For years, recruitment has been built around one thing: maximising revenue for agencies. Employers have been treated as customers in a high-cost, high-pressure sales environment, where success is measured in placement fees, commissions, and quarterly revenue targets—not in hiring outcomes.

But the industry is changing. Businesses are demanding more than just a transactional, pay-per-placement service. They want hiring partners, not sales-driven middlemen.

If the recruitment industry wants to stay relevant, it needs to shift from a revenue-first mindset to an employer-first approach.

Here’s what that looks like.

1. Recruitment Needs to Be About Hiring, Not Sales

For too long, recruitment agencies have operated like sales organisations, not professional services.

• Recruiters are measured on placements, not hiring success.

• Agencies push candidates through quickly to secure a fee, rather than ensuring long-term fit.

• The focus is on winning clients and closing deals, not building strong hiring partnerships.

Employers don’t need more cold calls, more resumes, or more sales pitches—they need recruiters who act as trusted hiring advisors.

The industry needs to move away from commission-driven recruitment and towards partnership models that are built around hiring success—not just making placements.

2. Employers Need Transparency—Not Guesswork

One of the biggest frustrations with recruitment is the lack of visibility into how hiring actually works.

• Why do some hires take weeks while others take months?

• How much effort is actually being put into a search?

• What are recruiters doing beyond sending resumes?

Right now, agencies control the process and the information, keeping employers in the dark. They charge high placement fees without explaining what those fees actually cover.

A better recruitment model gives employers clear insights into the process:

• How candidates are sourced

• How much time is spent on their role

• Why certain candidates are recommended

• What strategies are being used to fill their position

When employers know what’s happening behind the scenes, they can make smarter hiring decisions—and recruitment becomes a service worth paying for.

3. Pricing Needs to Reflect the Work Done—Not Just a Placement Fee

One of the biggest flaws in recruitment? Employers pay the same high fee whether a recruiter spends weeks on a role or just forwards a resume.

Traditional agencies justify high fees by saying they only get paid when a hire is made. But this just pushes costs higher—because agencies have to cover:

• The roles they worked on but never filled

• The time spent chasing new business

• The high commissions and overheads of agency sales teams

The result? Employers pay inflated fees, while recruitment remains volume-driven and transactional.

If the industry was truly employer-focused, pricing would be based on:

• The work actually done on a role—not just whether a placement happens

• Flexible, predictable costs instead of massive, one-off placement fees

• Hiring success and retention—not just filling roles as fast as possible

When recruitment is priced fairly, employers stop seeing agencies as revenue-hungry middlemen and start seeing them as partners who add real value.

4. Employers Deserve Recruiters Who Are Invested in Their Business

Most agencies don’t take the time to understand their clients’ businesses. They work on roles transactionally, moving from one client to the next, without ever truly embedding into a company’s hiring strategy.

This means:

• No real knowledge of company culture or values

• No long-term hiring support—just one-off placements

• No real accountability for whether the hire actually succeeds

An employer-first recruitment model would work differently. It would:

• Invest in long-term hiring success—not just individual placements

• Align recruiters with company hiring goals—not just commission targets

• Encourage real hiring partnerships, where recruiters act as an extension of the business

Recruiters should be collaborators, not just vendors.

5. The Future of Recruitment Is Employer-Led, Not Agency-Driven

The recruitment industry wasn’t built for employers—it was built for agencies to maximise revenue.

But businesses are no longer willing to play the game.

• They’re moving away from commission-based recruitment and towards on-demand hiring support.

• They’re choosing partnership models over one-off, transactional agency relationships.

• They’re demanding more transparency, better pricing, and recruiters who are invested in their success.

For recruitment to survive, it needs to evolve.

The future isn’t high-fee, high-pressure sales tactics. It’s a hiring model that puts employers first.