In times of economic pressure, it’s natural for business leaders to look for ways to cut costs. Recruitment often ends up in the spotlight - especially in engineering and manufacturing, where managing hiring internally can seem like an easy way to “save the agency fee.”
But the numbers tell a different story.
Doing your own recruitment can cost up to 10 times more than using a professional recruitment partner.
That might sound surprising, but it’s backed by real analysis.
We recently ran a detailed cost comparison between internal (DIY) recruitment and working with a specialist agency like ours. The findings were eye-opening and not in the way many expect.
The DIY Illusion: Lower Fees, Higher Costs
The idea of recruiting internally can create a false sense of savings. While there’s no agency fee on paper, the real cost quickly adds up when you account for direct, indirect, and opportunity costs such as:
Licences & adverts: Tools like LinkedIn Recruiter and job boards can cost more than £8,000 per year.
Internal time costs: Managers, directors, and HR staff often spend 40-100 hours per hire, equating to thousands in salary overhead.
Lost productivity: Every week a role remains unfilled can mean missed output or revenue, especially in technical or leadership roles.
Risk of mis-hire: A bad hire can cost tens of thousands, from wasted onboarding to disruption and the need to re-hire.
Limited reach: Without access to passive candidates, you’re only seeing who happens to apply that week, not necessarily the best people for the role.
Add it all together, and the real cost of an internally managed hire can easily exceed £90,000, compared to a typical agency fee of £8,000 to £12,000.
So What’s the Real Saving?
Recruitment partners do more than just find a CV to match a job spec. We bring consistency, structure, and access to a far broader talent pool—including candidates who aren’t actively job hunting, but would move for the right opportunity.
Working with a professional recruitment partner means:
Saving your internal team hours of time (and stress)
Reducing the risk of a mis-hire through stronger matching and candidate insight
Speeding up time to hire, preventing productivity gaps
Keeping top candidates engaged through to acceptance
Offering replacement guarantees to protect your investment
The Real Question Isn’t ‘What Does It Cost?’ - It’s ‘What Could It Cost If You Don’t?’
Before your team decides to run your next recruitment campaign in-house, ask this:
Are we really saving money - or just shifting the cost into our business in ways we won’t notice until it’s too late?
At Euro Projects Recruitment, we specialise in helping engineering and manufacturing firms across the UK recruit faster, smarter, and more strategically. If you’d like a confidential review of your current hiring approach, or if you're planning to fill a key role and want to avoid the hidden costs - we’d be happy to talk.
Call our team on 01530 833825, or email customers@europrojects.co.uk