Most firms answer this question by telling you which model they sell.
We do both. So we'll tell you the truth.
The retained search case is strong. Here it is.
When a hire shapes the direction of your business, the talent pool largely ignores job adverts, and getting it wrong costs you a year and a leadership crisis — retained search exists for exactly this situation.
What retained actually delivers, done properly:
You buy market intelligence, not CVs. A good retained search exhausts the market — every credible candidate identified, approached, and assessed against a set of Key Matching Criteria that permeate the entire process from the first qualification call to the final references. Not the ones who happened to apply. Everyone.
The process is forensic. Structured interviews. In-person assessment where it matters. Back-channel referencing that goes beyond the names a candidate hands you. The difference between a leader who talks a good game and one who can actually build something becomes visible when the process is rigorous enough to find it.
Stakeholders stay aligned. A retained search includes the management work — regular updates, alignment conversations, advisory input at every stage. The decision that lands is one everyone has been brought to, not one that surprises.
And the risk profile shifts. You are not hoping the right person sees your advert. You are mapping the market, approaching the people who aren't looking, and selecting from a field you have defined rather than one that self-selected.
Retained search is the right model when:
The hire is urgent and critical. The talent pool is passive. Multiple stakeholders need to align on the outcome. The cost of a wrong hire — in time, money, and organizational disruption — is significant. You need a partner, not a vendor.
The contingent case is equally strong. Here it is.
Contingent is not a cheaper version of retained. It is a different model, built for a different situation.
The situation is this: you know exactly what good looks like. The profile is clear, the bar is high, and there is no burning deadline. What you want is a trusted advisor continuously headhunting against that profile — introducing the right person when they surface, rather than racing to fill a seat by a fixed date.
This model manages a passive talent pipeline. The advisor holds the brief, works the market continuously, and brings candidates forward as and when the right match appears. For individual contributors and early-stage leaders, this is often the smarter approach. The hire happens at the right moment rather than the nearest available one.
Contingent works best when:
The profile is well understood. The bar is non-negotiable. The timing is opportunistic rather than urgent. You want an always-on talent partner rather than a project with a deadline.
The question that decides it.
Not: which model is cheaper?
The question is: what does this hire actually need?
If the answer is urgency, criticality, a largely passive market, and high alignment risk — retained search removes those risks methodically.
If the answer is a clear profile, a high bar, no hard deadline, and a desire for the right person rather than the available person — contingent, done properly, delivers exactly that.
A trusted advisor helps you ask the right question. Then deploys the right model. The mistake most firms make — and most advisors let them make — is treating the model as fixed rather than treating the hire as the thing that determines it.
What this looked like in practice.
Stevenson Search Partners, a 47-year executive search firm backed by SIX SIBS, wanted to launch an On Demand division — a new business unit requiring new leadership and a different commercial model to anything they had built before.
The EVP hire was retained. It had to be. The division could not launch without the right founding leader, and that person was not going to apply to a job advert. We mapped the market, ran a full retained search, and placed the right person.
Once the EVP was in place and the division model was proven, the Director of Client Partnerships and the Lead Recruiter were filled on a contingent basis. The profiles were clear. The bar was high. The timing was opportunistic. The right people surfaced. Both were placed.
The division reached $11.2M in revenue run rate. 42 MSAs signed. Average GP above 30%. The Lead Recruiter was promoted to Director. The partnership continues.
Same trusted advisor. Two different models. One outcome.
The model follows the hire. Not the other way around.
John Lyle is the founder and CEO of Lyle Alexander Consulting. LAC works with staffing, consulting, and professional services firms on executive search, contingent hiring, and talent strategy.
