In-House vs Agency Recruitment: What Delivers the Best ROI?
Dedicated internal technical recruiters come with heavy, fixed overhead – salaries, employer taxes, software licences and job board subscriptions. Our free ROI calculator compares in-house vs agency recruitment by weighing the true cost of full-time recruiters against Bernoullis flexible, on-demand subscription.
Calculate Your Recruitment ROI
Set the controls to match your recruitment team and the calculator updates instantly. It is free, needs no sign-up and runs entirely in your browser.
In-House Recruiter vs. Bernoulli Subscription ROI
Compare the fixed internal overhead of full-time recruiter salaries, LinkedIn software licenses, and payroll taxes against Bernoullis flexible subscription.
Results
In-House Spend: £0
Bernoulli Spend: £0
Net ROI Savings
£0
No Severance, No Annual License Lock-Ins, Instant Scalability.The Inputs Behind In-House Recruiter Cost
You set a handful of simple controls to match your company’s hiring structure. Use your real payroll and software figures where you can, because small overheads add up quickly across a full year.
In-house technical recruiters
The number of internal recruiters on your team, for example one recruiter supporting the engineering function.
Average base salary
The annual internal recruiter salary for each person, for example £55,000 a year for an experienced technical recruiter.
Overhead and benefits
Employer National Insurance, pension and benefits such as healthcare. The default is 20% of salary.
Tooling and software
The annual cost per recruiter of LinkedIn Recruiter, an applicant tracking system (ATS) and job board postings, for example £6,000 a seat.
How the ROI Calculator Works
The calculator compares the total fixed overhead of an internal recruitment function with a Bernoulli flat-rate subscription over the same period, in three steps.
Total in-house recruiter cost
A recruiter on £55,000 with 20% on-costs (£11,000) plus £6,000 of LinkedIn Recruiter and ATS licences costs £72,000 a year in total overhead.
Your subscription investment
On Bernoullis 12-month plan at £1,750 a month, the annual investment is £21,000 – a dedicated technical sourcing engine without long-term payroll liabilities.
Net capital saved
The calculator subtracts the subscription from the in-house total. In this example you keep £51,000 a year.
A Worked Example: One Internal Recruiter for a Year
An aerospace supplier employs one technical recruiter on £55,000. Add 20% for employer National Insurance, pension and benefits (£11,000) and £6,000 for LinkedIn Recruiter, an ATS and job adverts, and the true in-house recruiter cost is £72,000 a year – whether the business hires ten engineers or none.
On a 12-month Bernoulli subscription at £1,750 a month, the business pays £21,000 for the year, covering up to five hires a month. The recruitment ROI is clear: £51,000 stays in the business, and there is no severance risk or software lock-in if hiring slows down.
The comparison is even starker for smaller teams, where a recruiter may spend part of the year with few live roles, and for businesses that would need a second recruiter to cope with a hiring peak.
Step 3 – what you see in real time
- Total internal recruiter spend including salary, taxes, benefits and software
- Your fixed Bernoulli subscription cost over the same timeframe
- Total net overhead capital saved
- A reminder of zero long-term liabilities: no severance risk and no software lock-in
In-House vs Agency Recruitment: The Pros and Cons
An in-house recruiter knows your culture, your managers and your products, and can build a long-term employer brand. For businesses that hire steadily all year, that knowledge is valuable. The drawbacks are cost and capacity: a salary is paid whether roles are open or not, and one person can only run a limited number of searches at once.
Agencies bring reach and specialist networks, and you only pay when you hire. The downside is the fee: a percentage of salary on every placement quickly adds up for a growing team, and generalist agencies may not understand technical roles well enough to screen properly.
A subscription sits between the two. You get a specialist engineering recruitment team working on your roles for a flat monthly fee, with capacity that scales up and down with demand. For many engineering businesses it combines the best parts of both models.
