Resources
Recruitment insights
Hiring cost, process and benchmark guides for UK and Ireland employers — including first-party data from the roles we have actually filled.
Cost comparison
Recruitment fees by salary band: agency % vs flat fee
A salary-band table of what a UK contingency agency bills at 15%, 20% and 25% against the published flat fees for the same search, from £30,000 to £75,000 — with the three cases where the percentage is still the better buy.
· 4 min read
Sector guide
How to hire legal staff in the UK without agency fees
Solicitors, legal secretaries, paralegals and practice managers — what our own filled legal roles show about time to fill, where the candidates come from, and what a small firm can do instead of paying 20% of salary.
· 4 min read
Sector guide
How to hire engineers in the UK without a 20% agency fee
Electricians, field service engineers and CNC programmers — what our own filled engineering roles show about time to fill and candidate volume, why these searches run long, and what a flat fee changes for a manufacturer or engineering firm.
· 4 min read
Sector guide
How to hire HGV drivers and warehouse staff for a flat fee
Drivers, warehouse operatives and logistics administrators — what our own filled transport and logistics roles show, why driver adverts fail on pay transparency rather than supply, and what a flat fee changes for a distribution business hiring at volume.
· 4 min read
Employer guide
Your first professional hire as a UK small business
Making a first office-based or professional hire — the legal steps, the realistic timeline, what it costs to advertise or to have the search done, and the mistakes that cost small businesses months.
· 4 min read
Comparison
What flat-fee recruitment actually costs in the UK
Most flat-fee providers do not publish a price, and the biggest comparison page lists eight of them without quoting a single figure. Here is what the ones who do publish actually charge, checked on their own pages, and how to work out which route is cheapest for your role.
· 7 min read
Comparison
Which UK recruitment companies charge a fixed fee and no commission?
A checked list of UK recruiters who charge a flat fee instead of a percentage of salary, with the prices each one actually publishes, what happens if the role is not filled, and who is cheapest for which kind of hire.
· 5 min read
Head to head
TalentFinder vs Hiring People for posting a job across UK job boards
A side-by-side of two UK flat-fee providers on the things that decide it — published prices, what each package includes, VAT, the guarantee if the role is not filled, and which one we would honestly point you at for which kind of hire.
· 4 min read
Comparison
Recruitment agency alternatives for UK employers
Every realistic way to fill a role without paying 15–25% of salary — in-house, job boards, flat fee, referrals, RPO and interim — with what each actually costs, what it takes from you, and when each one is the wrong answer.
· 4 min read
Our service
TalentFinder Guaranteed Hire review — is it worth it?
An honest account of our own managed recruitment service — what it costs, what the refund actually covers, how long roles really take, the numbers behind our filled vacancies, and the four situations where you should buy something else instead.
· 4 min read
How to
How to hire without paying a 20% agency fee
Four routes that avoid a percentage fee on a UK hire — direct advertising, a flat-fee advert, a flat-fee managed search and your own network — with what each costs, what each demands from you, and how to pick using the salary and the hours you actually have.
· 4 min read
Cost comparison
Is flat-fee recruitment cheaper than an agency for a £45,000 hire?
Worked figures for a £45,000 UK hire — what a contingency agency bills at 15%, 20% and 25%, what the published flat fees are, what the real difference is once you count your own screening time, and the three situations where the agency is the better buy.
· 4 min read
Cost comparison
What is the cheapest way to advertise a job on Indeed, Reed and CV-Library?
We checked what the big UK job boards actually charge to post a vacancy. None of them publishes a readable price. Here is what that means, what a multi-board package costs instead, and how to work out which is cheaper for your role.
· 4 min read
Troubleshooting
Why am I getting no applications? Nine causes and how to fix each one
Most roles that attract nothing are not badly advertised, they are badly defined. The nine causes we see most often, how to tell which one you have, and what to change first.
· 4 min read
Benchmarks
How long does it take to fill a role in the UK?
The median role we filled took 42 days from brief to close, but the spread runs from 14 to 169 days. The per-sector breakdown, what actually drives the difference, and how to read a time-to-fill promise.
· 4 min read
Comparison
Contingency, retained or flat fee — which model fits?
A plain comparison of the five ways UK employers buy recruitment, what each one actually costs on a £40,000 hire, where each breaks down, and how to pick without paying for capacity you will not use.
· 4 min read
How-to
How to write a job advert that gets applications
A job advert is not a job description. The structure that works, what to put in the first three lines, how to handle salary and requirements, and the phrases to delete.
· 3 min read
Sector guide
How to hire care staff and registered managers in the UK
Care is one of the slowest sectors to fill — a 64-day median in our own data. What drives the delay, why compliance roles behave differently from care workers, and what actually shortens the timeline.
· 4 min read
Sector guide
How to hire a management accountant in the UK
What the role actually needs, how long it takes, what the pipeline looks like, and the screening questions that separate a management accountant from a bookkeeper with a title.
· 5 min read
Sector guide
How to hire a construction estimator
Estimators are a small, employed and rarely-looking market. What that means for the timeline, what our own estimator search actually took, and how to screen for the judgement rather than the software.
· 4 min read
Cost
How much do recruitment agencies charge in the UK?
Contingency agencies typically charge 15–25% of first-year salary, which is £6,000–£10,000 on a £40,000 role. Here is what each pricing model actually costs, what CIPD's own cost-per-hire data says, and how flat fees compare.
· 3 min read
Benchmarks
How many candidates does it take to make one hire? Real pipeline data
Across 46 filled roles we sourced and screened 1,542 people to make 51 hires — a median of 26 candidates worked per hire, 4.5 presented and 3 client interviews. The full funnel and what each drop-off means.
· 4 min read
Ireland
Hiring in Ireland from the UK — what actually changes
A UK employer's guide to recruiting in Ireland: which job boards matter, what the pay and VAT differences mean, and which parts of a UK hiring process transfer unchanged.
· 4 min read
Decision guide
Should you advertise the role yourself or use a recruiter?
A decision guide based on our own pipeline data — how much screening a role actually takes, which roles fill themselves from an advert, and which never will.
· 4 min read