Reduce cost per hire without sacrifice

Reducing Cost Per Hire Without Sacrificing Quality

With the average cost-per-hire sitting at around USD 4,700 and executive hires often reaching USD 28,000, recruitment is a significant investment. In specialist industries, agency fees average £21,000, while executive search costs can exceed £40,000. Add to that the average cost of a bad hire costing up to 21% of annual salary, and the risks become clear.

If your sole aim is to reduce recruitment costs, it should not come at the expense of quality. Asking agencies to cut their rates often results in reduced support, while those offering rates that seem too good to be true, usually are.

Here is how leading employers are striking the right balance between spend and performance:

1. Leverage MSP and VMS (Managed Services & Vendor Management)

Centralising recruitment through MSP or VMS models reduces agency mark-ups and enables volume discounts. They also act as an extension of your team, providing market insights, improving quality of attraction, reducing time-to-hire, and offering scalable support.

Why it matters: Outsourcing in this way taps into economies of scale and streamlined supplier management, thereby lowering both cost and stress per hire.