Agency, fixed fee or DIY recruitment? Which one, for which hire
Three ways to fill a vacancy, what each one actually does, and a two-question test for picking the right one for the role in front of you.
There are three ways to fill a vacancy in the UK: pay an agency a percentage of the salary, pay a fixed fee for the same work, or run it yourself with the right kit. None of them is wrong. Each one is right for a different kind of hire, and most businesses use more than one. This guide sets out what each model actually does, what it costs, and a two-question test for picking the right one for the role in front of you.
The three models in one table
| Percentage-fee agency | Fixed fee recruitment | DIY recruitment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay | Typically 15% to 25% of the first year's salary, paid when the person starts | A fee set by salary band and agreed before the search starts. With Workvine, from £1,999 | A credit per advert. With Workvine, from £399 |
| What you get | The agency's search, screening and shortlist, with their candidates introduced to you | The full process: brief, advert in your name, sourcing, video screening, shortlist with notes, interview scheduling, offer support | One advert on around ten job boards for 28 days, applications in one place, replies sent to every applicant. You read the applications |
| Who does the work | The agency | A named consultant, brief to hire | You |
| How the cost moves | With the salary. A higher offer means a higher fee | It doesn't. If the offer goes up at negotiation, the fee stays where it was agreed | It doesn't. One credit, one advert |
| Who owns the candidates | Usually the agency | You. Applicants apply to your business | You |
| Suits | A rare, senior hire where you want someone to carry the whole search | Businesses that hire a few times a year and want the cost known before they decide to recruit | A single, straightforward role when someone has the time to run it |
Scroll the table sideways to see all three.
The percentage-fee agency
This is the model most people picture when they hear "recruiter". You brief the agency, they search their database and the market, and they introduce candidates. If you hire one, you pay a fee calculated as a percentage of the salary, usually when the person starts.
The logic is sound for the hire it was built for. If you recruit once every few years at a senior level, and you want someone else to carry the whole search, a percentage fee is a known quantity and you only pay if it works.
Where the logic gets stretched is repeat hiring. The work behind a £28,000 hire and a £38,000 hire is much the same: the advert, the sourcing, the screening, the shortlist. The percentage fee rises with the salary all the same. Across several hires a year, that gap adds up, and it tends to show as hiring paced to the budget rather than to the work.
Fixed fee recruitment
The same work as an agency, priced as work. You agree a fee before the search starts, set by the salary band of the role. The fee doesn't move if the offer moves, and there's no success fee on top.
What the fee buys is the full process. A detailed brief call with the consultant who'll own the role. An advert written and posted under your company's name, so applicants apply to you and the pipeline is yours to keep. Active sourcing from CV databases and talent communities, because the right person is often not on a job board that week. A structured video screen with a real person for every promising applicant. A shortlist with notes, interviews scheduled, and support through the offer.
Two honest limits. First, a campaign runs for four to six weeks, and that's the window for a placement; a genuinely hard role can take longer and may need a different kind of campaign, which a good consultant will tell you at the brief. Second, some roles need extras: additional sourcing, social media advertising, a bigger job board budget. With a fixed fee done properly, those are priced and agreed up front too, so nothing appears later.
It suits businesses that recruit more than once a year, want hiring off their plate, and want to put a number in the plan in October that still holds in June.
DIY recruitment
Sometimes you don't need a recruiter at all. If it's one role, you know what good looks like, and someone on your team has the time to read the applications, paying someone to run it doesn't always add up.
DIY recruitment is the kit for that. You buy a credit, write your advert (or have it written), and post it. That one advert goes out to around ten UK job boards at once, including the big ones, and runs for 28 days. Applications land in an applicant tracking system set up for that vacancy, every applicant gets a reply, and you decide who to meet. No contract, no subscription, no minimum term.
The limit is the one in the name. Nobody is sourcing for you, nobody is screening for you, and if the role turns out harder than it looked, the advert on its own won't fix that. Which is fine, as long as you knew that going in.
And if you hire every month
There's a fourth option that isn't really a way to fill one role: an applicant tracking system of your own, with multi-board posting, candidate tracking and automated replies, on a subscription. It suits a business with a team to run hiring in-house and a steady flow of vacancies. For a single role it's the wrong tool; for twenty a year it's often the right one.
The two-question test
The choice usually isn't about budget. It comes down to two questions.
How often do you hire? Once every few years, at a senior level: a percentage-fee agency can be the right call. A few times a year: fixed fee, because the cost is known and doesn't climb with each salary. Every month: your own system.
Who's going to read the applications? If someone on your team has the time and the eye for it, DIY will do for a straightforward role. If nobody has the time, or the last advert produced a pile of CVs and no interviews, you need someone to screen, and that's where a fixed fee earns its keep.
Two more signs worth weighing. If the role has been advertised before without filling, DIY is unlikely to work the second time. And if you've put off a hire because of what the last one cost, the model you're using is setting the pace of your business, and it's worth changing.
What we'd say, as a fixed fee business
We started Fixed Fee Recruitment in 2023 because the maths never made sense. The tools for finding people have come a long way since the 90s. The fees haven't. We charge for the work as it is now.
That said, we sell DIY recruitment too, and we'll tell you on the phone when that's all you need. The question that decides it isn't our product list. It's how often you hire, and who's going to read the applications. If you're not sure, ask Kelly or Adrianna and they'll tell you which way they'd go.
Fixed Fee Recruitment · DIY Recruitment · Talentvine, our ATS
Planning next year's roles? There's a one-page budget planner with the bands on it: get the planner.
Common questions.
For most roles under £60,000, yes, because the fee is set by the work rather than the salary. But the point of a fixed fee is certainty rather than cheapness: you know the cost before you decide to recruit, and it doesn't change if the offer does.
You can, but an advert on its own rarely fixes a hard role. If it's been advertised before without filling, or the salary is below the local going rate, you'll need sourcing and screening as well, which is what a fixed fee or an agency provides.
Nothing. The fee is agreed at the brief, set by the salary band the role was briefed at, and it stays there. If a role moves into a higher band before the search starts, the fee is re-agreed before the advert goes live, not after.
Sometimes, on difficult roles: additional sourcing, social media advertising, or a bigger job board budget. A fixed fee done properly prices those up front too, at the brief, so nothing appears later.
With DIY and with Workvine's fixed fee, applicants apply to your business under your name and the pipeline is yours. With a percentage-fee agency, the candidates are usually the agency's introductions.
When you hire rarely, at a senior level, and want someone to carry the whole search with no fee unless it works. For repeat hiring the percentage model gets expensive, because the fee rises with every salary while the work stays much the same.
Which one fits
your next hire?
Tell us about the role and we'll tell you which way we'd go, including when DIY is all you need.