If you are budgeting for a bilingual hire in the Greater Toronto Area, you want two things before you call anyone: how the fee works, and when you pay. The exact figure is confirmed in writing before any search starts, so nothing lands on an invoice that you have not already agreed to.
How the fee works
For permanent placements, Beyond Bilingual works on a contingency basis. There is no upfront fee. You do not pay to open a search, to receive candidates or to interview them. You pay only if you hire someone we introduced, and we invoice when that person starts.
That matters more than any single percentage, because the risk sits with us. You review the shortlist, run your own interviews and make the call. If nobody is right, you owe nothing.
Beyond Bilingual’s fee for a bilingual search is typically 20% of the successful candidate’s annual salary, with flexibility for hiring volume, multiple positions or a long-term partnership, and the agreed fee is confirmed in writing before we begin. For context, published international guides put typical contingency fees at roughly 12.5% to 25% of first-year salary, depending on the role and the market (OmniHR; HRZone). The rate for your search is the number we put in writing for you, not a market average. One bilingual-specific point worth budgeting for: because the fee is a percentage of salary, any premium you pay for bilingual ability also raises the fee.
What the fee pays for
A percentage on its own says nothing about value, so here is the work behind it.
An existing bilingual candidate database
We draw on a bilingual candidate network built over nearly 20 years, plus the full candidate database of another recruitment company we acquired. For a bilingual role, where the qualified pool is small, that reach is usually the difference between a shortlist in days and a search that stalls.
Approaching people who are not applying
Many of the bilingual professionals who fit a role are not looking at job boards at the moment you post. We advertise the role on our site, LinkedIn and Indeed, and we headhunt directly, approaching people whose background matches your requirements whether or not they are applying. We explain the sourcing problem in more depth in why qualified bilingual candidates are hard to find in Canada.
A real French assessment
If no one on your team speaks French, this is the step you cannot do yourself (if you want to try, start with how to assess a candidate’s French when you don’t speak French). Candidates we present for bilingual roles have a verbal French assessment with a qualified, fully bilingual assessor, scored on how effectively they communicate in French, and must meet our internal proficiency standards. It is our own screening standard, not a public certification such as the CEFR, but it means the French has been checked by someone qualified to check it before you spend an hour in an interview. Of the competitor employer pages we reviewed on 23 October 2026 (Bilingual Source, BilingualOne and Nevian), none published a comparable French-assessment threshold.
Screening and checks
Beyond language, screening is matched to the role: written language tests, computer and attention-to-detail testing where relevant, job-specific assessments and reference checks. Criminal and credit checks are run where the role calls for it, with the candidate’s consent.
Speed
Because the sourcing groundwork already exists, we typically present candidates within two to four business days, depending on the role. If a seat is costing you output every week it sits empty, that turnaround is part of what you are paying for.
The 90-day replacement guarantee
Permanent placements come with a 90-day replacement guarantee. If a placement does not work out within that period, we provide a replacement at no additional recruitment fee, subject to the terms set out in your agreement. It lowers the risk of the fee: you are not paying for an introduction and simply hoping it holds. The exact coverage terms are in your agreement before you sign.
Permanent and temporary: two different cost models
The contingency fee applies to permanent recruitment. Temporary and contract staffing works differently. Beyond Bilingual can employ and payroll the worker while they are on assignment with you, so the cost is a bill rate (an hourly or weekly rate covering the worker’s pay, employer costs and the agency’s margin) rather than a one-time placement fee. Which model fits depends on whether you are filling a permanent seat or covering a defined period.
Is an agency worth it?
Compare the fee with what a slow or failed in-house bilingual search costs:
- A bad hire in a client-facing bilingual role means lost work, a restart and the disruption in between.
- A slow hire means weeks of coverage you are not getting.
- Re-running job-board ads for a hard-to-fill bilingual role adds up, with no guarantee of a qualified applicant.
- Managers lose hours trying to judge spoken French that nobody on the team can assess.
Against those, the contingency model is easy to reason about: you pay only on a successful hire, the French is checked first, and shortlists usually arrive within days. We will not put numbers on your situation that we cannot stand behind, but that is the trade-off to weigh when you ask what an agency costs.
Sources
- OmniHR, “Recruitment fees” (typical contingency range as a % of first-year salary): https://www.omnihr.co/blog/recruitment-fees
- HRZone, “Contingency recruiter” definition (fee ranges, refund policies): https://hrzone.com/glossary/what-is-a-contingency-recruiter/
