Choosing how to hire

Retained search vs. contingency

A buyer-first read of how the two models are priced, where their incentives point, and which one fits the senior seat in front of you.

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The short answer

The decision that matters is whether a search is transactional or a partnership, and that runs deeper than the retained-or-contingency label.

Contingency pays a firm only when a candidate starts, so the work is fast and low-risk on roles with a deep active pool. Retained funds a firm across the whole search, so it can go deep on one hard seat and reach the people who are not applying anywhere.

On a senior, mission-critical role the difference stops being about cost and becomes about incentive. A model that pays for speed will give you speed. A model that pays for depth will give you depth. The rest of this page is about matching the model to the seat.

The two models, defined fairly

Contingency search

A firm is paid only on a successful placement, typically 15% to 25% of first-year salary and closer to 25% to 30% for senior roles. Pin

The search is usually non-exclusive, so several desks work the same role at once and the first to place is the one that gets paid.

Where it genuinely winsOn a mid-level role with a deep pool of active candidates, contingency is fast, costs nothing until someone starts, and rarely needs more depth than the model provides.

Retained search

Also called engaged, contained, or container search when part of the fee is paid up front

A firm is engaged for the search and paid across it, commonly 25% to 35% of first-year compensation. Hunter Recruiting

The fee is usually split into three installments, on engagement, on shortlist, and on acceptance, which funds the proactive market mapping a scarce senior role needs. Cowen Partners

Where it genuinely winsWhen a role is genuinely hard and the strongest candidates are not looking, a retained partner can justify the deep, patient work of finding and courting them.

How the models compare

Dimension	Contingency	Retained	Engaged
How the fee is set	15% to 25% of first-year salary, higher for senior roles. Pin	25% to 35% of first-year compensation. Hunter Recruiting	A partial fee up front, the balance on the hire.
When you pay	Only when a candidate starts.	In three installments, on engagement, shortlist, and acceptance. Cowen Partners	A smaller sum up front, then on placement.
Exclusivity	Usually several firms at once.	One firm, dedicated to the search.	Typically one firm.
Where the incentive points	Speed and volume, the easy wins first.	Depth on one mission-critical seat.	Depth, with less commitment up front.
Passive-candidate reach	Limited, active applicants first.	Built for the roughly 70% of senior people who are passive. Pin	Proactive outreach.
Typical fill rate	Around 20% to 35% of searches placed. The Richmond Group USA	Around 85% to 95% of searches placed. The Richmond Group USA	Between the two.
Replacement guarantee	Rare.	Commonly up to twelve months, as an industry norm. Hunter Recruiting	Varies by firm.

Read across the table and one pattern holds: contingency optimizes for the speed of a placement, and retained optimizes for the certainty of the right one. The fill-rate gap is the clearest tell, and it comes straight from how each model is paid.

Where each model gets paid to point its attention

The failure mode contingency hides on a hard senior role is the multi-agency trap. When several firms race the same requisition, each optimizes for being first rather than being right, because only the first to place is paid. You receive a rush of overlapping, lightly-qualified candidates, and the loudest recruiter tends to win the seat rather than the best-matched person. On a role where a wrong hire is expensive, that dynamic works against you.

The honest trade is partnership against agency-spray, and it is not really about price. If what you want is five firms racing the same requisition, that is the setup a partnership model replaces. For a single mid-level role with a deep pool of active candidates, contingency is typically the honest call, and a good page should say so.

Which model fits the seat in front of you

Where OutScout fits

OutScout runs senior search as a partnership, priced for one. The engagement starts with the low commitment of contingency and carries the depth and passive reach of a retained relationship, so a buyer does not have to choose between the two failure modes above.

Send us the roles
Start with no retainer and no up-front commitment, the way you would brief a contingency desk.
Pay on the hire
A per-hire fee that sits below the typical contingent rate, owed only when someone you hire starts.
Stay per-hire, or roll into a plan
Keep paying per hire, or move to a flat multi-hire plan that lowers the effective cost of each senior seat.

How the engagement is shaped, model by model

Failure modes, answered

The contingency fee biteA per-hire fee set below the typical contingent rate, so the low-commitment option also costs less here.
The multi-agency trapOne dedicated team on your senior roles, so you are not refereeing firms racing the same requisition.
The up-front risk of a retainerNo retainer to commit before you have seen the work.
The relationship reset every searchEngagements span multiple senior searches, so the context compounds instead of restarting each time.

The sweet spot is the band just below classic C-suite retained search: manager, director, VP, and SVP roles, plus the senior individual contributors a company cannot afford to get wrong. A classic retained firm is structured around the C-suite retainer, with its fee, its pace, and its partner attention all calibrated to a chief-executive search, while the seat most companies are actually filling lives a layer below it. Those seats are mission-critical enough to need real depth and passive reach, and frequent enough that a full retainer on every one is hard to justify. That band is what OutScout is built for.

The leaders we place have built at

MicrosoftGoogle CloudAmazon Web ServicesMetaCiscoIBMSalesforceShopifySnowflakeServiceNowWorkdayRed HatDockerInstacartQualtricsFlexportGustoCelonisIndeedUdemyTuroVerkadaAccentureDeloitteRTXMoody's AnalyticsJupiter IntelligenceDrataAuditBoardBeyondTrust

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

How is OutScout different from both models?: It starts like contingency, with no retainer and a fee owed only when you hire, and it works like a partnership, with a dedicated team and real reach into the passive senior market. Most engagements roll into a flat multi-hire plan that lowers the cost of each seat.
Do you ever work on straight per-hire terms?: It can start that way. Send the roles, pay on the hire, with nothing committed up front. Most clients roll into a plan once the first search has proven the fit.
What does OutScout guarantee on a hire?: OutScout backs every hire with a replacement guarantee, with terms set in the engagement. If a hire does not work out, the search is run again at no additional fee.
Is OutScout an executive search firm?: OutScout runs senior search, dedicated to manager through SVP roles and senior individual contributors. It brings the depth of a retained partnership to that band without the classic retainer.

Bring us the senior search you are weighing how to run.