Should recruitment marketers be commercially incentivised? Absolutely.

This article is part of SourceFlow’s “Should recruitment marketers be incentivised?” series, where recruitment leaders and marketers share different perspectives on incentives, commission structures and commercial performance in recruitment marketing.

Recruitment is a ruthlessly commercial sector. Money is the language, revenue is the metric, targets are the heartbeat.

And yet, for years, the people responsible for building the brand, filling the pipeline and supporting business development have been operating without a stake in the game.

I think this needs to change.

Two very different motivations: who joins recruitment and why

Consultants are, at their core, commercially wired.

Nobody stumbles into recruitment because they fancy a career in altruism. They get in because they’re good with people, they understand people and business, and they are financially motivated. That combination makes them very well suited to the job. Sales and money go hand in hand, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Marketers are different.

They come in through creativity, curiosity, problem-solving, words, design and data. Historically, marketing has been underpaid across most sectors, with a quiet expectation that you do it for the love of the craft. There’s a lingering “arty” stigma attached to creative roles that has suppressed salaries for decades.

Put those two worlds together in the same business and you can see exactly where the siloed departments have come from.

Marketing used to be a bolt-on. It isn’t anymore.

For a long time, recruitment businesses treated marketing as a nice-to-have.

Make the brand look presentable.
Update the social channels.
Take the team photos.
Write a few blogs.

It was lovely until it lasted, but things have changed.

The challenges recruitment businesses have faced over the last several years: tightening markets, harder business development, more noise and more competition, have fundamentally changed what marketing needs to do.

Sales does the one-to-one.
Marketing does the one-to-many.

Both should be pointing in the same direction.

Marketing is still seen as a cost centre

Here’s the mindset shift too many recruitment businesses still haven’t made: marketing is not a cost centre, it is a revenue driver.

Treating it as the former is an outdated way of running a business, and it shows.

When marketing is positioned as overhead rather than investment, it gets under-resourced, under-briefed and undervalued. Goals become vague. Strategy gets disconnected from the commercial plan.

And the marketer, however talented, is set up to underperform because nobody has clearly defined what winning looks like for them.

The marketing function, regardless of its size or make-up, should have specific goals and genuine alignment with the business strategy. Not a version of the strategy that gets shared six months late.

The actual strategy, from the start.

So, should recruitment marketers be commercially incentivised?

Absolutely. Marketing is no longer a support function. It is a revenue function.

So why aren’t we treating them that way?

Recruitment businesses already incentivise the people responsible for converting opportunities into revenue. It makes no sense to exclude the people responsible for building the brand, generating demand, supporting business development and creating those opportunities in the first place.

A properly executed salary guide generates conversations, introductions and placements. That drives revenue.
An event supported by the marketing team, with the right attendee list and customer experience, gives consultants room to do what they do best. That drives revenue.
A well-built SEO strategy brings more relevant traffic to the website, more CV uploads and more placement opportunities. That drives revenue.
A database management and automation strategy can reactivate dormant clients and resurface relationships that would otherwise have been lost. That drives revenue.

Done well, and with the right support and investment, your marketer could be as commercially valuable as your top-billing consultant.

Key principles to remember

1. Marketing is no longer a bolt-on

Marketing can no longer sit at the side of the business looking decorative. It needs to perform, contribute to revenue and work alongside sales towards the same commercial outcomes.

2. Recruitment marketing should be commercially incentivised

If you want the best from people, you incentivise them. That’s not controversial.

The strongest incentive models connect marketing reward to measurable business outcomes: placements, lead generation, revenue influence, and commercial objectives.

3. Fixed-sum models often work best

The gold standard is tying marketing reward directly to placement value, but marketers should not absorb the volatility of inconsistent consultant performance.

That’s why fixed-sum models can work well:

£250 per website placement
3% of placement value
Quarterly commercial objectives tied to clear KPIs

Simple enough to administer. Meaningful enough to motivate.

4. It’s not all about cash

The businesses that really get this are the ones bringing marketers into the wider commercial culture:

Quarterly trips
Lunch clubs
Team incentives
Shared commercial recognition

That changes the dynamic and gets the marketing department thinking differently.

5. Incentivisation should create alignment, not friction

The marketer wants the consultant to convert. The consultant wants the marketer to deliver the lead.

Done well, commercial incentivisation creates alignment around the same strategy and the same commercial goals.

That’s how high-performing recruitment businesses operate.

6. Clear objectives matter

Incentives only work when expectations are clear.

SMART objectives, measurable goals and commercial alignment should form the foundation of any reward structure.

And if the business hits or exceeds its targets? Everyone should share in that.

About the contributor

Amity Watts is Client Services Director at Kitto, a recruitment marketing agency built on the belief that recruitment is a marketing job. With more than 20 years in marketing, including seven years building marketing functions inside recruitment businesses, she advises, mentors and advocates for marketing’s place at the commercial table.

Other perspectives in this series:

The views expressed in this article are those of the individual contributor and do not necessarily reflect the views of SourceFlow

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