Why we don't charge a retainer — and why that should matter to you
A lot of recruitment agencies ask for a retainer — a chunk of the fee paid up front, before a single candidate is shortlisted, let alone placed. It's presented as standard practice, and for genuinely senior or hard-to-fill executive searches there's a real argument for it. For transactional finance and payroll roles, we think it's the wrong model, and we don't use it.
The problem with a retainer is what it does to incentives. Once part of the fee is guaranteed regardless of outcome, the pressure to actually deliver a great hire — quickly, and one who sticks — softens. We only get paid when we place someone, which means every hour we spend on your vacancy is an hour we're betting will lead to a genuine placement, not an hour billed against money already banked.
That's the commercial argument. The practical one matters just as much: it changes how a search actually gets run day to day. Without a retainer cushioning the process, there's no incentive to pad out a shortlist with candidates who look plausible on paper but wouldn't actually take the role or wouldn't actually do the job well — every candidate we put in front of you needs to be a genuine contender, because a shortlist that doesn't convert costs us the placement, not just your time.
It also means we're motivated to be honest early rather than optimistic for as long as possible. If a brief is unrealistic for the local market — the salary's too low for what's being asked, or the skill set genuinely isn't common in the area — we'd rather tell you that in week one than run a slow, expensive search that was never going to land, because a search that doesn't place costs us just as much as it costs you in lost time.
This sits alongside the rest of how we work: a dedicated Market Expert who actually knows your business rather than a call centre process, same-day response on temporary requirements, and working interviews with a money-back guarantee if you're anything less than 100% satisfied after the first day. All of it is built around the same principle — get paid for outcomes, not for effort or access.
If you've been quoted a retainer elsewhere and it's given you pause, that instinct is probably right. Talk to us about the same brief on a no-retainer basis and see the difference it makes to how the search actually gets run.