How it works
Recruitment delivered the usual way. Paid for month by month.
Startup Staffing places permanent employees for growing businesses. What changes is not the recruitment work — it is when you pay for it, and what happens to the cost if the hire does not stay.
What SUS changes
One thing is different
In conventional recruitment, an agency is paid a percentage of annual salary shortly after your new employee starts. The work is done, the invoice is settled, and the agency's commercial interest in that placement is largely over.
Under SUS, the recruitment cost is funded through an agreed monthly percentage of the employee's gross monthly salary, invoiced while they remain employed by you. If the employment ends, the billing ends with it.
That single change moves recruitment from a lump sum at the worst possible moment to a predictable monthly line in your budget, and it keeps us commercially connected to whether the hire actually works out.
Traditional recruitment versus SUS
Using the illustrative example of a £60,000 salary, a 20% traditional fee and a 17.5% monthly SUS example. These percentages are examples only.
| Traditional | SUS | |
|---|---|---|
| When you pay | A single fee close to the start date | Monthly in arrears while the employee stays |
| How it is calculated | Percentage of annual salary (£12,000 in this example) | Percentage of gross monthly salary (£5,000 × 17.5% = £875) |
| If the employee leaves | The fee has already been paid, subject to any rebate terms | Billing stops from their final date of employment |
| Total over a long tenure | Fixed at the one-off fee | Can exceed a one-off fee over time, unless you agree a buy-out |
| Who employs the candidate | You do | You do — the contract is directly with your business |
How the recruitment itself works
This part will feel familiar. It is delivered by Humand's recruitment consultants.
- 01
Tell us who you need
We work with you to understand the role, the team around it and where the business is heading.
- 02
We find the right person
Humand's recruitment team sources, assesses and introduces suitable candidates.
- 03
Hire them
The candidate becomes your employee in the normal way, on your contract and your terms.
- 04
Pay monthly while they stay
Instead of one large recruitment invoice, the agreed recruitment fee is paid through monthly payments linked to that employee.
- 05
Stay flexible
If the employee leaves, billing stops. You can also choose to buy out the agreement under the agreed commercial terms.
Billing
How monthly billing works
Billing runs from your new employee's start date. Invoices are issued monthly in arrears at the percentage agreed with you, applied to the employee's gross monthly salary, payable within 14 days and exclusive of VAT.
In the worked example, £60,000 ÷ 12 gives a gross monthly salary of £5,000. At an illustrative 17.5%, the monthly SUS invoice is £875. Nothing falls due at the point of hire.
Your own percentage is agreed with you individually and confirmed in writing before any work begins.
Leavers
What happens when someone leaves
Tell us the final date of employment and billing stops from that date — whether the employee resigns, is dismissed, is made redundant or leaves by mutual agreement. You do not keep paying for a hire who is no longer with the business.
This is the practical difference in how recruitment risk is shared. Under a one-off fee, an early departure means the full fee has already left your account. Under SUS, you have paid for the months the person was actually there.
Flexibility
Buy-out flexibility
At any point you can pay the agreed buy-out value and all future monthly billing ceases. The buy-out figure is agreed with you up front as part of your commercial terms, and under the standard terms it is payable in addition to the monthly payments already made rather than offset against them.
This matters most for a long tenure: it gives you a way to cap the total recruitment cost of a placement if you would rather stop the monthly arrangement.
Employment
Who employs the candidate
You do. The person is employed directly by your business, on your own employment contract and your own terms. Humand Talent Solutions Limited is not the employer, and nobody is supplied on a contract, agency or umbrella basis.
The SUS monthly model applies to permanent placements. Fixed-term, part-time or other engagements are billed as a one-off placement fee at an agreed percentage of the total remuneration package, confirmed before any work begins.
Who SUS suits
It is not for everybody, and the homepage sets out where it may not fit.
- You are an international technology startup or scaleup hiring permanent employees — pre-seed through Series B+, bootstrapped or funded.
- You are hiring specialist technical or engineering roles: software engineering, technical leadership, product, design, DevOps, platform, infrastructure, QA, data or AI/ML.
- Protecting cash flow matters as much as making the hire.
- You want experienced technical recruitment support rather than doing it all in-house.
- You would rather spread the recruitment cost than take a large invoice at the point of hire.
- You value a recruitment partner whose commercial model stays connected to how long the hire lasts.
Model it with your own numbers
The interactive calculator on the homepage lets you change the salary, both example percentages and the length of employment, and shows the point where the cumulative totals meet. It is an illustration, not a quote.
Common questions
The questions a commercially minded founder asks
Short answers on cost, billing, leavers and buy-outs. Where something depends on your individually agreed commercial terms, we say so.
Ask us your questionBuild your team without taking the recruitment hit all at once.
You do not need a finished job specification to talk to us. A rough idea of the role is plenty — we will do the rest with you.
- 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