Recruiting fees for QA hires

A recruiting agency fee for a QA hire is a percentage of the hire's base salary, paid once when the hire starts. This site applies one agency fee percentage, the same in every region, to the median base salary, then spreads the result over an expected tenure of 2.5 years for the annual cost. The first-year cost carries the full fee.

How the fee is sourced

The fee sources in the dataset state agency fees as a percentage of base salary. The dataset has one global fee percentage, and it applies in every region, because no region-specific percentage meets the two-source rule. The formula would use a regional percentage where one did. The percentage, its range and its sources are on every breakdown page, under the recruiting line. No agency is named on this site.

How the fee is computed

The published formula has two recruiting values:

• recruiting_cost: the fee percentage times base salary, the amount paid once;
• recruiting_cost_amortised: that amount divided by the expected tenure of 2.5 years.

The annual total uses the amortised value. The first-year total uses the full value. The p25 and p75 scenarios apply the low and high ends of both the fee percentage and the salary.

Worked example

Why the fee is spread over tenure

A recruiting fee buys a hire who stays for some years. Charging it all to one year would make the first year look high and every later year look low. Spreading it over the expected tenure gives an average-year figure that can be compared across countries and models. The 2.5-year tenure is a formula default; a country record can override it only with a source.

What the recruiting line does not include

The line covers the external agency fee only. It does not include:

• internal recruiter salaries;
• job board and advertising costs;
• interview time of the hiring team;
• assessment platforms or take-home test tools;
• relocation or visa costs.

These items vary by employer and are not sourced at the two-source standard. A hire made without an agency avoids the fee but carries some of the items above.

Recruiting in other hiring models

For a contractor, the formula applies the same fee percentage to the equivalent employee salary, as the formula states. For an employer of record, recruiting is as for an employee. For an outsourced team, the formula includes no recruiting cost; the vendor carries it inside its rate. See contractor and outsourced.

Replacement hires

When a hire leaves before the expected tenure, the fee is paid again for the replacement. Replacement guarantees in agency contracts are not modelled. The bad hire guide shows the fee and ramp paid twice.

Related pages

• Formula
• Calculator
• Employee model
• First-year cost of a QA hire