Free recruiting software

Free recruiting software usually means a trial with a clock on it. This sheet has neither: it works the figure every hiring budget is argued over, and it works it in the browser with no account. Enter your job board and advertising spend, the agency fees you paid, the recruiter and manager hours the hiring took and what an hour of that time costs, and the hires you made, and it returns the internal cost, the external cost, the total, the cost per hire, the external cost per hire and the share of the whole spend that went to agencies. On the worked example, $2,400 of advertising, $9,000 of fees and 120 hours at $45 is $16,800 over six hires: $2,800 per hire, $1,900 of it money that actually left the business, and 54% of the total going to agencies. Most desks know the invoice figure and have never counted the hours, which is why the number they quote is usually the smaller one.

The hours are the half nobody counts

120 hours at $45 is $5,400, a third of the total on the worked example. It is real money whether or not it appears on an invoice, and leaving it out makes every comparison with an agency fee flattering to the agency.

External and internal answer different questions

External cost per hire ($1,900) is what hiring costs the bank account. Total cost per hire ($2,800) is what it costs the business. Quote the first to a supplier and the second to a board, and know which one you are holding.

The agency share is the lever

54% of this desk's hiring spend is agency fees. That single percentage is what makes the agency fee sheet on this site worth ten minutes: it says whether the money is better spent on a recruiter.