For finance leads at technology startups
Startup Staffing is a permanent recruitment service for international technology startups and scaleups where the fee is paid as an agreed monthly percentage of each hire's gross monthly salary. It is a recruitment fee payment model — not lending, credit or a financial product — and it changes the timing of the cost rather than making it disappear.
No accounting or tax treatment is implied or advised here; how you record the expenditure is a matter for you and your accountants.
This is the point worth being blunt about. SUS does not remove the recruitment cost. It converts a single large payment at the point of hire into a monthly payment linked to that employee, invoiced monthly in arrears from their start date.
Each placement contributes a known monthly figure derived from that employee's gross monthly salary. Recruitment stops being a lumpy, unforecastable line and becomes a per-head monthly amount you can plan against.
The calculator shows the month-one comparison side by side for exactly this reason: one model asks for a large sum immediately, the other asks for a fraction of it while you assess the hire in the role.
Monthly payments accumulate. There is a month where the cumulative SUS total reaches what a traditional one-off fee would have been, and beyond it the monthly model costs more. We show that month rather than leaving you to find it.
A buy-out value is confirmed in writing as part of your commercial terms. Paying it ends future monthly billing for that placement. Under the standard terms it is payable in addition to monthly payments already made, not offset against them.
If the employee's employment ends, billing stops from their final date of employment. Payments already made are not refunded. Fees are exclusive of VAT and, under the standard terms, payable within 14 days.
Illustration only, on a £60,000 salary: a 20% traditional fee against a 17.5% monthly fee on gross monthly salary. Your actual percentages and buy-out value are agreed with you individually in writing.
| Cash requirement | Traditional fee | SUS monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Month one | £12,000 | £875 |
| First six months | £12,000 | £5,250 |
| First twelve months | £12,000 | £10,500 |
Modelling several hires at different salaries is what the team hiring planner is for: plan-level payroll, month-one cash requirement, cumulative cost and crossover for the whole plan, plus a printable summary.
Being clear about the boundaries of the model saves everyone time.
Send us the shape of it — headcount, rough salaries, timing — and we will talk you through how the monthly model would land across the plan.
Prefer to talk? 01865 657 000
Prefer email? joseph@humand.co.uk
