Top-performing companies don’t pay recruiters because they “can’t hire” – they pay recruiters because hiring for high-impact roles is a competitive advantage, and because the cost of getting it wrong is brutal.
Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: Job ads mostly reach active jobseekers, but the best talent often isn’t actively looking. Research commonly cited from LinkedIn shows that roughly 70% of the global workforce is passive – they’re not job-hunting, but they’ll listen if the opportunity is compelling. One report also notes that 86% of the most qualified candidates are already employed and not seeking a new job. So if you’re only advertising, you’re fishing in the smallest (and noisiest) part of the pond.
Now add the second truth: Speed matters – but the market is getting slower. Data reported in early 2026 shows the average time for a job posting to convert to a hire rose to 49 days, and tech postings averaged about 57 days in late 2025. For cyber and AI roles, ‘time-to-fill’ isn’t an admin metric, it’s exposure. Every extra week you leave a critical role open can mean delayed projects, unresolved vulnerabilities, brittle systems and burnt-out teams.
The third truth is risk; a bad hire isn’t just an HR headache, it’s a business event. Harvard Business Review cited a CareerBuilder survey where 41% of employers estimated a single bad hire cost $25,000, and about a quarter estimated $50,000+. And in cyber specifically, the consequences compound fast; a 2025 Fortinet report found that 52% of organisations said breaches cost them more than $1 million. So if a senior security engineer, IAM lead or cloud security architect is a weak hire, or you simply don’t hire them in time, the downside isn’t theoretical.
Another advantage high-performing companies gain when partnering with specialist recruiters is objectivity. Great recruiters absolutely hire for culture, team dynamics and long-term fit, but they’re not influenced by internal politics or competing agendas. Inside an organisation, hiring decisions can get distorted by urgency, personality preferences or stakeholder pressure. External recruiters operate outside that noise – they anchor every recommendation to capability, evidence and performance signals from the wider market. That neutral perspective often protects companies from mis-hires by keeping the focus on who can actually deliver the outcomes for which the role exists.
That’s where recruiters earn their keep: they function like a revenue-grade acquisition channel for talent. Great recruiters don’t post and pray – they map the market, approach passive candidates credibly, translate what the role really needs and pressure-test capability through calibrated screening. In cyber, AI and technology in particular, where skills are specific, signals are noisy and titles lie, this reduces false positives dramatically.
Many companies think saving on recruiter fees is being cost-conscious, but that means they’re ignoring the far bigger costs of delay, mis-hire and missed opportunity. The recruiter fee is visible, the vacancy cost is hidden – until it isn’t.
