When a contingency recruiter fits
- You are hiring one role, once, and never expect to hire that role again
- You have no recurring hiring need across the trade
- You want zero monthly commitment and are willing to pay the percentage premium per hire
COMPARISON
My Trade Talent vs Contingency Recruiters.
An honest comparison of the flat-rate pipeline model and the traditional per-placement recruiter. Same talent universe - different cost, incentives, and predictability.
THE SHORT ANSWER
A percentage per placement, or the same fee every month.
Contingency recruiters charge a percentage of every placement - typically 20–30% of first-year salary. Their incentive is to fill the seat fast and at the top of the salary range. We charge a flat monthly fee and you hire as many of our submittals as you want at no per-placement cost. On the Standard tier that works out to an effective placement fee of 5–10% per hire at ten to eighteen hires a year, against 20–30% per placement. Below about four hires a year the percentage is the cheaper buy, and the worked scenarios further down show where the line sits.
SIDE BY SIDE
The comparison, row by row.
| Factor | Contingency Recruiter | My Trade Talent |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | 20–30% of first-year salary, per placement | Flat monthly fee, same every month |
| Typical cost of one $90K hire | $18,000–$27,000 fee per placement | ~$4,000–$12,000/mo with unlimited hires from submittals |
| Incentive | Faster + higher-salary placements pay more | Quality of submittals - we lose if you do not hire |
| Time to fill | 30–90+ days from open to start | Days to weeks; pipeline pre-built |
| Candidate scope | Whoever the recruiter has nurtured for the role | Same talent universe, with depth across 20 trades verticals |
| Cost predictability | Varies wildly by hire; spikes the P&L | Same monthly invoice; budgeted like rent |
| Who the candidate is | A product they are selling you | A person we are screening for fit |
| Replacement guarantee | Common (30–90 days) | Pipeline continues - your fee covers the next round automatically |
WHICH ONE MATCHES YOU
When each model fits.
Contingency recruiting is not bad - it is built for a specific situation. So is ours. The question is which one matches the way your firm actually hires.
When My Trade Talent fits
- You hire more than one role per quarter (or expect to)
- You hire across multiple commercial-trade verticals
- You want the per-hire cost to drop the more you hire - not stay flat as a percentage
- Your leadership team wants predictable monthly recruiting spend instead of P&L spikes
WORKED SCENARIO
The math at three hires per quarter.
For a firm making 12 hires per year at an average $90K salary:
$270,000
in placement fees over 12 months ($22,500 per hire × 12)
$90,000
flat monthly at the Standard 12-month rate; same 12 hires
$180,000
saved at this volume - recoverable margin in your P&L
Numbers above use list pricing. The savings widen with volume and with senior hires (where a 25% contingency fee on $150K = $37,500 vs. the same flat monthly retainer).
READ THE AGREEMENT
What a percentage fee actually involves.
None of this is hidden, but it lives in agreements rather than on pricing pages, so contractors usually learn it after signing one. These are the standard terms of the model, not a criticism of any particular firm.
01
What the percentage is calculated on
Base salary, or total first-year cash? The second quietly includes the signing bonus, the truck or vehicle allowance, and any guaranteed overtime. The same "22 percent" can differ by thousands of dollars depending on which definition the agreement uses, and the definition is in the agreement rather than the pitch.
02
When the fee is invoiced
Usually on the start date, not on the offer and not after a probation period. If the hire resigns in week three you are generally relying on the replacement guarantee rather than holding back payment, so the guarantee terms matter more than they look.
03
What the guarantee actually covers
A replacement search, not usually a refund, and the clock runs from the start date. Most exclude departures caused by redundancy, a change to the role, or the employer terminating for reasons other than performance. On a genuinely hard-to-fill seat a replacement guarantee is worth less than it sounds, because the replacement search is as hard as the first one.
04
The ownership window on submitted names
Most agreements put six to twelve months of ownership on any candidate that firm submitted, and it commonly survives the end of the agreement. Hire that person yourself eleven months later and the fee can still be due. It is the clause most likely to produce a bill nobody budgeted for.
05
Whether the fee scales with the offer
A percentage means the firm earns more every time you pay more. That is not dishonesty, it is arithmetic, but it does mean the party advising you on the offer is not neutral about its size.
Worth asking about all five before signing anything, whoever you sign with. There are more of them, about the search itself rather than the fee, in our guide to choosing a commercial trades recruiter.
THE OTHER SIDE
Where a contingency firm genuinely beats us.
Four of them, and the first is the one that matters most. We would rather set them out here than have you discover them after six months of paying us.
01
You pay nothing if nobody is hired
This is the real strength of the model and it is a big one. A search that goes nowhere costs you nothing at all. Under any monthly model, a quiet month costs exactly what a busy one does.
02
No commitment and no term
No minimum, no notice period, nothing to unwind if your hiring stops. If your pipeline is genuinely unpredictable, that flexibility has real value.
03
One seat, once
For a single hire you do not expect to repeat, a percentage is almost always cheaper than a subscription. Our own arithmetic says so: below roughly four hires a year, pay the percentage.
04
Urgency on a single role
A firm paid only on close has every reason to move fast on your one seat. If the seat is costing you money every week it stays open, that urgency is worth paying for.
BUDGET TIMING
If the problem is the invoice, not the total.
Budget timing is a different problem from price. The same engagement can run as pay as you go: a $1,500 monthly retainer while the search is open (separate from the Talent Pipeline subscription, which starts at $4,000 a month), credited in full against the fee when we place someone. You pay whichever is greater - the agreed fee, or the months already paid - so up to the break-even month it is a smaller bill at hire, and past it the monthly payments have already covered more than the fee.
QUESTIONS
Common questions about contingency recruiting.
What do contingency recruiters charge in the commercial trades?
Commonly 20 to 30 percent of first-year salary, invoiced when the hire starts. On a $90,000 seat that is $18,000 to $27,000 for one placement. The rate usually moves with how hard the search is and how much exclusivity you give the firm, and the definition of "salary" in the agreement decides what the percentage is actually applied to.
Is a contingency recruiter cheaper than a flat monthly fee?
It depends entirely on how often you hire, and below about four hires a year the answer is usually yes. A percentage charges nothing when you do not hire, so for one or two seats a year it is the cheaper buy. A flat fee charges the same every month, so its cost per hire falls as volume rises and overtakes the percentage somewhere between four and six hires a year on our entry tier.
What happens if a contingency placement quits after a month?
Most agreements offer a replacement search rather than a refund, typically on a 30 to 90 day clock running from the start date, and usually excluding departures caused by redundancy or a change to the role. Ask for the terms in writing before signing, because the exclusions do more work than the headline number.
Can I use a contingency recruiter and a flat-rate pipeline at the same time?
Yes, and some firms do, but watch the ownership window. If a contingency firm has already submitted a candidate to you, that name is usually theirs for six to twelve months regardless of where you later meet them. Running two sources on the same role raises the odds of a duplicate submission and an argument about who is owed the fee.
Does a higher fee mean a better recruiter?
Not reliably. The rate tracks how hard the search is and how much exclusivity you offer more than it tracks quality. A more useful question is how many candidates the firm submitted on its last search and how many the client actually interviewed - a wide gap between those two numbers describes volume rather than screening.
Run the math against your real volume.
Tell us how many hires you make per quarter and the typical role salaries. We'll show you the side-by-side against your current model in 30 minutes.
