Contingency recruiting has a simple appeal. You do not pay unless someone gets hired. There is no upfront cost, no retainer, and no risk if the search does not produce a result. For a company that has never worked with an outside recruiter before, that sounds like the safest possible way to try it.
And in many cases, it works well. But contingency searches can also stall, produce thin pipelines, or quietly move to the bottom of a recruiter’s priority list without anyone saying anything directly. Understanding why that happens, and what prevents it, is worth knowing before you start a search.
How Contingency Recruiting Actually Works
In a contingency arrangement, the recruiter gets paid only when a candidate they sourced and presented gets hired. The fee is typically a percentage of the candidate’s first-year salary, calculated once the hire is confirmed and the candidate starts. If the search does not result in a placement, the recruiter is not compensated for the time they spent on it.
That structure shifts the financial risk to the recruiter, which is part of why companies find it appealing. You are not writing a check before you have seen a result.
The fee range at Steven Cardwell Search & Placement runs from 20 to 25 percent of first-year salary, depending on the seniority of the role and the complexity of the search. Every placement comes with a 90-day guarantee, meaning if the candidate leaves or does not work out within that window, the search continues at no additional cost. The full details are on the How We Work page.
The Problem With Pure Contingency
Here is the part that does not always get explained up front. When a recruiter is working a role with no deposit and no exclusivity, every hour they put into that search is a calculated bet. If the client hires someone internally, puts the search on hold, or signs with three other agencies at the same time, the recruiter has nothing to show for their work.
That reality shapes behavior, even when nobody is being dishonest about it. A recruiter managing a full desk is making decisions all day about where to put their time. A search with a deposit, a committed client, and clear exclusivity is going to get prioritized over a pure contingency search where the outcome is uncertain. That is not cynical. It is just how the economics work.
The companies that get the best results from contingency recruiting are the ones that treat it like a real partnership rather than a no-risk experiment. That means giving the recruiter honest information about what the role actually requires, responding quickly when candidates are presented, and not running the same search through five agencies simultaneously hoping something sticks.
What Skin in the Game Changes
When both sides have something at stake in a search, the dynamic changes in ways that are hard to quantify but easy to feel.
A client who has put a deposit down tends to be more responsive, more engaged in the feedback process, and more willing to move quickly when a good candidate is on the table. A recruiter who has a committed client tends to invest more deeply in understanding the role, building a proper target list, and making the calls that a speculative search often does not get.
That combination produces better outcomes. Not because of the money specifically, but because of what the money signals. It signals that both parties are serious, that the search is a real priority, and that there is a shared interest in getting to the right result.
The searches that stall or produce nothing useful are almost always the ones where that mutual commitment is missing. The client is testing the water. The recruiter is hedging. Nothing moves with any urgency and eventually the whole thing just quietly fades.
Why Multiple Agencies Rarely Helps
It seems logical that working with several recruiters at once would produce more candidates and a faster result. In practice, it usually does the opposite.
When multiple agencies are working the same role, they all know they are in a race. The incentive shifts toward speed. Candidates get presented quickly to claim first-submission rights rather than because they have been properly screened. The client ends up sifting through a larger volume of less qualified options, which takes more internal time and often produces less useful signal.
Exclusivity, or at least a clear primary relationship with one recruiter, removes that race dynamic. It lets the recruiter focus on finding the right person rather than being the first person to submit a resume. For senior and specialized roles in particular, that difference matters a great deal.
The Right Way to Think About Recruiting Fees
A contingency fee of 20 to 25 percent sounds significant in isolation. Put next to the cost of a role that stays open for 60 or 90 days, it tends to look quite different.
The fee is not a cost you pay for trying. It is a cost you pay for a successful outcome. And the conditions that make that outcome more likely, a committed search, a responsive client, clear exclusivity, honest communication about the role, are also the conditions that make the fee feel worth every dollar.
Steven Cardwell Search & Placement works with mid-market companies across Canada and the United States, primarily in engineering, skilled trades, finance, and accounting. The firm specializes in searches that have been open 30 days or more, where the standard approach has already run its course. You can see the industries covered on the Industries We Serve page, and browse current open roles to get a sense of the active work.
What to Look for Before You Sign With a Recruiter
Before you start a contingency search with anyone, it is worth asking a few direct questions. How many active searches is the recruiter currently running? What does their typical sourcing process look like for a role like yours? How do they handle a search when the first round of candidates does not land?
The answers will tell you whether you are dealing with someone who will genuinely work your role or someone who will post it to the same places you already tried and hope something comes through.
A good contingency recruiter does not wait to see who applies. They go find the people who are not looking. That requires a specific approach, a specific level of persistence, and a working relationship where the client is as invested in the outcome as the recruiter is.
If you have a role that has been sitting open and want to talk through what a committed search would look like, get in touch. The first conversation is straightforward and there is no obligation attached to it.