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See what SUS could look like for your next hire.
Model one hire or a whole hiring plan, see how the cost lands month by month, then send it to us. The calculator is illustrative: actual commercial terms, including your SUS percentage and any buy-out value, are agreed with you individually in writing.
Modelling several different roles, each with its own salary and number of hires — up to ten role lines.
Your hiring plan
Add the roles you expect to hire and roughly when each one starts. Month 1 means now. Start months are planning assumptions, not recruitment commitments. One illustrative traditional percentage and one illustrative SUS percentage are applied across the whole plan — real terms are agreed with you individually.
Role 1
Planning month, where month 1 is now. Add a separate role line if hires of the same role start at different times.
1 of 10 role lines used.
Plan assumptions
Changes the modelling currency only — figures are not converted between currencies, remain illustrative, and actual commercial terms are agreed directly with Startup Staffing.
Percentage of annual salary, invoiced in the month each hire starts.
Percentage of gross monthly salary per hire, charged monthly while that employee stays.
Counted from each hire's own expected start month, not from the start of the plan. Real employees leave at different times, so this is an assumption for modelling only.
Share the plan with your cofounders, or print a one-page summary for a board pack.
What this hiring plan looks like
1 hire across 1 role, representing £60,000 of annual salaries, starting between month 1 and month 1.
Peak monthly recruitment cash requirement
Traditional example
£12,000
busiest single month for recruitment fees (month 1), at 20% of annual salary
SUS example
£875
busiest single month for recruitment fees (month 1), at 17.5% of gross monthly salary
This compares recruitment fees only — no salaries, employer costs or other payroll costs are included. It is a comparison of recruitment fee timing, not automatically a total saving: SUS payments continue each month while each hire remains employed under the agreed terms.
- Total hires
- 1
- Across 1 role line, starting month 1 to month 1
- Total annual salaries represented
- £60,000
- Combined annual salaries of the hires modelled — not a recruitment cost
- Total traditional recruitment fee
- £12,000
- Peak month: month 1 at £12,000
- Peak monthly SUS recruitment cost
- £875
- Reached in month 1, once every hire modelled has started
- Recruitment costs begin
- Month 1
- Final planned hire starts in month 1
- SUS cost across this scenario
- £13,125
- £1,125 more than the total traditional recruitment fee
Hiring schedule
Your role lines in chronological order. Changing an expected start month above updates everything below instantly.
Month 1
- 1 × Role 1 at £60,000
1 hire starting · £12,000 traditional recruitment fee this month · £875 of new monthly SUS recruitment cost begins
Monthly recruitment cash requirement
Illustrative recruitment fees only, month by month. Under the traditional example a fee lands in the month each hire starts. Under the SUS example a monthly recruitment cost begins in that hire’s start month and continues for the 15 months modelled for that individual.
- Traditional
- SUS
Planning month along the bottom. Recruitment fees only — this is not employee salary or payroll.
| Month | Traditional | SUS |
|---|---|---|
| Month 11 × Role 1 start | £12,000 | £875 |
| Month 15 | £0 | £875 |
In the first month recruitment costs begin (month 1), the traditional example asks for £12,000 and the SUS example asks for £875 — £11,125 of recruitment cost is not required in that month. That is recruitment fee timing, not a saving.
- Traditional (dashed)
- SUS (solid)
At these example percentages, cumulative SUS recruitment spend for this plan reaches the total traditional recruitment fee at approximately month 14. Before that point less cash has left the business; after it, more.
Plan breakdown
Illustrative cost per role line, using the same example percentages throughout.
Role 1
1 × £60,000 · starts month 1
- Traditional example
- £12,000
- SUS example / month
- £875
Total — 1 hire
£60,000 annual salaries represented
- Traditional example
- £12,000
- Peak SUS example / month
- £875
Phased hiring plan summary. 1 hires across 1 role lines. Month 1: 1 Role 1 at £60,000, £12,000 of traditional recruitment fees and £875 of new monthly SUS recruitment cost. Each hire is modelled for 15 months of employment from its own start month. Total traditional recruitment fee £12,000, peak traditional month 1. Peak monthly SUS recruitment cost £875 in month 1. Cumulative SUS recruitment cost £13,125 across 15 planning months.
Illustrative recruitment fee planning only, not a quotation. Your SUS percentage, buy-out value and commercial terms are agreed with you individually in writing.
What are you optimising for?
SUS suits some situations and not others. It is worth being honest about which one you are in before we talk.
Protect cash flow
You would rather keep working capital in the business than pay a large recruitment fee at the point of hire.
Share hiring risk differently
Billing is linked to the employee remaining with you, so the recruitment cost tracks the outcome rather than the introduction.
Build a team
Several hires close together, where the combined upfront fees would be difficult to absorb in one month.
Prefer a one-off fee
If you have the cash available and want the cost closed off on day one, a traditional fee is simpler — and SUS is probably not the right fit.
Know the cost. Now sharpen the requirement.
Our free hiring brief builder turns the role you are modelling into a proper technical brief — what success looks like, the genuine must-haves, and where you would flex. Print it, share it with your co-founder, or send it straight to us.
Get my SUS rate
Send us the plan you have modelled and we will come back with a rate and terms to discuss. This is an enquiry only — it is not a quotation and not acceptance of any contractual terms.
Attached to your enquiry
1 hire across 1 role · £60,000 annual payroll · 20% traditional example · 17.5% SUS example · £12,000 traditional vs £875 per month.