none of the very big topics, but it might be interesting as well

When in need of recruiting a new talent for your business, you may ask yourself whether to call a recruiting agency or do it yourself using online job boards.

I asked it myself too and then wrote this piece, hoping it to be enough comprehensive to help you in the choice of the right recruiting channel for your case.

I won’t go through the pros and cons of different recruiting strategy, but I will provide you with an economic comparison of two different channels: the “traditional” headhunting and Linkedin.

How traditional headhunting works

One of the traditional channels to source talents is the headhunting agency, still widely used in many cases (I will show you the money-related reason why this channel is still used and when).

Basically, when you approach a headhunting agency, apart from agreeing on the brief of the hunt (i.e.: your need and hence the profile of the person you’re looking for), you commit to paying a certain amount of money once they found the right person for you.

The headhunting agency fee is generally one monthly gross salary of the employee. Therefore, the most qualified person you’re looking for, the greatest his gross salary and the greatest the agency fee you pay.

Here you can find what you may expect to pay based on the annual gross salary of the person you’re looking for.

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The cost of recruiting through job boards (Linkedin)

On the other hand, there’s a do-it-yourself approach to recruiting your next talent. And, to do it entirely by yourself, you need to use job boards to attract candidates.

One of the most popular job boards is Linkedin, especially for the talents you may need for a digital business.

Recruiting occasionally on Linkedin works in a way similar to a performance marketing campaign. You pay a Cost per Click to display your job post.

Based on the success rate of the whole recruitment process, you can determine the cost of the hire. Such cost can be compared with the cost offered by the headhunter.