Retained vs contingency search: which one you actually need

Retained search is an exclusive engagement where you pay a search firm in instalments to run a defined process, whether or not it ends in a hire. Contingency search is non-exclusive and you pay a fee only when someone you hire came from that recruiter. The model you need depends on how findable the person is, not on how senior the title sounds.

Oxxi is an AI-native hiring platform built in Kuwait, and there is a third option this comparison usually leaves out: running the search yourself with software that sources candidates rather than waiting for them. This guide covers all three so you can price the decision honestly.

What is retained search?

Retained search is an exclusive mandate. You appoint one firm, they work the role until it closes, and you pay across the engagement rather than at the end.

Pact & Partners puts retained fees at 30 to 35 percent of the candidate's first-year total cash compensation, typically split into three payments tied to milestones, with the final payment due on hire. Recruiterflow describes the same three-stage structure as one payment at engagement, one when the shortlist is presented, and one at placement or offer acceptance.

You are buying a process, not a result. The consultant maps the market, approaches people who are not looking, screens against your criteria, and manages the offer. Because they are paid regardless of outcome, they can afford to tell you the role is mispriced or the spec is unrealistic, which a contingent recruiter has little incentive to do.

What is contingency search?

Contingency search means no fee unless you hire someone the recruiter introduced. You can run several agencies on the same role at once, and you can run them alongside your own advert.

Pact & Partners puts contingency fees at 20 to 30 percent of first-year salary. The number is lower than retained because the recruiter is carrying the risk of doing work that never pays.

That risk shapes the behaviour. A contingent recruiter is working many roles at once and will prioritise the ones most likely to close fastest. You get speed and volume on findable roles. On a hard role you may get very little, and you will rarely be told why.

Retained vs contingency: the comparison

Fee level. Retained runs 30 to 35 percent of first-year total cash compensation. Contingency runs 20 to 30 percent of first-year salary. Both figures are Pact & Partners's.

When you pay. Retained is staged across three payments, at engagement, at shortlist, and at placement. Contingency is a single payment, and only if you hire their candidate.

Exclusivity. Retained is exclusive to one firm. Contingency is non-exclusive and often run in parallel with other agencies.

Shortlist size. Recruiterflow states that a retained search shortlist typically presents three to five candidates. Contingency has no defined shortlist, you receive candidates as they surface.

Timeline. Recruiterflow puts retained at 90 to 120 days to offer. Contingency has no committed timeline and is highly variable.

Conversion. This is the number worth knowing. Recruiterflow reports that retained converts 77.9 percent from client introduction to interview, against 44.3 percent for contingent, drawn from benchmark data across more than 2,100 firms in its Economics of Recruiting publication. Roughly, four in five retained submissions are worth interviewing, against fewer than half of contingent ones.

Best-fit roles. Retained suits roles where the right person is employed and not applying, where confidentiality matters, or where a bad hire is expensive to unwind. Contingency suits roles with a real applicant market and a repeatable spec.

Which one do you actually need?

Work through these in order. The answer usually falls out by the second question.

Will the right person apply to an advert?

If yes, you do not need retained search and probably do not need an agency at all. Advertise, and use a system that screens and ranks what arrives. If no, you need someone approaching people directly, and the only question left is whether that someone is a retained firm or your own team using sourcing software.

Does the search need to be confidential?

If you are replacing someone still in the seat, contingency is usually wrong. Multiple agencies briefed on a live role is how the market finds out. Retained gives you one counterparty under one agreement.

How much does a wrong hire cost you?

For a role where a bad appointment costs a quarter of lost progress, the retained conversion gap matters more than the fee gap. For a role you can re-run in three weeks, it does not, and you should not pay for process you will not use.

Do you want the market knowledge afterwards?

This is the question that separates both agency models from doing it in-house. When an agency finishes, the map of who is where, who declined and why, and who was close but not chosen leaves with them. Run the same search on Oxxi and that history stays in your workspace and is used by the next role you open.

The third option: running the search yourself

Both agency models exist because finding people who are not applying used to require a consultant's network. That is the part software now does directly, which changes the choice rather than removing it.

Describe the role, get a ranked list

You describe the role in one plain sentence, the way you would explain it to a colleague, and Oxxi returns a ranked list of candidate profiles sourced from public sources. There is no boolean string to build and no need to know every alternative job title. You can describe a whole team you want to build, not just one role.

Outreach from the same place

You contact candidates over email, WhatsApp, or LinkedIn from inside the platform, and replies stay attached to the pipeline instead of scattering across three inboxes.

