourcing and recruiting
- specialization of the external consultant
Differences in Fees for Contingency and Executive Search
- Contingency recruiters receive a fee only if they find a candidate whom the company then employs. They are not paid for the actual search or resumes submitted to the client. Only after the candidate offered by a contingency recruiter is hired does the consultant gets paid. The fee usually makes some percentage of the hired candidate’s first year salary. The percentage may vary from 10% to 35% or more, depending on the position.
- Retained search recruiters are paid in advance, for the whole searching process, no matter whether the candidate they offered will be hired or not.
Level of Service Contingency and Retained Search Recruiters Provide
Contingency recruiters have no guarantees they will get paid for their work. Therefore, they usually work on multiple openings for different companies. Such an approach allows contingency consultants to raise the chances of employing someone, and getting a fee as a result. On contrast, the main goal of executive search consultants is to find the best candidate for the particular position. Being paid for the whole recruiting process, they can devote all their time and effort to working on the particular opening of the potential employer.
Different Approaches to Recruiting
Since contingency recruiters usually work on many positions at a time, there are great chances they submit the same resumes for the vacancies of different clients. Presenting a star candidate to several clients simply increases such a recruiter’s chances to get paid for the performed work. Looking for a candidate for the company’s opening, an executive search recruiter submits the found resumes to this company only.
Specialization of Contingency Recruiters and Retained Search Consultants
The good thing about contingency search consultants is that usually they specialize in certain fields and industries. They usually know their niche perfectly, and are sure about where to look for a candidate. Retained search recruiters usually do not have a narrow specialization. However, since they work with each vacancy very closely, they profoundly study the industry, the market, and all the peculiarities of each new opening.
Contingency and executive search recruiting are two types of external recruiting services. Contingency recruiters and retained executive search consultants have different approaches to working on the employer’s vacancy. The two types of recruiting services differ by the fee structure, approach to sourcing, level of the service offered, and specialization of the recruiters.
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