Is Recruitment a Profession like Architecture, Accountancy or Law?

Yesterday I had lengthy telephone discussion with the CEO of a GSM Tracking, Security & Surveillance Company which has prompted me to make this post. The CEO mentioned the following points:


• Didn’t use recruitment companies

• He has used recruiters in the past

• He has been charged a 25% fee for a placement

• Recruiters just advertise on job boards and search CVs

• Recruiters do not add any value

• Why can’t a recruiter charge like any other profession such as a solicitor, Architect or Accountant?

• Transparent fees, quoting a daily charge for a set piece of work


This was music to my ears, as I believe recruiters need to be more transparent about the fees we charge but also clients need to understand the labour intensive process a good recruiter will go through to identify, target and successfully recruit a candidate for any given role.


So we discussed how the recruitment process could be split into four parts:

1. Research: A realistic time frame is agreed to identify the target skills required and make contact with targeted candidates to ascertain weather they are interested in your opportunity and receive CVs of interested parties

2. Shortlist: Time frame agreed to speak to each interested party and shortlist most suitable candidates for review by client

3. Manage interview process e.g. set up of interviews and manage candidates expectations

4. Manage offer and close stage of the process

Essentially what the client was asking for is a retained search model rather than a contingency recruitment model, which I believe to be the best option for both the client and recruiter as both appreciate the work involved in delivering high calibre candidates and both understand the fees associated with each stage of the recruitment process.

But how many clients out there are open to a retained search when the purse strings are drawn tight and internal recruitment and HR teams are looking to hire directly or drastically reduce contingency based recruitment fees.

So what I am trying to ascertain is how realistic is it for a recruiter to quote a fee for a set recruitment campaign just like a solicitor, accountant or architect would for a given project or piece of work?

I am interested in hearing the thoughts of recruiters, HR professionals and hiring managers, and would love to hear your take on the following questions?


• Is recruitment a profession on par with accountancy, architecture and law?

• Should recruiters charge a set price for a recruitment campaign whether a candidate is hired or not at the end of the process?

• What do you believe to be a fair price for carrying out a recruitment campaign weather a successful hire is made or not?

• What is a fair fee for a successful placement utilising a contingency based recruitment model?