What is a retainer fee in recruitment?

The normal retainer model is a third, a third, a third: a third when the firm takes the job on, before any work has been done, and the rest staged so that everything is charged and paid before the person even starts.

Do retainer fees slow recruitment down?

Once the money has been paid, the urgency drops. People sit on retained jobs because the fee is already banked, which is exactly what a hiring business does not want.

How does Marshall Harmony charge for executive search?

Nothing up front. The whole campaign happens first: the mapping, the networking, finding the right people. A third is invoiced when the candidate signs, a third on the day they start, and a third a month later.

The problem with retainer fees in recruitment

Recruitment has a fee model it rarely explains to the people paying for it. Here it is in plain terms, and here is why Marshall Harmony has never used it.

What a retainer actually is

The normal retainer model is a third, a third, a third. A third when the firm takes the job on, before any work has been done at all. Another third staged along the way. Everything is charged and paid before the person even starts.

What it does to urgency

When a company tries to sell you a retainer, it is because they want their money up front. That is what is being sold. And once they have had the money, and somebody has had some bonus on the back of it, they sit on it. The urgency drops out of the search at exactly the moment the client believes it has been secured.

Ask yourself what would happen if retainer-based search was banned tomorrow. The industry would get better, because people would stop sitting on things.

The commitment myth

The standard argument for retainers is that they force the client to commit. But the client is committed anyway: they have signed terms of business. A signature commits a client. A payment only de-risks the recruiter.

Where retainers do make sense

Honesty matters here. There is a corner of the market where retainers work: very high level executive search, consultants running one or two assignments at a time at the top of the London market. For SME manufacturing and engineering businesses, it is simply not needed.

How Marshall Harmony does it instead

Nothing up front, for any role. For standard roles there is no risk at all: unless the role is filled, the client does not pay for it.

For executive search, the whole campaign happens first. The mapping, the networking, finding suitable people. A third is invoiced on the day the candidate signs their contract and commits to joining the business, a third on the day they start, and a third a month later. Because Laura would not sleep at night doing it any other way.

Before you sign a retainer next week

If you are an SME in manufacturing or engineering weighing up a retained search, you do not need to pay a retainer up front. There are services that will do the same work, arguably better, where you do not pay until you have a result: a person who has signed a commitment to join you. That is a no-risk way to hire.

See how Marshall Harmony works, or read on for what manufacturing leaders say they want from a recruiter.

The problem with retainer fees.