Fee Options

Choosing the agreement that best supports your needs:

Depending on factors such as urgency and the size of the potential candidate pool, KLA may perform a search under three types of fee agreement; engaged, retained, or contingency.

Engaged Search

If you have a critical hiring need where you cannot afford a misstep, you should strongly consider an engaged search agreement. By sharing a portion of the risk, and having ‘skin in the game’, our clients are typically most comfortable with this arrangement, knowing that this is the best way to fill urgent or difficult positions. We fill virtually 100% of engaged searches. KLA gives our engaged and retained searches the highest priority and will not rest until the position has been filled. We also extend our guaranteed replacement period with engaged searches.

Retained Search

The retained search represents the ultimate partnership in identifying, attracting, and landing a rock star from the industry or your direct competitor. Traditional thinking is that this arrangement is reserved only for the C-level, but it increasingly makes sense for critical roles down to front-line management or even senior technical leadership roles. It can also make sense where there is a very high need for confidentiality, and each phone call or email is critical. Because each retained search is different, talk with your Account Manager if you think this might be the way to go, and he or she can work with you on structuring the best approach.

Contingency Search

A contingency search may be most appropriate if the search is not urgent, if there is an internal candidate being considered, or if there is a reasonable chance that the search might be terminated. Over the past five years we have filled around 43% of our contingency searches. While that is double the national average for contingency search, you can see why it would not be the right arrangement in many situations. Because we employ our extensive process even on contingency searches, KLA may accept the full risk of a contingency search if the client agrees to move swiftly and provide transparency throughout the process. For example, we must have feedback on candidates we submit within 24-48 hours.

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