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.