Recruitment providers across the UK

What recruitment covers, and what it does not

What recruitment costs

How it is priced: Percentage of first-year salary on contingency, or a fixed fee per hire on flat-fee and embedded models. Contingency fees are commonly quoted as a percentage of starting salary; flat-fee and embedded models charge per hire or per month instead.

What moves the price

• Contingency versus retained or embedded model
• Seniority and scarcity of the role
• Whether advertising spend is included
• Length and terms of the rebate period if the hire leaves

Ranges are indicative of what UK employers commonly pay and are not quotes. City pages carry local bands where they differ.

Who recruitment suits

Questions to ask before you sign

1. 1What is the rebate or replacement term if the hire leaves early?
2. 2Is the fee contingency, retained or flat, and what is included?
3. 3Where do candidates actually come from?
4. 4Who conducts screening, and against what criteria?
5. 5How is candidate data handled under UK GDPR?

Key terms

Contingency

No fee unless a candidate is placed, so the agency is competing on speed.

Rebate period

The window in which you get part of the fee back if the hire leaves. Read the tapering.

Embedded recruiter

A recruiter working inside your team for a period, charged monthly rather than per hire.

All recruitment support

• The HR Dept

  Franchised network of local outsourced HR consultants for UK SMEs.

• Ciphr

  HR, payroll, recruitment and learning software platform for UK organisations.

• Cezanne HR

  Cloud HRIS and payroll software for UK and global organisations.

• Sage People

  Cloud HR and talent management system for mid-sized and multinational organisations.

• Clover HR

  Outsourced HR consultancy serving multiple UK regions.

• Empact

  Family-run HR and employment advice consultancy in West Yorkshire.

• Inclusive Consulting

  Sheffield-based recruitment and HR consultancy business.

• Clarity People

  HR director-level support and recruitment for Milton Keynes SMEs.

• MPCG HR & Recruitment

  Staffordshire-based HR and management consultancy.

• Aro Mates

  HR consultancy based in the West Midlands serving UK businesses.

Recruitment questions employers ask

What is recruitment?

Recruitment support ranges from a contingency agency filling a vacancy to embedded or on-demand resourcing where a specialist runs hiring inside your business. What you pay for is candidate access and a managed process, not ongoing HR cover.

How much does recruitment cost in the UK?

Percentage of first-year salary on contingency, or a fixed fee per hire on flat-fee and embedded models. Contingency fees are commonly quoted as a percentage of starting salary; flat-fee and embedded models charge per hire or per month instead. The figures move most on: contingency versus retained or embedded model; seniority and scarcity of the role; whether advertising spend is included. Always compare quotes on what is inside the fee rather than the headline number.

What is included in recruitment, and what is not?

Normally included: role scoping and advert writing; candidate sourcing, screening and shortlisting; interview scheduling and candidate management; offer management and reference gathering. Normally excluded or charged separately: employment contracts and onboarding paperwork, an hr task; right-to-work compliance decisions, which remain yours; probation management after the hire starts.

Who should buy recruitment?

Hard-to-fill or senior roles, hiring spikes, and employers without the internal time to run a fair, documented process. It is a poor fit for the opposite case: steady, high-volume, easy-to-fill hiring where a direct advert and a simple internal process will do the job at a fraction of the fee.

What should I ask before signing?

Five questions worth asking every provider on your shortlist: What is the rebate or replacement term if the hire leaves early? Is the fee contingency, retained or flat, and what is included? Where do candidates actually come from? Who conducts screening, and against what criteria? How is candidate data handled under UK GDPR?

How many recruitment support are in this directory?

10 of the 96 providers we researched offer recruitment: 5 operate UK-wide, 3 cover a region, and 2 work mainly around one city. National firms are easier to buy from anywhere; local firms are usually easier to get into the room for a hearing.

Do UK employers legally have to have HR?

No. There is no legal requirement to employ an HR person or buy HR support. The duties themselves are not optional: written particulars of employment, statutory pay, working time records, pension auto-enrolment and a fair process before dismissal all apply from the first employee. Most small employers buy support because the cost of one badly handled dismissal exceeds the annual fee.