Flat Fee Recruitment

Flat fee recruitment is the process of charging a low cost, fixed fee for a combination of job board advertising and traditional agency services.

The success of a fixed price recruitment model is primarily based on achieving the widest coverage for a vacancy across all appropriate channels.

How it works

A recruitment agency will have accounts with multiple premium job boards. Due to purchasing volumes the agency is able to put together a package of adverts which are resold to the employer for a fixed fee which is cheaper than the employer advertising the vacancies and recruiting direct.

Amplifying the advert

To ensure the maximum exposure amongst relevant candidates a professionally written and fully optimised advert must be included in order to rank successfully in Google for Jobs and other appropriate search engines.

Additional services

In addition to optimisation and promotion a recruitment company will also offer some or all of the following services within their fixed fee packages: social media promotion, candidate e-shots, applicant tracking, CV database searches, candidate screening, interview scheduling, offer management.

Costs

The amount charged for a flat fee service will be dependent upon the particular recruitment agency and the service required, however as a guide you can expect to pay anywhere from £200-£500 for a campaign across premium job websites to over £1,000 for fully managed solutions.

Low cost recruitment

For companies with a low recruiting budget using a service where the price is fixed can reduce the cost per hire by between 75-90% compared to a traditional contingency recruitment service which charges a placement fee of between 15-20% of the candidates starting salary.

Multiple hires

With a flat fee model you pay on a project basis rather than per employee. This means that if you attract several top applicants you can make multiple hires at no extra charge.

Reduced admin

From creating and posting optimised job adverts, to applicant tracking, screening prospective employees and shortlisting CVs, the recruitment process involves a huge amount of business administration and time which can burden an employers' internal recruitment team.

By outsourcing your recruitment marketing to a fixed fee specialist you benefit from both their expertise and the reduced administration time enabling your HR team to operate more efficiently.

How long will the campaign run for?

To maximise exposure a fixed fee campaign will typically run for a period of between 28-42 days

How many and which job boards will be used?

Most recruiters will use a combination of top premium websites, such as CV Library, Reed and Total Jobs, free boards and aggregator sites.

Aggregator sites use an algorithm to pull in vacancies from a variety of career sites.

If managed correctly using a combination of all 3 can result in the best visibility for your vacancy across 100s of mainstream and niche job boards

What about social networks?

It’s important to understand the difference between social promotion and recruitment.

Promotion is when your advert is promoted across relevant networks either via the agencies own platforms, the clients or a combination of both.

Recruitment is when you pay for the relevant platform to advertise your vacancy to matching candidates based on location and candidate profile / skillset.

Whilst an agency will usually include promotion within their flat rate packages, recruitment advertising is normally charged separately.

What about passive candidates?

Advertising is great for attracting active candidates, meaning those who are actively or casually searching and looking for jobs each week, but what about the passive candidates who according to research account for up to 70% of the total?

Targeting passive candidates is harder to do and requires a much more structured and persistent approach.

Typical strategies will include searches of job board CV databases to provide a longlist of matching candidates followed by candidate outreach via email, SMS messages and telephone calls.

Additionally an agency will look to leverage their own industry connections and networks. Check out what the recruiters’ candidate outreach strategy is before committing.