Glossary
What is contingent recruitment?
Contingent recruitment is a hiring arrangement in which an agency is paid only if a candidate it introduced is hired, usually as a percentage of the first-year salary.
The client carries no upfront cost and may run several agencies at once, which is why contingent is the default for individual mid and senior hires. The agency carries the risk, so it works hardest on roles it believes it can fill quickly.
The weakness is attention. An agency running twenty contingent roles cannot map the market for each one, so contingent suits roles where good candidates exist in reasonable numbers and the brief is clear. Leadership and genuinely scarce roles are usually better run retained.
What is a typical contingent recruitment fee in the UK?
Fees are agreed per client and vary with role seniority, scarcity and volume, so there is no single market rate. The fee is invoiced on the candidate starting, and most agreements include a rebate or free replacement if the hire leaves within an agreed period.
Can I use more than one agency on a contingent basis?
Yes, and many companies do. The trade-off is that every agency knows it may be competing, so speed is rewarded over depth, and your hiring managers spend more time on duplicate CVs.