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TalentFinder Fixed Fee Recruitment review — is it worth it?
Fixed Fee Recruitment is TalentFinder's managed recruitment service — a fixed fee of £1,500 to £4,000 +VAT by salary band, against 15–25% of salary at a contingency agency. The fee covers an 8-week search; if the role is not filled in that time we work it for a further 8 weeks at no extra cost, and if it is still open after 16 weeks the search closes and further work is agreed with you. There is no refund. It is worth it when nobody in your business has evenings free to work about 26 candidates per hire, and when the role is a recognisable one at £30,000 or more. It is not worth it if you have someone to screen (buy a £399 advert instead), if the role is under about £25,000, if you need a specialist network we do not have, or if you want to pay only on success — contingency does that and a fixed fee paid up front does not. Our median filled role took 42 days; the slowest took 169.
What it is
Fixed Fee Recruitment is our managed recruitment service. A dedicated recruiter takes the brief, writes and places the advert, sources, headhunts and screens candidates, interviews them, and presents a shortlist of people they have already spoken to. You interview and decide.
The fee is fixed by salary band before any work starts — never a percentage of salary:
| Salary band | Fee | An agency at 20% would bill |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £30,000 | £1,500 +VAT | up to £6,000 |
| £30,000 – £44,999 | £2,000 +VAT | £6,000 – £9,000 |
| £45,000 – £59,999 | £3,000 +VAT | £9,000 – £12,000 |
| £60,000 – £79,999 | £4,000 +VAT | £12,000 – £16,000 |
| £80,000+ | Retained search, £6,000 +VAT | £16,000+ |
One fixed fee, sixteen weeks of work behind it: a recruiter works your role for 8 weeks, and if it is not filled in that time we keep working it for a further 8 weeks at no extra cost.
This is our own service, so this page is not a neutral review and cannot be. What we can do is publish the things a review would want and let you check them.
What the fee covers and what it does not
Worth being precise, because the words used for protection vary a great deal across this market.
It covers: an 8-week first search period — advert, search, headhunting, screening and shortlist, with a review of the search against the market at week 6. If the role is not filled in those 8 weeks, a second 8-week search period at no extra cost.
There is no refund. If the role is still open after 16 weeks, the search closes and we agree any further work with you. Nor does the fee cover someone joining and then leaving — that is what the optional Replacement Cover is for.
Replacement Cover is an add-on you buy before your hire's start date: £750 +VAT for roles up to £30,000, £1,000 +VAT above. If the person leaves for any reason within 12 months of starting, we run one replacement search for the same role at no further fee.
It works best as teamwork: a competitive salary, openness to transferable skills, quick feedback and fair, inclusive hiring. Those four things move a search more than anything we do on our side.
Whoever you are speaking to, ask three questions before you pay: what exactly does the fee buy, for how long, and what happens at the end of it? Our answers are on the Fixed Fee Recruitment page in full.
How long it actually takes
We publish every role we have filled, including the slow ones. Across 46 vacancies in 18 sectors:
| Measure | Days from brief to hire |
|---|---|
| Median | 42 |
| Fastest quarter | under 29 |
| Slowest quarter | over 69 |
| Fastest single role | 14 |
| Slowest single role | 169 |
And the pipeline behind them:
| Stage | Candidates |
|---|---|
| Sourced and screened | 1,542 |
| Internal interview | 560 |
| Presented to the client | 235 |
| Client interview | 143 |
| Hired | 51 |
About 26 candidates worked per hire, of whom roughly 15% were good enough to present. The methodology and exclusions are published too.
That 169-day role is on the site with its funnel intact. A review page that only showed the 14-day one would not be worth reading. It is also worth reading against the current terms: 16 weeks is 112 days, so a role that ran that long today would reach the end of the second search period, and the work after that would be agreed with you rather than included in the fee. More than half of our filled roles finished inside the first 8 weeks; at least a quarter did not, and you should plan for that possibility.
What customers say
Our ratings across the three platforms that hold them, verified in September 2026: Google 4.5 from 217 reviews, Reviews.co.uk 4.7 from 284, Trustpilot 4.3 from 163. All three are listed and linked on our reviews page, including the critical ones.
