Success-Fee Staffing — Glossary

The difference between bill rate and pay rate in success-fee staffing, and how the spread determines whether a locum tenens or contract staffing engagement is profitable.

Temp-to-perm staffing places a candidate on contract with a defined conversion path to permanent hire, common in IT contract staffing and regulated industries.

Contingency search means the recruiting firm earns its fee only when a candidate it sourced is hired, with no upfront payment from the client.

A direct placement fee is a flat or scaled charge paid to a staffing firm when a candidate is hired directly, without contingency or retained search terms.

Retained search is an executive placement model where the client pays an upfront fee to secure dedicated search capacity and exclusive representation of the mandate.

An interim CFO is a temporary finance executive engaged to stabilize operations, close a transaction, or bridge a leadership gap on a fixed-term or success-fee basis.