How do you hire recruiters who stay past six months?

TL;DR

• Find out why first. If someone left early, the reason shows what to fix.
• Fix the role before rehiring. A new cloud desk with no clients, sold as a running desk, can push out a good hire.
• Show the real job before the offer. Targets, ramp-up and pay shown early let people opt out. Then hire on evidence, not polish.
• A guarantee caps the cost, not the cause. It replaces a hire but doesn’t fix why they left.

Decision matrix: ways to make the next recruiter hire stick

Fix the role first, then hire

• Best when: early leavers gave similar reasons, such as targets or a job that didn’t match the pitch.
• Watch out for: it’s slower, and the seat stays empty meanwhile.
• Cost or effort: leadership time. No fee.

Re-advertise and tighten selection

• Best when: the role is sound and ads already draw experienced recruiters.
• Watch out for: settled billers on busy desks, tech or otherwise, may never see an ad.
• Cost or effort: ad spend plus interviewing time.

Referrals or a direct approach to someone known

• Best when: the team knows a recruiter’s work, for example on a data or cyber desk.
• Watch out for: a small pool, and no replacement if they leave.
• Cost or effort: low cash, but slow.

A Rec2Rec (recruitment to recruitment) headhunter with a replacement guarantee

• Best when: the people wanted are billing elsewhere and not looking.
• Watch out for: a guarantee doesn’t fix a role problem. Read the conditions.
• Cost or effort: a placement fee.

The case for re-advertising yourself: If your ads already bring in experienced recruiters, and earlier exits had nothing to do with the role, sharper interviews and a better first month cost less than any fee.

Verdict: If recruiters have left early, find out why before spending anything, and fix the role first if it is the cause. If the role is sound and the problem is reach, headhunt proven billers who aren’t on the market and use a replacement guarantee to cap the cost of an early exit. The exception is an agency whose own ads already bring in the right people.

Why do new recruiters leave in the first six months?

An early exit can come from the role, the hire or the agency’s reach, and each needs a different fix. Check these causes:

• The job didn’t match the pitch. For example, a DevOps (development and operations) contract desk sold as running that still had to be built.
• Targets or support didn’t fit. A new desk may have few clients at first, and a new hire left without manager time has little reason to stay.
• Pay that doesn’t fit a slow start. Commission that only pays on a running desk can feel like a pay cut.
• A hire who ran a mature desk but never built one. Billing from someone else’s client base is a different job.

For context, across all Australian workers, not recruiters specifically, about 16% had been in their job for less than a year in February 2026, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) job mobility data.

Can a replacement guarantee fix early exits?

No. A guarantee caps the cost of an early exit but doesn’t fix the reason. Our fees guide explains how the replacement guarantee works.

For agencies that hire through Managed Growth Partners (MGP), we replace a recruiter like for like if they leave within six months of their start date. We don’t refund the fee, the client must pay on time and the guarantee doesn’t cover redundancy or restructure. If the role pushed the first hire out, it can push the replacement out too, so do the diagnosis anyway.

What if the role is the problem?

Then fix the role before hiring again. If two early leavers give the same reason, the next hire is likely to hear it too.

Australian government guidance suggests preparing a job description with the role, its main responsibilities and the selection criteria before hiring, in its hiring employees guide. For a recruitment desk, that means writing down the real desk. Check these points:

1. Does the pitch match the real desk, including clients, candidate flow and who built it?
2. Do targets allow for ramp-up? A new data or cloud desk may start with few clients.
3. Who gives the new hire manager time in the first months?
4. Does the commission plan pay anything while the desk ramps up? This is about structure, not the rate.
5. Did someone neutral hold exit conversations with earlier leavers?

If several answers are no, the fix is inside the agency, and a new hire won’t change it.

What if the hire is the problem?

Then tighten selection. Hire on evidence of how someone handles a hard patch, not on how well they interview.

• Use a structured interview, with the same questions for every candidate.
• Ask for examples of a slow quarter. On a contract tech desk, that might be a client freezing contractor spend; on any desk, a key client going quiet.
• Ask why they left their last two roles.
• Ask whether they have built a desk or only run one, and what they need to earn while it ramps up.
• Speak to their last manager, with the candidate’s consent.

Show the hard parts before the offer, too. A 2008 guide from the SHRM Foundation, an affiliate of the US Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), summarises research showing that realistic job previews during recruitment have a positive effect on new-hire retention. It adds that previews suit roles where keeping people is harder than finding them, because some applicants decide the job isn’t for them.

The same checks apply when a tech company’s talent team hires an in-house recruiter, for example a talent partner joining to build hiring for a new engineering team.

What if the right people aren’t applying?

Then the problem is reach. Job ads reach active job seekers, and settled billers, including tech recruiters on busy software or cloud desks, may never see one. The options are referrals, a direct approach or a Rec2Rec that headhunts people who aren’t on the market, such as our tech-led Rec2Rec for agencies.

Lanson Partners, an Australian agency building its tech function, is one example. All three consultants placed through MGP joined the team, and its case study says Lanson’s tech function grew with the right people. Those consultants are now integral to what Lanson is building.

A second example comes from the UK. Change Recruitment, a UK agency, needed someone who would stay, grow and eventually lead. The consultant placed built its DevOps contracts desk from the ground up and grew into a team lead role.

If an agency’s own ads already bring in the right people, it should keep using them.

What should the first six months look like?

Plan them before the offer, and use the same plan on any desk. Picture a consultant joining to grow a software perm desk:

1. Before the offer: show the real desk, the targets, the ramp-up and the pay structure.
2. First weeks: hand over the desk, introduce clients and name the manager who will support them. Employees on probation get the same entitlements as anyone else, including the National Employment Standards (NES), as the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) explains in how probation works.
3. By month three: hold an agreed check-in on activity and pipeline, not just billings.
4. At six months: two separate rules meet here. The employer usually decides the length of probation, which often ranges from 3 to 6 months, according to the FWO. Separately, the Fair Work Act sets a minimum employment period before an employee can generally apply for an unfair dismissal remedy: six months, or one year if the employer is a small business with fewer than 15 employees, according to the Fair Work Commission (FWC).
5. For agencies that hired through MGP: the six-month replacement guarantee is counted from the hire’s start date.

This is general information, not legal advice.

How MGP can help

Managed Growth Partners (MGP) is a tech-led Rec2Rec firm that helps tech recruiters find their next role, confidentially and at no cost to them. MGP also headhunts proven, currently-billing recruiters for recruitment agencies, including tech desks, with a six-month like-for-like replacement guarantee counted from the hire’s start date, as long as the client pays on time (redundancy and restructure aren’t covered). To talk through your next hire, book a call.