Traditional contingency recruiting creates a race to the bottom that hurts you, your candidates, and your hiring outcomes. Here's why.
No upfront fee sounds attractive. But traditional contingency creates problems that cost you far more than money.
When you engage multiple contingency firms, you create a destructive competition. Each recruiter knows they're racing against 5-10 others for the same role. This incentivizes speed over quality - whoever submits first wins, regardless of fit.
Result: You get flooded with barely-vetted resumes instead of curated talent.
Traditional recruiters send the same candidates to multiple companies. That means when you interview their "exclusive" candidate, you're actually competing with 3-5 other companies who received the exact same resume from the exact same recruiter.
Result: Bidding wars, inflated offers, candidates playing you against competitors.
When 5 recruiters contact the same candidate about similar roles, candidates get confused, overwhelmed, and suspicious. They don't know who represents whom. They ghost everyone. The best candidates - the ones with options - simply opt out of the chaos.
Result: You lose access to top talent who won't engage with the circus.
Traditional contingency firms work on 40-50 openings simultaneously. They can't possibly vet candidates thoroughly. Instead, they post on job boards, scrape LinkedIn, and forward anyone with matching keywords. You become their sorting mechanism.
Result: Your hiring managers waste hours interviewing unqualified candidates.
With no retainer, contingency firms have no skin in the game. If they can't fill your role quickly, they move on to easier placements. No follow-up, no updates, no commitment. You're left wondering if anyone's actually working on your search.
Result: Months pass with no progress and no communication.
Traditional contingency recruiters represent candidates, not companies. Their goal is to place their person anywhere, not find your ideal hire. They'll talk up mediocre candidates and push for quick closes regardless of fit.
Result: Misaligned incentives lead to bad hires and quick turnover.
Performance-based pricing without the contingency chaos
We don't send the same people to multiple companies. If we present a candidate to you, we're not shopping them elsewhere. You're not competing with our other clients.
Every candidate goes through our internal interview process before you see them. Skills assessment, cultural fit, motivation check, reference verification. Only 15-20% make it through.
We don't post on job boards or recycle active seekers. We tap our curated network of passive professionals who aren't desperately job hunting - they're selectively exploring.
You get one point of contact throughout the process. Professional coordination, regular updates, strategic support. No wondering if anyone's actually working on your role.
We're not in a race against 10 other firms to submit first. We can afford to do proper vetting because we're not competing on volume. Our candidates are pre-qualified, not resume spam.
We represent your interests, not the candidate's. Our goal is filling your vacancy with the right person, not placing our candidate anywhere possible. This alignment changes everything.
Traditional contingency recruiting is free upfront but expensive in wasted time, bad hires, and missed talent. Salisi Select gives you performance-based pricing without the chaos - exclusive candidates, rigorous vetting, dedicated support, and alignment with your hiring goals.
Same quality standards as our Executive Search practice. Same exclusive methodology. Just a different investment structure for companies with ongoing needs or testing our partnership for the first time.
Schedule a free consultation to see how Select delivers quality without the contingency chaos.
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