Contingency or retained search: which should a manufacturer use?
Use contingency when you want to pay only on a hire: 25%, 30% or 33% with no upfront fee. Use retained when the role is critical and you want an exclusive, committed search: 20%, 25% or 28%, with half paid up front.
The six ways we structure a search
- Contingency. Success-based recruiting with no upfront search fee. 25% with a 60-day guarantee, 30% with 120 days, 33% with 180 days.
- Priority. A higher-commitment search for urgent, difficult or high-impact openings.
- Retained. A committed and exclusive search relationship, five points under contingency: 20%, 25% or 28%, with 50% paid up front.
- Retained + Volume. For companies with more than five active openings that want the commitment of retained search, a volume discount and an exclusive relationship: 15% with a 90-day guarantee or 20% with 180 days.
- RPO. Recruitment process outsourcing for large hiring projects, expansions, recurring hiring needs or multiple placements.
- Custom. For any recruiting project that does not fit a standard structure.
How to choose
The fee follows the guarantee, so the first question is how long you want us standing behind the hire. The second is how much the opening matters: a plant manager or a hard-to-find controls engineer usually earns the commitment of a retained or priority search, and a steady stream of machinists or maintenance techs is what volume agreements are built for. Tell us the role and we will tell you which structure makes the most sense.
Questions, answered
What is the difference between contingency and retained recruiting?
Contingency is paid only when a hire starts, with no upfront fee: at Compass 25%, 30% or 33% depending on a 60, 120 or 180-day guarantee. Retained is an exclusive, committed search with 50% paid up front, at 20%, 25% or 28%.
When should a manufacturer use a retained search?
When the role is critical or hard to fill, such as plant leadership or a specialized engineer, and you want an exclusive, committed search. Companies with more than five openings can use Retained + Volume at 15% or 20%.
More answers
- Is Compass Group Recruiting part of Compass Group USA?
- How do I know a recruiter is really from Compass?
- Do candidates pay Compass to find them a job?
- How much does a manufacturing recruiter cost?
- How does a recruiter placement guarantee work?
- Is a manufacturing recruiter the same as a staffing agency?
- What is a manufacturing headhunter?
- What does a manufacturing recruiter do?
- How to hire manufacturing talent
- Manufacturing salary guide
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