Flat Fee Recruitment does exactly what it says on the tin; Outsourced Recruitment which is charged for as a basic upfront fee rather than as a percentage of salary for services rendered after an appointment has been made.
The reason that many companies choose to go down this Flat Fee Recruitment route rather than using a traditional recruiter is usually to do with cost: a typical Flat Fee Recruiter will be able to buy job credits from numerous job boards at a fraction of the cost an employer could do for a single vacancy and in most cases will pass some of the savings on to the recruiting company.
Advantages of Flat Fee Recruitment
A job vacancies posting purchased through a Flat Fee Recruiter will usually be placed on to numerous job boards at a cost which is similar to the fee an employer would be charged to place their vacancy on to a single job board; this makes it a very attractive proposition if price is your sole concern.
Another advantage to Flat Fee Recruitment for employers who have multiple positions to fill is that if you have to find, for instance, five Sales Executives, you should be able to fill these positions with just one advertisement and only pay the up-front fee, provided enough good applicants come through of course. If you were to fill these five Sales Executive roles through a traditional recruiter it would cost considerably more.
Separate The Wheat From The Chaff
The downside to Flat Fee Recruitment is that if your advertisement doesn’t attract the right kind of applicant then there isn’t really a comeback, you’ve already paid for the advertising so if it doesn’t work then you will have to pay again and will still not be sure you will fill your position; although of course, this could happen if an employer were to place their vacancy direct with a job board themselves.
Is Flat Fee for me?
The Flat Fee proposition can be a good one if you are looking to get a job live quickly and can afford to wait if it doesn’t work out the first time the role is posted; if however you need to make sure the right person is in position from the word go then it’s probably advisable to seek the help of a traditional recruitment agency or one of the few companies like Net-Recruit who provide a hybrid service which hopefully gives our customers more choice and control of their recruitment campaigns.
Hopefully the information above will be of some help to those of you who are thinking of dipping your toes in to the world of online recruitment for the first time and will help clarify a few things for those of you who recruit online regularly but have always used a Job Board directly of have used a traditional Recruitment Agency.
If you wish to know more about how we conduct our business here at Net-Recruit please have a look at our article entitled Online Recruitment Explained.
