Which Hires Should Recruiters Be Rewarded For?

In one work conversation, we recalled a successful hire. The person had already taken on important responsibilities and was making a clear difference to the company. A thought came up: the recruiter who helped bring them in deserved an extra bonus. The most valuable part of that work only became visible some time after the person joined.

I would link a substantial part of a recruiter's bonus to that kind of outcome. I want recruiters to have a direct incentive to make the team and the business stronger. And that means understanding who can actually do that.

The speed of the search and the number of vacancies filled matter. But on their own, they say little about what the company gained. Someone can move quickly through every hiring stage, yet a year later the expected results may still be missing.

This is where the interesting work begins. Who are the real heavy hitters for our business? What do they do that helps the company earn more, grow faster or tackle problems it could not solve before?

One team needs someone who can build something new from scratch. Another needs someone who can bring order to a large, established operation. Experience and a well-known previous employer do not, by themselves, tell us what someone will achieve here.

I would start with the people who already make the business stronger. Together with their managers, I would look at their contribution, the decisions they make and why they succeed where earlier efforts did not. I would look at where they came from, where they gained the experience we need and how we first met them. That gives us something concrete to work with in the next search.

Then the question of where to find these heavy hitters becomes practical. We can look for teams that have already tackled similar problems, get to know people in professional communities and ask strong specialists who they would like to work with again. What matters in those conversations is the detail: what the person did themselves, what changed because of their work and what conditions helped them succeed.

For this, recruiters need to be involved in the business. They need opportunities to discuss with a manager what is holding the team back, what it lacks and what challenges are coming next. The manager must also be willing to make time for those conversations. A job description alone cannot tell the whole story.

Six months or a year later, it is worth revisiting the hire together. What changed after the person joined? Were expectations met? What did the recruiter spot during the search? If their work helped find and attract someone who made the team noticeably stronger, that contribution should be reflected in their bonus. The rules and expected outcome should be discussed in advance.

Of course, much depends on the manager, the tasks and the working conditions after someone joins. So the outcome needs to be reviewed together, recognising everyone's contribution to the hire. Unsuccessful decisions need revisiting too: otherwise, it is hard to know what to learn.

I think this kind of incentive could encourage recruiters to understand the business more deeply. To know who is considered strong here, and why. To learn where to find those people and what would interest them. Over time, I would like a recruiter to approach a manager with a proposal: I have found someone who could make our team stronger, and I can explain how.