Cost and fees
What is flat fee recruitment?
Flat fee recruitment means paying a fixed price to fill a role rather than a percentage of the candidate's first-year salary. Traditional contingency agencies typically charge 15–25% of first-year salary, which on a £40,000 role works out to £6,000–£10,000. Flat fee services charge a set amount regardless of salary — either for advertising only, or for a managed search that includes candidate sourcing and screening. Advertising-only packages in the UK typically run from a few hundred pounds upwards. Managed flat fee search tends to cost £1,500–£4,000 +VAT depending on the salary band.
What is flat fee recruitment?
Flat fee recruitment is any hiring service where the price is agreed upfront and does not change based on what salary the hired candidate accepts. It is the alternative to the traditional contingency agency model, where the fee is a percentage of first-year salary.
There are two distinct things sold under this label, and they are worth keeping apart.
Advertising-only flat fee — the provider writes and distributes a job advert across job boards on your behalf. You receive applications and run your own shortlisting and interviews. The fee covers the service, not a hire.
Managed flat fee search — the provider sources candidates, screens them, conducts initial interviews, and presents a shortlist. You only spend time on the candidates worth seeing. This is closer to what a traditional agency does, but priced at a fixed amount.
How does the cost compare?
The table below shows how flat fee managed search stacks up against what the market typically charges on a contingency basis.
| Salary band | Typical contingency fee (15–25%) | Our managed flat fee +VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £30,000 | £4,500–£7,500 | £1,500 |
| £30,000–£44,999 | £4,500–£11,250 | £2,000 |
| £45,000–£59,999 | £6,750–£14,999 | £3,000 |
| £60,000–£79,999 | £9,000–£19,999 | £4,000 |
Contingency figures are well-known market ranges, not our prices. Our prices are the fixed amounts in the right-hand column.
For advertising-only packages, our prices are:
| Package | Price +VAT |
|---|---|
| Standard | £399 |
| Premium | £499 |
| Premium Plus | £599 |
If you want to understand the full cost of leaving a role vacant while you decide, our cost-of-vacancy calculator puts a number on it.
What does a managed flat fee search actually involve?
Across the 46 roles we have filled and publish data for, the process works roughly as follows:
- We sourced and screened 1,542 candidates in total across those roles
- 560 reached our internal interview stage
- 235 were presented to clients
- 143 were taken forward to client interview
- 51 were hired
The median number of candidates we worked through per role was 26. The median time to fill was 42 days, with the middle half of roles filling in 29–68 days. The fastest was 14 days; the slowest was 169 days.
You can inspect the underlying data at /recruitment-data.
When flat fee beats a contingency agency — and when it does not
Flat fee tends to work well when:
- The role is at a salary band where the percentage fee would be noticeably higher than a fixed price
- You have internal capacity to manage the interview process once you receive a shortlist
- You are happy to accept that no recruitment service guarantees a hire in every case
A contingency agency may still make sense when:
- The role is highly specialist and the agency has a proven network in that niche
- You have no capacity to be involved in the process at all
- You want to pay nothing unless you hire (though note that contingency agencies invest less effort in roles where payment is uncertain)
We will tell you honestly if a role falls outside what we are likely to fill. There is no point in either of us wasting time.
Our guarantee
If we take on a managed search and do not fill the role, you receive a 100% refund. No conditions beyond that.
Details are at /guaranteed-hire.
How to get started
You can post a job directly at /post-a-job or call us on 0161 327 2895 if you would prefer to talk through the options first.
FAQs
Does flat fee recruitment include job board advertising?
It depends on the service. Advertising-only flat fee services are built around job board distribution — that is the core of what you are paying for. In a managed flat fee search, advertising may be one sourcing channel among several, including direct candidate outreach. Ask your provider which boards are included and whether the adverts go out under your name or theirs.
What happens if the flat fee provider finds nobody suitable?
Providers handle this differently. Some offer a rebate period, some offer nothing, and some — including us — offer a full refund if the role is not filled. Read the terms before you commit. A rebate period is explained in more detail at /answers/what-is-a-rebate-period.
Is flat fee recruitment right for senior or executive roles?
For roles above £80,000, executive search or headhunting is usually the more appropriate model. The candidate pool is smaller, passive outreach matters more, and the process is more intensive than a standard managed search. We have an executive search service if that is relevant, but we would rather point you in the right direction than take a brief we are not well placed to fill.
Do I pay VAT on top of the flat fee?
Yes. All prices quoted on this site are ex-VAT. VAT at the standard rate is added on top. For more detail on how VAT applies to recruitment fees, see /answers/is-there-vat-on-recruitment-fees.
Sources
Want the fixed price for your role?
Advertise it yourself from £399 +VAT, or hand the whole search to a dedicated recruiter — a flat fee by salary band with a 100% refund if the role is not filled.
See Guaranteed Hire Advertise a job
Or call 0161 327 2895.