GADEN TEAM · POWERED BY AEL

A recruiter who bills $180k can still lose you money.

Take off the base. Take off the seat. Take off the commission. What is left is the only number that tells you whether to hire another one — and almost no agency can produce it on demand.

COMP MODEL · PRODUCTION · RATIOS · SEAT P&L

FOUR QUESTIONS, IN THIS ORDER

The fourth one is the one nobody has.

Most staffing software answers the first two and calls it a team dashboard. The order matters, because each question is meaningless without the one before it.

01

How are they paid?

Base salary, commission rate, threshold, draw and draw type, clawback on fall-off, retention bonus — and whether commission pays on billed or on collected. Every structure a desk actually uses, none of them hardcoded.

02

What did they produce?

The full cascade, not a headline number. Their book, what was submitted, what was credited, what actually closed.

03

How do they work?

Submittals per interview, interviews per offer, fill rate — measured against benchmark, so you can see whether the problem is volume or conversion.

04

Does the seat earn?

Production minus pay minus cost of seat. This is the line that turns a recruiter who looks great into a chair that is running red, and it is the line that decides whether you hire.

05

Every number is yours

Rates, splits, thresholds, quotas, seat cost, benchmarks — all configurable. Nothing is baked in from someone else’s agency.

06

Nobody who billed gets deleted

Recruiters are deactivated, never removed. Deleting one orphans their placements and leaves commissions without an owner — so the system does not let you.

Base salaryCommission rateThresholdDraw per periodClaw back on fall-offRetention bonusCost of seat / yrAnnual quotaFill rate %

IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

What it sounds like.

THE SEAT

The number that decides whether you hire.

Growth by headcount only works if the marginal seat clears its own cost. Without that line, a desk hires to grow and quietly compresses its own margin instead.

YOUIs the second desk actually paying for itself?
GADENProduction against base, commission and seat cost puts that chair slightly above break-even for the year — but the whole margin arrived in one placement in March. On the run rate since, it is not clearing its cost. I would fix the conversion before adding a third.

THE RATIO

Volume or conversion. Not both at once.

Two recruiters can miss the same quota for opposite reasons, and the fix for one is the exact wrong move for the other. The ratios separate them before you coach the wrong thing.

YOUWhy is she missing quota?
GADENNot volume — her submittal count is above your desk average. Her submittals per interview is well off benchmark, so the profiles are going out and not landing. That is a targeting problem, not an activity problem. Coaching her to source harder makes it worse.

QUESTIONS PEOPLE ACTUALLY ASK

The short answers.

How do I know if a recruiter is profitable?

Take what they produced and subtract everything the seat costs — base salary, the commission earned, and the annual cost of the seat itself. What remains is what the desk keeps from that chair. Most staffing software shows production and stops there, which is why a recruiter billing well can still be running the desk into the ground without anyone noticing.

What commission structures are supported?

Base salary, commission rate, threshold before commission starts, draw and draw type, clawback on fall-off and retention bonus — and you choose whether commission pays on billed or on collected, which is one of the biggest differences between agencies. Nothing is hardcoded; every rate, threshold and quota is yours to set.

What is the difference between paying commission on billed and on collected?

On billed, the recruiter earns when the invoice goes out. On collected, they earn when the client actually pays. Paying on billed is faster and better for morale; paying on collected protects the desk when a client goes slow or a placement falls off. The model supports both because the right answer depends on your cash position, not on a software default.

Can I compare recruiters against industry benchmarks?

Yes. Submittals per interview, interviews per offer and fill rate are shown against benchmark, which is what tells you whether someone is missing quota because of volume or because of conversion — two problems with opposite fixes.

What happens if a recruiter leaves?

They are deactivated, not deleted. Anyone who billed stays on the books permanently, because removing them would orphan their placements and leave commissions without an owner. Their history stays intact and attributable.

PART OF THE LOOP

One stage of something bigger.

The team is who runs the loop, and what the loop costs to run. It is one module of an Autonomous Employee Loop — the system that runs sourcing, screening, presenting, interviewing, placing, onboarding and payment as one continuous loop. An ATS tracks the process. An AEL runs it.

KNOW WHAT THE CHAIR EARNS

Hire on numbers, not on optimism.