Hiring costs
What hiring really costs an early-stage business
The fee is only the part you can see on an invoice. For a startup, the timing of that cost — and what happens if the hire does not stay — usually matters more than the percentage itself.
Six costs behind every hire
The recruitment fee
The visible one. At 20% of a £60,000 salary, that is £12,000 invoiced around the start date — before the hire has produced anything.
The cash flow hit at the worst moment
Recruitment fees land in the same month as the first salary, onboarding, equipment and often a new desk. For an early-stage business, that concentration matters more than the headline number.
Time before productivity
Most hires take weeks or months to be fully productive. The fee is settled long before the return arrives, which is why timing and outcome are so tightly linked at this stage.
The cost of a hire who does not stay
Rebate periods are usually short and taper quickly. Beyond them, the fee is spent regardless — and the search starts again.
The opportunity cost of the cash
Money spent on a recruitment fee in month one is money not spent on runway, product or go-to-market. For funded startups that is measured against a burn plan, not a budget line.
The hidden internal cost
Founder and team hours spent screening, interviewing and closing candidates rarely show up in the hiring budget, but they are real and they are expensive.
Why the timing is the problem
A £60,000 hire at 20% means £12,000 leaving the business in the first month. Hire three people in a quarter and that is £36,000 of recruitment cost concentrated into a period when none of those hires has yet delivered anything.
Startup Staffing spreads that cost: an agreed percentage of gross monthly salary, charged monthly while each employee stays. At 17.5% the same hire is £875 in month one. It is not automatically cheaper overall — payments continue while the employee remains employed, and over a long tenure the cumulative total can exceed a one-off fee — but the cash requirement at the point of hire is very different.
All figures on this page are illustrative examples used to explain the mechanics. They are not a quotation and not a standard SUS rate; your commercial terms are agreed with you individually in writing.
Keep reading
- SUS explainedThe commercial model on one printable page.
- For foundersHiring while protecting working capital.
- For finance leadsCash timing, cumulative cost and crossover.
- For people teamsExternal hiring support alongside your team.
- Full FAQCosts, contracts, buy-outs and getting started.
- Cost calculatorModel one role or a whole hiring plan.
Working out what your next hires will cost?
Tell us what you are planning — a live role, a few hires over the next few months, or just a budget you are trying to shape.
- A specific live vacancy you are trying to fill
- Hiring you are planning over the next few months
- Several future hires and how they would work together
- Whether SUS is the right fit for your business at all
Prefer to talk? 01865 657 000
Prefer email? joseph@humand.co.uk