Why Are Recruitment Fees So Expensive?
When it comes to recruitment fees, the age-old question arises: why are they so expensive?
The honest answer is—it depends entirely on what you expect from your recruiter. It’s not necessarily about cost; it’s about value.
If you’re looking to hire a senior professional for your business and you want your recruiter to manage the full recruitment lifecycle—sourcing candidates, conducting interviews, providing an exceptional candidate experience, building your employer brand, and managing rejections and offers—then a 20% fee sounds pretty reasonable.
You’re paying for expertise, time, and a comprehensive service designed to find the perfect fit for your business.
On the other hand, if what you really need is someone to simply wang over a few CVs for you to review, then yes, a 20% fee might feel excessive. It’s understandable; you’re not seeking the full package, so paying for it would feel disproportionate.
A Broad Church: The Range of Recruitment Services
The recruitment industry is vast, and not all services are created equal. For a 20% fee, you could engage a high-quality boutique firm that delivers a tailored, end-to-end recruitment process. This includes thoughtful candidate screening, brand promotion, and a seamless candidate journey, ensuring you’re presented with the best possible shortlist.
Alternatively, you might encounter a highly telesales-focused agency that cuts and pastes your job spec onto a job board and sends over CVs from anyone who happens to reply. The price tag might be the same, but the value you receive can differ enormously.
The choice is yours, and it’s not entirely fair to blanket the entire industry as “expensive.” Instead, it’s crucial to ask: what am I getting for my fee?
What We Do at The HR Guys
At The HR Guys, we’re fortunate to work with fantastic clients who trust us to manage their full lifecycle HR recruitment assignments. Whether on a retained or exclusive basis, we focus our energies on a high-quality HR Recruitment service that puts our customers at the heart of all we do. This approach allows us to invest the time and effort required to get it right the first time.
This dedicated approach also allows us to create fair and inclusive recruitment processes, aligning with our commitment to promoting workplace equality and fostering safe and inclusive environments.
For retained assignments, we take this a step further by offering a blind CV review process. This ensures candidate selection is based solely on skills and experience, reducing unconscious bias. We also conduct assessment interviews through an experienced HR consultant, ensuring every stage of the process is consistent, fair, and inclusive. Our clients value this attention to detail, and it’s one of the reasons we’re able to help them build diverse, high-performing teams.
Interim HR Network
We also recognise that not every organisation needs this level of comprehensive support. Sometimes, a business simply needs additional candidates to enhance its existing process. That’s why we’ve developed a secondary service, the Interim HR Network, aimed at providing cost-effective solutions without compromising quality.
This service focuses on immediately available HR professionals. We promote their profiles to organisations that need extra HR support, offering this on a highly competitive fixed fee basis.
It’s a simple, efficient way to add extra options to your hiring process without incurring the cost of a full recruitment lifecycle. It’s a win-win: we’re able to create opportunities for HR professionals navigating career transitions, and you benefit from our expertise—only paying for the parts of the process you truly need.
For just £2,995 in the UK or €3,495 for our EU-based friends, we’ve designed our pricing to be fair and accessible, breaking down fee barriers to help as many HR professionals as possible get back to work.
Let’s Chat!
Recruitment fees don’t have to be a mystery or an obstacle. At The HR Guys, we’re passionate about tailoring our services to meet your needs—whether that’s a full, retained search or a simple solution to boost your candidate pool.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help your business, why not book a call? We’re always happy to chat through your HR recruitment needs and explore the best options for you.
Let’s work together to find the right solution!
