Ask most business leaders how they feel about working with recruitment agencies, and you’ll likely get the same response: frustration.

The contingency recruitment model—where agencies only get paid if they successfully place a candidate—is almost universally disliked by employers. It’s expensive, inefficient, and misaligned with what businesses actually need from a hiring partner.

So why is it still the dominant model? And more importantly, what’s replacing it?

Why Employers Are Walking Away from Contingency Recruitment

For decades, recruitment agencies have operated on a sales-first model, where revenue, not hiring success, dictates their approach. Agencies bring in as many job requisitions as possible, knowing most won’t result in a hire. Since they only get paid for a fraction of the roles they work on, they charge high placement fees (20-25% of salary) on the ones that do.

The result? A system that fails employers in multiple ways:

• Sky-high recruitment fees – Employers pay for more than just the recruitment work being done for them; they’re covering the agency’s sales efforts, lost time on failed searches, and overhead.

• Low recruiter commitment – Since recruiters are working on multiple roles with no guarantee of payment, they prioritize roles that are easiest to fill, not necessarily the most important to their clients.

• Rushed candidate placements – To beat competing agencies, recruiters submit candidates quickly rather than conducting deep searches, leading to poor long-term hiring outcomes.

• A transactional, commission-driven approach – Recruiters aren’t incentivized to build real hiring strategies for employers—they’re incentivized to close deals as fast as possible.

Put simply: Employers hate contingency recruitment because it’s expensive and ineffective.

So what’s next?

The Shift Toward a More Sustainable Hiring Model

Business leaders are no longer willing to overpay for inconsistent results. The demand for a better recruitment model is growing, and it’s moving away from sales-driven agency structures.

A new approach is emerging—one that:

• Removes commission-based pricing – Instead of tying recruiter pay to placements, businesses are paying for actual recruitment work, not just outcomes.

• Provides consistent, on-demand hiring support – Employers can engage recruiters when they need them without the pressure of long-term contracts or inflated placement fees.

• Encourages deeper searches and better hiring decisions – Since recruiters aren’t racing against competing agencies, they can focus on finding the right candidates, not just the fastest hires.

• Eliminates sales-driven recruitment – With no business development quotas or commission targets, recruiters work as true hiring partners—not sales reps chasing revenue.

This model shifts recruitment away from a high-risk, high-fee system and into a fairer, more effective approach where businesses pay for the hiring support they actually need.

The Future of Hiring Isn’t Built on Commission

The contingency model isn’t just outdated—it’s losing relevance.

Companies today need cost-effective, flexible, and accountable hiring solutions—not sales-driven agencies that prioritise volume over quality.

The recruitment industry is changing, and businesses that move away from contingency hiring will be the ones that benefit.

Because let’s face it—there has to be a better way.

And now, there finally is.