Would you work a job where you only get paid if and when your boss decides your work is worth it?

What if you had to compete with others doing the same job, and only one of you got paid?

To make it sustainable, you’d have to increase your price—a lot. You’d take on as many jobs as possible, knowing most wouldn’t result in income. You’d focus on quick wins over quality work because investing too much time in any one job would be a financial risk.

This is exactly how contingency recruitment works.

Recruiters take on roles with no guarantee of payment. They might work on ten roles and only get paid for one. And because they can’t afford to spend weeks working for free, they price their services accordingly—charging businesses 20-25% of a hire’s salary to compensate for the unpaid work elsewhere.

The result? A high-cost, low-commitment hiring model that prioritises volume over value.

How This Pricing Model Fails Employers

Employers often assume contingency recruitment is a cost-effective, low-risk way to hire. After all, you only pay if a hire is made. But what’s actually happening behind the scenes?

• Recruiters prioritise speed over accuracy. They can’t afford to spend too long on any one search, so they focus on candidates they can place quickly, not necessarily the best long-term fit.

• The best candidates aren’t surfaced. Deep searches take time—time contingency recruiters don’t have if they want to stay profitable. That means harder-to-find, high-value candidates are overlooked in favor of readily available ones.

• Employers get flooded with resumes. Since recruiters only get paid if their candidate gets hired, they send as many candidates as possible, hoping one sticks. This increases screening time for hiring managers and adds unnecessary complexity to the process.

• Candidate experience suffers. Recruiters are juggling multiple roles with no certainty of return, meaning communication is inconsistent, and candidate engagement is secondary to securing a placement.

• Retention rates drop. Because the model is built on filling roles quickly rather than strategically, businesses end up making short-term hires that don’t last—leading to more turnover, more hiring, and more costs.

So while you think you’re saving money by only paying when a hire is made, you’re actually overpaying in the long run—both in recruitment fees and in the hidden costs of a transactional hiring process.

What’s the Alternative?

Instead of paying for a model that forces recruiters into a high-risk, high-fee system, businesses should pay for recruitment based on actual work done—not just the outcome.

That’s exactly how EasyTalent works.

Instead of tying fees to placements, we offer:

• Fixed, upfront pricing so costs are predictable and fair.

• No commissions or placement fees, meaning recruiters work for you, not for the deal.

• Full candidate ownership, so businesses can hire when and how they choose—without future fees.

By removing the financial risk, recruiters can take the time to search properly, engage top candidates, and make recommendations based on fit—not just fees. Employers get better hiring outcomes, recruiters get paid fairly for their work, and businesses aren’t stuck funding a system designed to maximise revenue instead of results.

The Cost of Sticking With the Old Model

For too long, businesses have accepted high recruitment fees without questioning how they’re structured. But when you break it down, the contingency model isn’t just expensive—it’s inefficient.

It creates a misalignment of priorities, where recruiters are incentivised to push quick hires rather than find the right ones. It inflates hiring costs and leads to weaker long-term talent outcomes.

If you wouldn’t accept these terms for your own salary, why accept them for hiring?

It’s time for a recruitment model that works for businesses—not against them.