On the surface, the difference between contingency and retained search appears to simply be an issue of how a search firm gets paid. A contingency recruiter earns a fee only when a company hires a candidate they send out. On the other hand, a retained search firm secures a percentage of the fee upfront before they even perform a search.

Why pay for something before you get it?

Recruiter fees have long been the bane of hiring managers. So much so that avoiding them at all costs seems to be the knee-jerk decision of many. However, most cost conscious managers will ultimately discover that the true cost of an ‘at all costs’ approach to not using recruiters is sobering, if not mind numbing.