Speed Over Quality
When recruiters only get paid if you hire their candidate, what do you think happens?
They optimize for one thing: getting someone—anyone—hired as quickly as possible. Not the best candidate. Not the right culture fit. Just someone who will accept the offer.
The Incentive Problem
Traditional contingency recruiting operates on a simple model:
- No hire = No money
- Every day without a placement = Lost opportunity cost
- Quality takes time, but time is money
This creates a fundamental misalignment between what you need (the right hire) and what the recruiter is incentivized to do (any hire).
What This Looks Like in Practice
1. Overselling Candidates
Recruiters will emphasize strengths and downplay weaknesses. They’ll coach candidates on exactly what to say in interviews. They’ll present mediocre talent as “perfect fits” because they need to close the deal.
2. Pushing for Quick Decisions
“You need to move fast or you’ll lose them” is the battle cry of contingency recruiters. Creating artificial urgency isn’t about protecting you from competition—it’s about preventing you from finding better candidates.
3. Limited Candidate Pool
Why would a contingency recruiter show you all the best candidates? If they present 3 strong candidates and you pick one, they lose out on placing the other two elsewhere. So they show you one at a time, controlling the narrative.
The Cost of Misalignment
Here’s what this actually costs your startup:
Bad Hires: The wrong person in a critical early role can set you back 6-12 months. In startup time, that’s an eternity.
Opportunity Cost: While you’re managing out a bad hire and restarting the search, your competitors are executing.
Team Morale: Nothing kills momentum faster than hiring someone who doesn’t pull their weight. Your A-players notice.
Actual Dollar Cost: Recruiting fees (20-30% of salary) plus salary paid during the hire’s tenure plus the cost of searching again = easily $100K+ per bad hire.
A Better Model
What if your recruiting partner was paid monthly regardless of how many people you hired?
Suddenly, the incentives align:
- Quality matters more than speed
- Long-term relationship trumps short-term placement
- Building a strong pipeline becomes the priority
- You own the candidate relationships
This is embedded recruiting. This is how it should work.
The Question You Should Ask
Before you sign with a contingency recruiter, ask yourself: “Will this person make more money by rushing me into a decision or by helping me make the right one?”
If the answer is “rushing,” you know what to do.
Ready to try a recruiting model that actually aligns with your success? Let’s talk.
