The opportunity to earn a good salary based on sales commission has traditionally been seen as a way of attracting talent into the recruitment industry. But could this be changing? 

According to an analysis of job applicants to international staffing group Phaidon Capital over the last 18 months, there is a divide between the financial motives of those wanting to enter the industry.

While for those already working in the industry, commission was the deciding factor in deciding whether to take a new job, for those not already in the industry it was basic salary.

Richard Prime, managing director of recruitment business growth platform Sonovate, agrees there is a split between those attracted to the industry.

While more entrepreneurial individuals are attracted by a “tougher, higher paid sales environment”, with the opportunity to achieve higher earnings though commission, Prime says another group, comprised largely of those joining as graduates, are prepared forego the opportunity for “such exciting earnings” based on commission in return for training and a career path. 

“Big companies believe they can find the right calibre of graduate on these pay scales, and that they can retain them by offering them training and a career path.”

Prime says that the opportunities for those wanting to earn high salaries based on commission are fewer than in the past, when “a potential high-flying recruiter could earn £100,000 in the first year”.

 “It used to be the more you bill, the more you earn,” he says. However, in the past five years, he says the commission levels have come down. 

“We are not really encouraging people to drive their billing potential because the incentives for them to do so are just not there,” says Prime, adding that as a result “it is more difficult to earn more than £40k in the first year”.

Prime says there is an increasing tendency for the more entrepreneurial recruiters to set up their own business, or to leave the industry completely. “I think this is a long-term sea change,” he says.