Numbers in recruitment marketing are usually vague. "Extensive network." "Deep pipeline." "Strong track record." The 13-candidate guarantee is a specific number attached to a specific timeline and a specific price. That specificity is intentional, and this article explains exactly what it means in practice – what the 13 candidates look like, how they are selected, what "vetted" means in operational terms, and what your obligations are in this model versus success-fee.

Why a specific number?

The Israeli recruitment market defaults to vague commitments. "We'll send you candidates" does not tell you how many, in what timeframe, or what quality bar they clear before landing in your inbox. This leaves you managing the agency's output reactively – either chasing for more candidates when the pipeline is thin, or drowning in unscreened CVs when it is high.

Project recruitment fixes the output commitment upfront. 13 candidates, 4 weeks, 74,100 NIS. The number 13 reflects the empirical reality of conversion rates in Israeli tech hiring: across a pipeline of 13 seriously screened candidates for a senior engineering role, a typical hiring company will interview 6-8, advance 2-3 to final stage, and make 1-2 offers. The 13-candidate volume gives you statistical confidence in the hiring outcome without overwhelming your interview capacity.

If you need more candidates – say you are filling three similar roles simultaneously – the pipeline scales proportionally. The per-candidate price remains the same.

What "vetted" means in practice

The word "vetted" carries a lot of weight in the guarantee. Here is what it means operationally:

A candidate who passes all five layers reaches your shortlist. You receive a structured profile for each: role summary, technical assessment notes, salary expectation, availability date, and the recruiter's summary of motivation and fit. This is not a CV dump. Each profile represents two to three hours of recruiter time before it reaches you.

Candidates who pass four of five layers but fail on compensation alignment – for example, an otherwise strong engineer who has a salary expectation 25% above your stated range – are flagged separately with a note rather than submitted. You decide whether to escalate the budget or pass. They do not count toward the 13.

The 4-week timeline

The four-week clock starts from the intake call – the structured session where DH and your hiring manager agree on the role spec, the ideal candidate profile, the salary range, and the cultural and team context. This call typically takes 60-90 minutes and is the investment that determines the quality of the pipeline.

Candidates arrive in batches rather than all at once. This is deliberate: staggered delivery allows your team to begin interviewing in week one rather than waiting for a complete shortlist. Top candidates in active search mode in Israel's market typically have a two-to-three week decision window. Receiving all 13 on day 28 would mean you were late on the best candidates.

What you pay – and when

The 74,100 NIS (plus VAT) fee for 13 candidates covers the sourcing, screening, and delivery process entirely. It does not cover a placement fee if you hire. Project recruitment is a candidate pipeline service, not a contingency agreement.

Payment is typically structured as 50% on contract signing and 50% on delivery of the first 7 candidates. This structure aligns incentives: you are not paying the full fee before seeing any candidates, and DH is not operating on full risk if the engagement closes early.

If you decide to hire from the shortlist, the hiring is yours to complete. There is no additional success fee on top of the project fee unless separately negotiated. The 5,700 NIS per candidate is the all-in cost for that candidate reaching your interview stage ready to evaluate.

Project vs success-fee – which is right for you

The break-even between project recruitment and success-fee depends on your hiring volume and the expected salary range of your hires. As a rule of thumb: if you are hiring fewer than three people from a search, success-fee is almost always cheaper. If you are hiring three or more from the same candidate pool, project recruitment compresses unit cost significantly.

Example: hiring four senior engineers at an average 28,000 NIS/month on success-fee costs 112,000 NIS in agency fees (4 x 28,000). The same four hires sourced through a project engagement at 74,100 NIS plus, say, a reduced placement fee of 8,000 NIS per hire totals around 106,000 NIS – but with significantly more candidate optionality and predictable pipeline timing.

The real advantage of project recruitment is not always cost – it is predictability. You know when you will have candidates, you know what you will pay regardless of which candidates you hire, and you have a contractual guarantee on delivery rather than an informal commitment. For companies that operate with quarterly hiring targets, this predictability is often worth more than the marginal cost saving.

The guarantee in writing

The 13-candidate commitment is written into the project recruitment contract, not offered as a verbal reassurance. The specific clause states the number of candidates, the screening criteria they must meet, the delivery timeline, and the remedy if the commitment is not met (timeline extension at no cost until the number is reached, or a partial refund proportional to the shortfall).

Before signing, ask to see the guarantee clause. It should specify: what counts as a vetted candidate, what voids the guarantee (typically: a major role spec change after intake, or the client pausing the search mid-engagement), and what the remedy is if delivery falls short. The same rigor applies to the replacement guarantee on success-fee placements: 30 days free replacement, 60 days at reduced fee, 90 days at goodwill terms.