- In-house: deep company knowledge, fixed cost
- Agency: wide reach, fee on every hire
- Subscription: specialist team, flat monthly cost
- Hybrid: in-house lead supported by a subscription
How to Measure Recruitment ROI
Recruitment ROI compares what you spend on hiring with the value those hires create. A simple approach is to track total recruitment cost (people, tools, fees and advertising) against the number of hires, their time to productivity and how long they stay. A lower cost per hire is only a win if quality and retention hold up.
For engineering teams, the value side of the equation is often the revenue or project delivery each role supports. Pair this calculator with our vacancy cost calculator to see how faster hiring protects that value, and you have a strong business case for whichever model you choose.
Review the numbers at least annually. Hiring plans change, and the model that made sense during a growth year may not suit a steadier period.
- Total recruitment cost per year
- Number of hires and cost per hire
- Time to fill and time to productivity
- 12-month retention of new starters
Is a Subscription the Same as Recruitment Process Outsourcing?
Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) usually means handing all or part of your hiring function to an external provider on a long-term contract. Traditional RPO suits large employers with high, predictable volumes, and contracts often run for several years with minimum commitments.
A Bernoulli subscription works in a similar spirit, giving you dedicated recruitment capacity, but it is designed for small and mid-sized engineering businesses. Terms are 3, 6 or 12 months, there is a clear monthly price and each plan covers up to five hires a month. You get specialist engineering recruiters without the scale, complexity or lock-in of a large RPO programme.
The Hidden Costs of an In-House Recruitment Team
The headline internal recruiter salary is only the start. Recruiters need management time, training and a budget for tools that are often priced per seat. When a recruiter leaves, you face their own replacement cost and a gap in hiring capacity at the worst possible time. Sickness and holiday also pause searches, because there is rarely a second person to step in.
There is also an opportunity cost. A generalist in-house recruiter may be excellent at volume or commercial roles but struggle with specialist engineering positions, which then end up with an agency anyway, so you pay twice. Before expanding an internal team, check how many technical roles it will realistically fill each year.
- Management and training time
- Per-seat software and job board licences
- Cover for holiday, sickness and resignations
- Specialist roles still going to agencies
Which Recruitment Model Suits Your Business?
If you hire engineers every week of the year and have strong employer branding, an in-house team may be the right long-term investment. If your hiring comes in waves – a new contract, a funding round, a seasonal peak – fixed payroll costs are harder to justify, and flexible capacity usually delivers a better return.
Many businesses use a hybrid: a small internal talent team that owns the process and employer brand, supported by a specialist partner for technical and hard-to-fill roles. Whatever you choose, run the numbers with your own figures, and talk to us if you would like a second opinion. We offer percentage, fixed-fee and subscription options, so our advice is based on what suits you.
How to Build a Business Case for Your Recruitment Model
Whether you are asking for budget to hire an internal recruiter or proposing a subscription, a short business case helps decision makers compare options fairly. Start with your hiring plan for the next twelve months: how many engineers, in which disciplines, at what salary levels and by when. Without this, any comparison of in-house vs agency recruitment is guesswork.
Next, cost each option in full. For the in-house route, include salary, on-costs, software, advertising and management time. For agency or contingency hiring, multiply your expected hires by the average fee. For a subscription, use the monthly price over the term. Then add the cost of vacancy for each option, based on how quickly it is likely to fill roles, because a cheaper model that takes twice as long can end up costing more.
Finally, consider risk. Fixed payroll costs are hard to reverse if hiring slows, whereas flexible models can be scaled back. Present the numbers side by side with a clear recommendation, and your finance team will have everything it needs to make a decision.
- Twelve-month hiring plan by role and date
- Full cost of each recruitment model
- Expected time to fill for each option
- Flexibility and risk if plans change
Planning Recruitment Capacity for Growth and Slowdowns
Engineering hiring rarely follows a straight line. A major contract win can create ten roles overnight, while a delayed project can pause recruitment for months. An internal team sized for the busiest period sits under-used in quieter months, and a team sized for average demand is quickly overwhelmed during a peak.
