When an organisation engages an external recruitment firm to search applicants for an available position, this is known as contingent recruiting. The essential characteristic that distinguishes ‘Contingent Recruitment’ is that the external agency or contractor is only compensated if the applicant they uncover is employed by the organisation.

The chief benefit of Contingent Recruitment is that it de-risks the client organisation by removing any upfront costs of recruitment process. The downside – especially if the role is given for numerous parties upon which to work – is that the external agency is likely to deprioritise the role in terms of their focus and energy, as it’s statistically far less likely to end in success.

When an employer has a need for senior or highly trained people, they will approach an executive search firm, generally offering the agency exclusive rights to work on the placement, typically on a retained basis.

Before discovering and communicating with possible candidates, the external agency will obtain a deep grasp of what the employer needs in terms of competence and character. These are most likely passive applicants who are already in a position.

Executive Search firms are, in contrast to contingency recruiting, paid an upfront fee before getting further compensation after the successful placement. Typically, the client is also charged a fee to reach and present a shortlist of suitable candidates, and ultimately, the placement of the right person either at the start of their subsequent employment, or after the probationary period.

While the costs may seem steep – even relative to contingent recruitment – the focus and additional expenses incurred; like international travel, advertising, and engaging external parties for psychometric assessments or the like, are all common parts of an executive search process.

MercSec provide a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) model and specialise in technical & operational roles for scale-up businesses. The model is based on several unique offerings beyond traditional RPO practices, and brings a more wholistic and enriched service and outcome. By the end of our initial program, the foundations for solid talent attraction and talent acquisition will be in place, making any future recruitment efforts more effective.

This method towards securing talent is best suited to scale-up businesses that have the latitude to develop a more robust talent program than a two-person start-up, and don’t already have a sophisticated HR, nor internal Talent Acquisition teams in place.

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There are multitude ways for an organisation to secure the right people. The variables to consider are importance of the role, its urgency, its uniqueness, future hiring plans, and of course your budget.

If you’re hiring a whole team for your SOC, it doesn’t make sense to engage an Executive Search function, and conversely, nor is it sensical to look for a CISO through simply placing an advertisement on a job board.

The good news is, that MercSec can assist you regardless of the requirement, and will help you navigate the best route towards the talent your organisations requires.

By fully leveraging the machine learning and automation tools developed in-house, MercSec has the reach and scale to engage the majority of infosec talent across the globe. With this wealth of available talent, we can start to engage the ideal talent pool for any assignment.

Our processes and methodologies are built on the highly successful behavioural and technical foundations developed by The Mercuras Group. This ensures that every executive search assignment delivers the best possible results for each of our clients.

For candidates, we have built our enviable reputation by offering real value to our network in terms of career development, and critical industry intelligence. No glazed expressions of feigned comprehension – just advice and opportunities specific to you and your aspirations.