Recruitment quotation with the fee agreed

What goes on a recruitment fee quote

A recruitment quotation sets out how you will fill a role and what the client pays when you do: the placement fee as a share of first year salary, advertising and testing as separate costs, and optional assessments the client can add. The sample covers a warehouse supervisor search. Open it in the free quote maker and adjust the salary, percentage and extras to the role.

A recruitment fee quote must state the role, the fee basis and the salary it is calculated on, when the fee is due, and what happens if the hire leaves early. Clients often sign terms with several agencies at once, so a clear quote is how yours stands apart.

1. Role and briefJob title, location, salary range, start date and the must have skills, so both sides agree on what a suitable candidate looks like.
2. Fee basisContingency, retained or flat fee, with the percentage of first year base salary or the fixed amount written out.
3. What salary meansWhether the fee is calculated on base pay only or includes guaranteed bonuses and allowances. Spell it out.
4. Process and deliverablesAdvertising channels, shortlist size, interviews you run, skills tests and reference checks.
5. Third party costsJob board fees, background checks and assessments listed separately and marked as at cost or fixed.
6. When the fee is dueOn acceptance of an offer, on the start date, or in stages for a retained search.
7. Replacement or rebate termsWhat you offer if the new hire leaves within an agreed period: a free replacement, a partial refund, or nothing.
8. Ownership of introductionsHow long a candidate you introduce stays yours if the client hires them later or for a different role.

Sample recruitment quotation with example fees

Talentbridge Recruitment quotes Zahra Logistics to recruit a warehouse supervisor. The Fees group holds a placement fee of 15% of first year salary, shown as $8,250 on a $55,000 salary, plus job advertising and skills testing for five shortlisted candidates. Psychometric assessment for two finalists is an optional extra outside the $9,000 subtotal. No deposit is set, which fits a fee paid on placement. All amounts are examples.

Edit the Talentbridge Recruitment quote

4 lines are filled in, from placement fee to psychometric assessment. Put in your own recruitment rates, then download the PDF.

Open the recruitment sample

How recruiters price a placement

Recruiters usually charge a percentage of first year base salary on a contingency basis, a retained fee paid in stages, a flat fee per hire, or, for temporary staff, an hourly bill rate built from the worker’s pay plus a markup. Choose based on how hard the role is to fill and how much exclusivity the client gives you.

1. Contingency percentageA share of first year base salary, paid only when a candidate starts. The client carries little risk and you carry most of it, so keep the brief tight.
2. Retained searchA fee split into stages, such as on engagement, on shortlist and on hire. Suits senior or hard to fill roles where the client gives you exclusivity.
3. Flat fee per hireA fixed amount regardless of salary, common for volume hiring of similar roles.
4. Temp staffing markupThe worker’s hourly pay plus a markup that covers employer payroll costs, statutory charges and your margin, billed per hour worked.

Markup and margin are easy to mix up on temp rates. A 42% markup on pay is a much smaller share of the bill rate, so check it with the markup calculator before you send a staffing quote.

Worked example: a temp staffing quote for peak season

A distribution center needs four temporary pickers for six weeks, 40 hours a week. This is how a staffing quote template turns pay into a bill rate. Pay and markup are examples.

1. Pay rateWorkers are paid $19.00 an hour.
2. Apply the markupA 42% markup: $19.00 x 1.42 = $26.98 an hour billed to the client.
3. Hours4 workers x 6 weeks x 40 hrs = 960 hrs.
4. Total960 x $26.98 = $25,900.80 for the period, before any tax that applies.
5. What the markup keeps$26.98 minus $19.00 leaves $7.98 an hour for employer costs and your margin, about 29.6% of the bill rate.

Overtime, night shifts and weekend work change the pay rate and therefore the bill rate, so list those rates on the quote rather than leaving them for the first invoice.

Inclusions and exclusions on a recruitment quote

Common recruitment quotation mistakes

• Quoting a percentage without saying whether it applies to base salary only or the full package.
• Leaving the replacement period out, then arguing about a refund when the hire leaves after three weeks.
• Not stating how long an introduced candidate stays yours, so the client hires them directly a month later.
• Absorbing job board and testing costs inside the fee on a hard role that needs several advert rounds.
• Setting a temp markup without checking it covers payroll costs, leaving almost nothing as margin.
• Starting a search on a verbal brief with no written salary range.