Most contingent recruitment starts from nothing. A brief arrives, someone opens a database, and the search begins the day you needed it finished.
We work one market continuously, whether or not there's a live role. So when a brief lands in coatings, or distribution, or medical polymers, the mapping already exists, which is the entire reason a specialist can move quickly without cutting corners.
Where contingent is the right call
- The market is genuinely active. Regional and territory sales, technical service, application engineering, product and market management: roles where good people move regularly and a real pool exists.
- Speed matters more than exhaustiveness. You need a strong shortlist quickly and can accept that it represents the reachable market rather than every possible person.
- You want to test before committing. A legitimate reason, as long as you know what you're seeing.
- Budget is the constraint. Paying only on success is a genuine advantage, and we'd rather you used it where it works than be talked into something heavier.
What it costs
| Contingent search | |
|---|---|
| Fee | 25% of base salary |
| Structure | Payable only on a successful placement. Nothing up front. |
| Exclusivity | Not required |
| Replacement guarantee | 6 months: free replacement search |
| Best suited to | Commercial and technical roles with an active candidate market |
Read that fee line carefully
Ours is 25% of base salary. The industry norm is a percentage of the first-year total package: base plus bonus, car allowance, and whatever else is countable.
On a commercial role paying £90,000 base with a 20% bonus and a car allowance, a 25% package-based fee and a 25% base-only fee are several thousand pounds apart for identical work. It's worth asking any recruiter which one they mean before you sign.
What you still get, at contingent rates
Paying on success shouldn't mean a worse process, only a narrower one:
- Candidates spoken to properly before they reach you, not forwarded from a keyword match
- Our honest read on each shortlisted person, including the concerns
- Salary and market feedback, if your package is why you're losing people, you'll hear it
- A six-month replacement guarantee, roughly double the common market standard
- The same sector specialists who run our retained work
Where it stops working
Contingent search struggles when the qualified population is tiny, largely passive, or the role must stay confidential. In several specialty sub-sectors the realistic candidate pool is a few dozen people: reaching them takes systematic mapping that nobody can fund on a maybe.
Briefing three agencies contingently doesn't solve that. It produces three firms racing for the most visible candidates while nobody maps the market, and your name reaching that market three times with three different stories. If a role warrants three agencies, it warranted one retained search.
Questions we get asked
What is your contingent recruitment fee?
25% of base salary, payable only on a successful placement. Not a percentage of total package.
What is the replacement guarantee on a contingent placement?
Six months. If the placement doesn't work out inside that window, we run the search again at no fee.
Do I have to work with you exclusively?
No. Though if you're briefing several firms on the same role, it's usually a sign the role needed a retained search rather than more agencies.
How quickly can you produce a shortlist?
Within days rather than months on roles where our talent pools are already mapped, which covers most commercial and technical positions across chemicals and plastics.
Can I switch a role from contingent to retained?
Yes, and sometimes that's the right call, usually when a contingent search has surfaced the active market and confirmed the person you need isn't in it.
Got a role that needs moving?
Tell us what you're hiring for. Pre-mapped pools mean a qualified shortlist in days, and you pay only on success.
Book a Confidential Briefing →