How to hire engineers in the UK without a 20% agency fee

What the data says about engineering hiring

Median 60 days, against 42 across all the sectors we publish. The Electrician search is the one to study: 108 people worked to present eight and hire one. That is not a shortage of electricians. It is the distance between "holds the qualification" and "will work across client sites in London, unsupervised, on this kind of installation".

The Field Service Engineer took 115 days for a different reason: the equipment was specialist, the territory was two counties, and the pool of people who had serviced that class of machine was tiny. Searches like that are won by patience and by reaching people who are not looking.

The title is not the job

Engineering adverts fail when they describe the title and not the work. "Maintenance Engineer" attracts everyone from a facilities handyman to a controls specialist. The advert has to state:

1. The equipment and the control systems. Name the PLC family, the CNC controls, the machine types. Candidates self-select accurately on this and it removes most of the wasted screening.
2. Site or field. Field-based roles across client sites are a different life from a single plant. Say which, and say the territory.
3. Shift pattern and call-out. Nights, weekends, on-call rotas and overtime expectations decide whether an employed engineer will move.
4. The salary range, and what overtime adds. Engineers compare take-home, not basic. An honest figure for typical earnings beats a coy range.
5. What the company makes and for whom. A precision engineering firm supplying aerospace and a general fabricator are different places to work.

The technical screen is where the time goes

Every one of the searches above spent most of its calendar time between "applied" and "presented". The screen that shortens it, in our experience:

1. "Walk me through the last fault you diagnosed from cold." Method, not vocabulary.
2. "Which controls have you programmed, and which have you only operated?" The gap between those two lists is the hire.
3. "What do you do when the drawing and the part disagree?" Judgement and escalation.
4. "What is the longest you have worked unsupervised on a client site?" For field roles, this is the whole job.

Ask these on the phone before the first interview. A twenty-minute technical call removes half the shortlist and saves the hiring manager a week.

Reaching the engineers who are not looking

The Field Service Engineer above was not found through an advert. Specialist engineers are employed, and the good ones are approached rather than applying. That means a search alongside the advertising: identifying people at comparable firms, on comparable equipment, and having a real conversation about the role, the territory and the kit. It is slower per candidate and far higher yield.

For a manufacturer hiring once or twice a year, this is the part that is hardest to do in-house, and it is where a fee earns its keep.

What it costs

Engineering salaries make percentage fees expensive. On a £40,000 engineer a contingency agency at 20% bills £8,000, and on a £60,000 specialist it bills £12,000, for a search that involves the same advertising, screening and shortlisting.

A flat fee by salary band does not scale with the salary. Our Guaranteed Hire is £2,000 +VAT for roles in the £30,000 to £44,999 band and £4,000 +VAT in the £60,000 to £79,999 band, with a 100% refund if the role is not filled — which on a 115-day search is the point of the model. Recruitment Revolution publish all-in fees from £2,495 to £5,995 +VAT by salary band and working pattern, so they are a fair comparison for a managed search; check whether the tier you are quoted includes the search or only the advertising.

What shortens the timeline

• Screen technically before anyone meets the hiring manager. The screen is the delay; do it early and by phone.
• Advertise and search at the same time. The people who fill specialist roles are usually not applying.
• Decide within a week of the final interview. An employed engineer with a counter-offer in hand will not wait a fortnight.
• Say the equipment in the advert title. "CNC Setter — Fanuc, 5-axis" finds the right person; "CNC Setter" finds everyone.

Engineering and manufacturing roles are covered by Guaranteed Hire on the same flat fee by salary band, or you can advertise the role yourself on every major board for a single fee and run the technical screen in-house.

Frequently asked questions