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You have a leadership vacancy within your business, and you’ve made the first decision which is to use a recruitment agency to find the right candidate. The next decision is a bit tougher – do you use a ‘retained’ or ‘contingency’ approach to fill that vacancy? What does it all mean?  How do you know which is better for you? Let’s start by breaking it down:

What is contingency recruitment?

Contingency recruitment is where recruitment agencies find you candidates for your vacancy, but you don’t actually pay them unless you employ that particular candidate. This is a very common way of recruiting where you, the business, can put your vacancy out to as many recruitment agencies as you wish and wait for them to send back potential candidates. It very much leaves you in control of the recruitment process. This is most often used for general mass-market job roles where you will get lots of interest in the position.

Contingency recruitment is good because…

• You don’t pay the recruitment agency until they fill your position.
• If they send you candidates you don’t like, you don’t have to pay.
• You are in control and can use the experience of many agencies.
• Can often lead to a role being filled quickly as there are many people working to fill it.

The disadvantages of Contingency recruitment…

• By briefing multiple recruitment agencies to find candidates, you may not get their best applicants.
• If recruitment agencies know that there are multiple agencies and candidates in the running for one vacancy, it will likely demotivate them to put in their best efforts to really search high and low for that perfect candidate for you.
• I.e., if you brief less recruitment agencies and give them a fairer chance to find the right candidate for you, they will likely give you their best service and deliver you the right candidate.
• If recruitment agencies know they are up against internal HR teams who are also looking to fill the vacancy, again, they may feel they have very little chance of finding you the right candidate and therefore won’t get paid.

What is retained recruitment?

You may have heard of ‘executive search’ or ‘headhunting’ – this is retained recruitment. This is where you appoint a recruitment agency and guarantee them exclusivity of a certain vacancy.  In return for this exclusivity commitment, the executive search recruitment agency will give you a dedicated consultant who has vast expertise in your industry sector. They will take it on themselves to then search, identify, attract and appoint the best candidate for your vacancy. Retained recruitment is most often used to fill senior level and leadership roles where the pool of applicants may be more niche, more specialised and more selective.

Retained recruitment is good because…

• Your dedicated consultant will look after the process from start to finish meaning less legwork for you.
• Your consultant has the freedom to target and recruit from competitors.
• Your consultant will have an established network within your industry sector who they can speak to.
• The exclusivity commitment means your consultant will work much harder for your cause as there’s a high chance they will be rewarded for it.
• Discretion is a massive benefit of retained recruiters. A lot their established network is unlikely to be actively looking for a new role so having an external representative identifying and approaching these passive candidates is key.

The disadvantages of retained recruitment…

• It can feel like “Putting all your eggs in one basket”. You are placing all your trust into your consultant to find the perfect candidate for you.
• The process can be slower than a contingency approach as candidates may be passive and take longer to engage with.

So, how do you know which one would be better for your business?

Now you have all the information about contingency recruitment and retained recruitment, this decision is now totally up to you and what you feel is right for your business. To summarise:

Contingency recruitment works well for general mass-market vacancies where you are likely to receive a lot of applicants, but you want support from a recruitment agency to ensure they find you the perfect new employee. They will help you to find your ‘needle in a haystack’ (so to speak).

Retained recruitment works well for senior level and leadership vacancies where the market pool is smaller and more niche. Retained allows you to utilise the skills, contacts and expertise of your consultant in your specific industry to find the ideal candidate for your business.

At Featherbank, we match professionals to senior-level leadership roles within the care and later living sector. Working closely with our clients, we only connect them with those candidates that are a great fit for their organisation and values using our expert retained recruitment process and highly experienced consultants. If you want the best people in the sector to fill your senior level vacancies, get in touch!