For most Technology and Engineering teams, hiring is not a one-off event. You make a few hires this quarter, a couple the next, and one or two more when projects land. Paying 15% every time quickly adds up – and makes budget planning messy.
A subscription recruitment model is built for this reality. Instead of paying each time you make a hire, you pay a fixed monthly fee for a set number of hires across the year. The point is not to make recruitment “cheap”, but to make it predictable and aligned with what you actually need.
How the traditional 15% model behaves
In the traditional setup, every hire triggers a new invoice. If your average salary is £55,000 and you hire five people on a 15% fee, you are looking at:
- £55,000 × 15% = £8,250 per hire.
- 5 hires = £41,250 in recruitment fees.
None of that is wrong – but it does mean:
- Budget swings when hiring peaks.
- Reluctance to brief roles early (“let’s wait until it’s signed off”).
- Every new role becomes a separate negotiation.
How subscription recruitment changes the shape of spend
With a subscription, you agree a plan for the year – for example, the Osiris Starter, Growth or Scale subscription – and your costs are fixed. You can then use the recruitment cost calculator to see how it compares to 15% fees for your average salary and number of hires.
Instead of “£8k here, £9k there” every time you sign someone, you know your total annual cost from day one.
Why this works better for growing teams
For Technology and Engineering teams that know they will be hiring, subscription tends to work better when:
- You expect at least 3–10 permanent hires across the year.
- Most of those hires sit in the mid-level band (for Osiris, up to around £70k base salary).
- You want a single talent partner who understands your environment and can plug in as needed.
1. Predictable costs
Finance and leadership teams care about predictability. A subscription lets you point to a single number in the budget, rather than “it depends how many people we hire”.
2. Better partnership
When you work on a subscription, the recruiter is incentivised to think long-term. It’s about helping you land the right people over the full year, not just closing the hire that pays the next invoice.
3. Less friction around new roles
Because you are not “starting from zero” each time, it’s easier to have quick, early conversations about roles. That usually means better planning and fewer last-minute scrambles.
Where subscription is not the answer
Subscription is not a fit for every situation. If you only plan one hire this year, or you are recruiting a senior, £100k+ role, a straightforward 15% fee can still be the cleanest option. There’s a separate article on that here: when a standard 15% fee still makes more sense than a subscription.
How to see if it stacks up for you
A quick way to sanity-check things is to plug your numbers into the Osiris subscription vs 15% calculator. Enter your average salary and expected hires per year, and it will show a rough comparison and potential savings.