Flexible capacity solves this. With a monthly subscription, you can choose a longer term when you know a growth phase is coming and a shorter one when plans are less certain. There is no redundancy process if hiring slows and no scramble to recruit a recruiter when it speeds up. That flexibility is one of the main reasons a subscription often delivers better recruitment ROI than adding permanent headcount to the talent team.
If you already employ an internal recruiter, flexible support can also protect them from burnout during peaks and keep specialist technical roles moving while they focus on the rest of the business.
Tips to Improve Your Recruitment ROI
Practical ways to get more value from every pound you spend on hiring.
Audit your tools
Check how often each licence is used. Many teams pay for job boards and software seats that sit idle for months.
Match capacity to demand
Keep fixed recruitment capacity for steady hiring and use flexible support for peaks, rather than staffing for the busiest month.
Measure quality, not just speed
Track how new starters perform and how long they stay. A cheap hire who leaves quickly is the most expensive of all.
Use specialists for specialist roles
Technical screening by engineers reduces wasted interviews for hard-to-fill engineering positions.
Strengthen your employer brand
A clear careers page and active social channels bring in more direct applications at no extra cost.
Review annually
Revisit your recruitment model every year as your hiring plans, budget and team change.
Related Hiring Calculators
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Agency Savings Calculator
Compare 15–20% agency placement fees with a flat monthly recruitment subscription. Open the agency savings calculator.
Vacancy Cost Calculator
Put a daily figure on the revenue and productivity lost while a role stays open. Open the vacancy cost calculator.
Contractor vs Perm Cost Evaluator
Compare contractor day-rate spend with the full cost of a permanent hire. Open the contractor vs perm cost evaluator.
Engineering Specialists. We Solve Your Equations.
Having spent more than 20 years embedded within the planet’s most advanced engineering sectors, we don’t just recruit for your industry – we truly understand it. Our ROI calculator uses the same numbers we use with clients to decide between in-house, agency and subscription recruitment.
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In-House vs Agency Recruitment: Your Questions Answered
Is in-house recruitment cheaper than using an agency?
It depends on volume. An in-house recruiter is a fixed cost, so it can be good value if you hire steadily all year. If hiring comes in waves, agency or subscription recruitment is often cheaper because you are not paying for idle capacity.
How much does an in-house recruiter cost?
Add salary, employer National Insurance, pension and benefits (often around 20% of salary) and software such as LinkedIn Recruiter and an ATS. A recruiter on £55,000 can cost around £72,000 a year in total.
What is a typical internal recruiter salary in the UK?
It varies by experience, sector and location. Technical recruiters with engineering experience usually earn more than generalists. Use your own salary bands in the calculator for the most accurate result.
How do you calculate recruitment ROI?
Compare your total recruitment spend with the value your hires create, and track cost per hire, time to fill and retention. The calculator focuses on the cost side for in-house vs subscription recruitment.
What is recruitment process outsourcing?
Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is when an external provider runs all or part of your hiring on a long-term contract. A Bernoulli subscription offers similar dedicated capacity on shorter, simpler terms.
Is the ROI calculator free?
Yes. It is free, needs no sign-up and runs in your browser.
When does an in-house recruiter make sense?
An in-house recruiter usually makes sense when you hire steadily throughout the year, have many similar roles and want to invest in a long-term employer brand. If most of your roles are specialist engineering positions or your hiring comes in bursts, flexible external support is often better value.
What should the in-house recruiter cost include?
Include base salary, employer National Insurance, pension, benefits, software licences, job board spend, training and a share of management time. Leaving out any of these will make in-house vs agency recruitment comparisons look more favourable to the in-house option than they really are.
Can I cancel or change my subscription?
Plans run for a fixed term of 3, 6 or 12 months, so you can choose a shorter term if your hiring plans are uncertain and move to a longer, lower-priced term when you are ready to grow. Our team will talk you through the options before you commit.
Can a subscription work alongside our in-house team?
Yes. Many clients keep an internal talent lead and use Bernoulli for specialist engineering roles and hiring peaks.
How do I get started?
Book a free consultation or see the plans on our pricing page.
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