Retained Search: The Economics Nobody Actually Talks About

The conversation about retained versus contingency search almost always starts with the fee. It should start somewhere else entirely.

What contingency actually produces

Picture a recruiter with twelve open roles, eight contingency, four retained. When Monday morning arrives and decisions are made about where research time goes, the arithmetic is straightforward. The retained mandates have deadlines with real consequences. The contingency roles get worked when there's capacity, which on a busy desk is rarely enough for a technically specific, passive-candidate-dependent search in mining or energy.

This isn't a criticism of contingency recruiters. It's a structural reality. Contingency creates incentives around speed and volume. A properly run search in complex sectors requires the opposite: patience, depth, and the willingness to approach thirty people to find four worth presenting.

Retained search is not only for senior roles. It's the right model for any hire where doing it properly matters more than doing it cheaply, whether that's a C-suite appointment, a highly technical specialist, or a critical hire in a market where passive candidate access makes all the difference.

The numbers that matter

Across our retained work: 94% of mandates result in a successful first-choice placement. Shortlists delivered within 7-10 days of kick-off. Most mandates at offer stage within 3-4 weeks. Twelve-month retention across placed candidates above 91%.

These aren't aspirational figures. They reflect a model built around full commitment to each mandate, dedicated research time, no competing priorities, no race against another agency to the same shortlist.

When contingency still has a role

For roles where the candidate pool is genuinely broad and active, where the right person is accessible through standard channels, contingency can work efficiently. For volume hiring at project stage, an embedded RPO model typically serves better. But for any hire where the candidate pool is narrow, passive or geographically complex, retained search isn't a premium add-on. It is the appropriate model for the problem.

The question worth asking first

Before discussing fee structure, ask who runs the search from brief to placement. Ask how many concurrent mandates that person is carrying. Ask what the process looks like when the obvious candidates aren't available. Those answers tell you far more about likely outcomes than any percentage figure ever will.