One recurring complaint is worth naming rather than burying: we have had reviews about unsolicited marketing email. That is a fair criticism of how we have prospected in the past, and the honest response is that it says something about our outbound, not about the service someone gets after they buy.
Four times you should buy something else
- You have someone who can screen. If a manager or an office coordinator genuinely has the evenings, buy a £399 advert and keep the difference. That is a tenth of the price and it works. The condition is real capacity, not good intentions — the failure mode is applications sitting unread for ten days while the good candidates accept elsewhere.
- The role pays under about £25,000. The gap between a percentage and a fixed fee is small down here, and a local agency who knows your patch may simply be better placed.
- You need a specialist network. In some senior or niche technical markets the value is a decade of relationships in that sector. We are generalists across engineering, finance, legal, construction and care. If your role sits outside that, a specialist is worth their percentage.
- You want to pay only on success. That is contingency. A fixed fee is paid up front and buys a period of search work, not a result — if the role is not filled you get a second 8 weeks, and there is no refund. If cashflow makes that unacceptable, say so and use contingency.
And where this is not the right purchase
There are managed-search fees below ours at the £45,000 band, and some providers attach different protection to their fee where we attach a second search period. On a headline number alone we will not always be the cheapest quote you get, and we would rather say so.
What we would ask you to compare is not the two numbers but the two products: whether the fee covers a search or an advert, how long the search runs and what happens when it ends, and what the provider will show you about roles they have actually filled. Ours are all published — 46 filled roles with their funnels, and the search terms in full on the Fixed Fee Recruitment page.
The one-line version
If the role is a recognisable one at £30,000 or more, and the real problem is that nobody has time to work 26 candidates, Fixed Fee Recruitment puts a dedicated recruiter on it for up to 16 weeks for a fraction of an agency fee. If you have the time, buy the advert instead — we will tell you that on the phone as readily as we have written it here.
Related: is a fixed fee cheaper than an agency for a £45,000 hire, which UK companies charge a fixed fee, and our full time-to-fill benchmarks.
Frequently asked questions
Is TalentFinder's Fixed Fee Recruitment worth it?
It is worth it if nobody in your business has time to screen candidates and the role pays £30,000 or more. At £45,000 the fee is £3,000 +VAT against £6,750–£11,250 at a contingency agency, and it covers up to 16 weeks of search — 8 weeks, then a further 8 at no extra cost if the role is not filled. It is not worth it if you have someone who can work applications — a £399 advert does that job for a tenth of the price.
What happens if TalentFinder does not fill the role?
If the role is not filled in the first 8 weeks, we work it for a further 8 weeks at no extra cost. If it is still open after 16 weeks, the search closes and we agree any further work with you. There is no refund — what you get is a second search period, and we would rather you knew that before you buy.
How much does Fixed Fee Recruitment cost?
£1,500 +VAT for roles up to £30,000; £2,000 for £30,000–£44,999; £3,000 for £45,000–£59,999; £4,000 for £60,000–£79,999. Roles above £80,000 go to a retained search at £6,000 +VAT. The fee is agreed before the search and does not change with the salary agreed. Replacement Cover, if you want it, is £750 +VAT for roles up to £30,000 and £1,000 +VAT above.
What is Replacement Cover?
An optional add-on, bought before your new hire's start date. If the person leaves for any reason within 12 months of starting, we run one replacement search for the same role at no further fee. Without it, a replacement search is a new piece of paid work.
How long does TalentFinder take to fill a role?
Across the 46 roles we have filled and publish in full, the median was 42 days from brief to hire. A quarter filled within 29 days and a quarter took longer than 69. The fastest was 14 days and the slowest 169. We publish the individual funnels for all of them rather than only the good ones.
Is a fixed fee always cheaper than an agency?
No. Below about £25,000 the gap narrows considerably, and an agency with a negotiated volume rate of 10–12% can beat a fixed fee outright. A percentage also carries the risk differently: contingency means you pay nothing if the role is never filled, whereas a fixed fee is paid up front and buys a set period of search work.
Sources
Want the fixed price for your role?
Advertise it yourself from £399 +VAT, or hand the whole search to a dedicated recruiter with Fixed Fee Recruitment — a flat fee by salary band, with a further 8 weeks at no extra cost if the role is not filled in the first 8.
See Fixed Fee Recruitment Advertise a job
Or call 0161 327 2895.