A built-in ATS, not a separate one

A visual pipeline carries each candidate from first contact to offer, with interview scheduling handled in the same place. Nothing is exported between tools.

Salary benchmarks before you write the offer

Compare compensation by role, location, and experience, so the number you offer reflects the market rather than the last salary you happened to pay.

Your own database, answerable in plain language

Upload CVs from your desktop, email, or WhatsApp, then ask about your own talent pool in plain language. Most companies are sitting on hundreds of CVs from previous roles, and one of them is often right for today's.

Memory that survives the role closing

Every search, shortlist, and decision is kept and reused, so the second role starts from what you learned on the first. The candidate you interviewed and did not hire resurfaces when a role fits.

Oxxi is in beta with a free plan, so you can run a live role through it before committing to anything.

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What retained search still does better

Software does not replace a consultant in every case, and pretending otherwise would cost you a hire.

A genuinely confidential board or chief-executive search, where the approach itself must be made by a discreet third party, is still retained work. So is a search where the intermediary is doing negotiation and reference diligence you do not want to run yourself. And if you open one senior role every two years, you will never build the internal habit, and paying a firm for the process is the rational choice.

The honest framing is that retained search is worth its fee when you need a process run for you. It is poor value when what you actually needed was a way to find people who are not applying, and you now have a cheaper one.

How to brief whichever route you choose

Most failed searches fail at the brief, not at the sourcing. Write down the two or three things that genuinely disqualify a candidate, and separate them from the things that are merely preferred. Mixing the two is the most common reason good people get filtered out.

Agree what the shortlist looks like before work starts, including how many candidates and by when. Agree the replacement guarantee and its length in writing. And agree who owns the candidate data at the end, because on the agency route the answer is usually not you.

Questions we get asked

What is the difference between retained and contingency search?

Retained search is exclusive and paid in instalments across the engagement, usually three payments at engagement, shortlist, and placement. Contingency search is non-exclusive and paid only if you hire a candidate that recruiter introduced. Retained buys a defined process, contingency buys introductions at your risk-free price.

What does retained search cost?

Pact and Partners puts retained executive search at 30 to 35 percent of the candidate's first-year total cash compensation, split into three milestone payments with the last due on hire. Contingency is lower at 20 to 30 percent of first-year salary, because the recruiter absorbs the risk of unpaid work. Rates vary by sector, seniority, and market.

Is retained search actually better than contingency?

On submission quality the data says yes. Recruiterflow reports retained converting 77.9 percent from client introduction to interview against 44.3 percent for contingent, across more than 2,100 firms. That is a real gap. It does not follow that retained is right for every role, since a role with a healthy applicant market does not need either model.

How many candidates should a shortlist have?

Recruiterflow states that a retained search shortlist typically presents three to five candidates. Contingency has no defined shortlist and you simply receive people as they surface. Whichever route you pick, agree the number and the deadline in writing before work starts, because an open-ended shortlist is how searches drift.

How long does executive search take?

Recruiterflow puts retained search at 90 to 120 days to offer. Contingency has no committed timeline and is highly variable, since the recruiter is working several roles at once and will prioritise whichever closes fastest. Build the retained timeline into your plan rather than assuming a senior hire lands in a month.

What is the difference between executive search and recruitment?

Executive search means approaching people who are not applying, usually for senior or scarce roles, and it is normally sold on a retained basis. General recruitment works the applicant market through adverts and databases. The distinction is the method, not the job title, since some mid-level technical roles need search and some senior roles attract plenty of applicants.

Can software replace a recruitment agency?

For many roles yes, because the agency's core advantage was reaching people who do not apply. Oxxi does that directly: describe the role in one sentence and get a ranked list from public sources, then contact people over email, WhatsApp, or LinkedIn in the same place. Genuinely confidential board searches still suit a retained firm.

How do I choose a recruitment agency?

Ask four things. What is the fee and what triggers each payment. What does the shortlist look like and by when. What is the replacement guarantee and how long does it run. And who owns the candidate data when the engagement ends. Get all four in writing, since the last one is the most commonly overlooked and the most expensive.

Should I use more than one agency on a role?

Only on contingency, and only where speed matters more than confidentiality. Running several agencies signals a live vacancy to the market and can reach the person currently in the seat. On a retained mandate exclusivity is the point, since the firm cannot justify the process work if another agency might place first.

Run one role and compare

The cheapest way to settle this is not to read more about it. Take a role you are about to brief out, describe it in one sentence inside Oxxi, and compare the list that comes back with what an agency sends you. The free plan covers that test, and the data stays yours.

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