I really need some help on recruitment fees! I am currently looking for a Team Leader within Financial Services. The Manager of the team is adamant that we should not be working with recruitment agencies for any more than a 15% fee no matter what the role, this advice came from one of our clients who is an experienced and well respected Finance Director.
I have been working with an agency at 15% who have produced some good candidates so far but we need to widen our search so I have made contact with an agency we have used for many years, our HR Director has a good (personal) relationship with our contact there. Unfortunately this agency will not lower their fees below 17% which they say is a great deal as usually for this type of role they would charge 25%.
I would really like to know what kind of rate you would typically work with for this kind of role and what you would consider unacceptable?
Thank you.
Replies
Hi Charlie,
Great post! I am really pleased to see that you are still gaining benefit from the Community post qualification, well done!
regards
Debbie
Hi Charlotte,
I also work within Financial Services and in terms of that type of role you could be looking at 10%-17.5%, however this is very led by area that you are recruiting in, however for the level of role at Team Leader, I would be aiming for 12-15% maximum.
I would go back to the agency and try and negotiate with them and if not try and engage with other agencies, who might be able to work to your particular budget.
We have managed to find some excellent agencies for financial services at very reasonable rates, and had long term relationships from a recruitment standpoint.
Hope that helps
Laura
Hi Laura
That is really reassuring to hear, thank you for the feedback. I have managed to get the agency to agree to 15% for this role however they asked that this is increased for future roles we work on with them. I guess we wont be working with them in the future then!
Thank you for your help.
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte,
To give a comparison - the agencies we work with charge us 10% but we've agreed that rate as we set up a preferred supplier list so they know they get to work on the roles first. We then pay up to 15% for specialist roles (when we go off PSL).
Location will play a big part I guess - when I worked in London there's no way we would have managed to get 10%! I'm now based on Surrey/Hants borders.
Also, how specialist is the role? If it's a fairly generic Team Leader position requiring someone with a general Financial Services background, then I wouldn't suggest you need to pay a higher fee than normal, however if you need some very specific experience then perhaps a higher fee is necessary in order to get the right person. Is the 17% agency a specialist agency? If so, perhaps try approaching a generalist agency?
As Sarah mentions, I've always found independent recruiters more flexible with their fees, but I prefer to use them anyway as they always seem more invested in finding the right person rather than just chucking CVs in order to hit their target.
Hope that helps
Becky
Hi Becky
Thank you for your feedback. It sounds like getting a PSL together would be really beneficial for the organisation, I will pop it on my to do list!
I really appreciate you spending the time to share your experience.
Thank you
I used to work for an Accountacy practice many years ago in the early 2000s and it was not uncommon then to pay 25% then so I think your manager is being a tad unrealistic. There are other ways you could gets rate reduced eg agreeing they are the sole agency working on it but of course this decreases your talent pool. I find working with independent recruiters can sometimes work as they are the business owners they can be more flexible I know an excellent recruiter who charges 13%.
Another option is to pay the higher rate but negotiate on the fees they pay if the new recruit leaves and get these extended, although obviously you would hope you are recruiting the right person for the role.
Anyhow I hope this helps.
All the best
Sarah
Hi Sarah
Thank you for your help. I think I definitely need to find a compromise so we can move forward. It is great to hear what other people have experienced, I really appreciate your feedback.
Thank you.