What are recruitment agencies really costing you?
Drag the sliders to see your annual agency spend — and what the same hiring would cost on a flat-fee, private-practice job board.
Your hiring
UK healthcare agency fees typically run 15–25% of first-year salary. Drag the sliders to match your practice.
You could save
£26,553
per year vs recruitment agencies — that’s 98% less
Recruitment agency
£27,000/yr
£9,000 per hire × 3
The Practice Standard
£447/yr
£149 × 3 listings
At 3 hires a year, pay-per-listing (£149) keeps it simple — post only when you need to. One avoided agency placement covers it many times over.
Estimate only. Agency cost = salary × fee % × hires. Practice Standard = the cheaper of pay-per-listing (£149) or Practice Pro (£249/mo). Prices exclude VAT.
Why recruitment agencies cost so much
UK healthcare recruitment agencies typically charge 15–25% of a candidate’s first-year salary as a placement fee. On a £45,000 hire at 20%, that’s £9,000 — for one role. Hire three a year and you’re spending £27,000 on agency fees alone, on top of the UK’s £6,125 average internal cost-per-hire.
For a private practice, that’s not a line item — it’s equipment, a treatment list, or a part-time salary. And it recurs with every hire.
The flat-fee alternative
A job board built for private practice flips the model. The Practice Standard charges £149 per listing (30 days) or £249/month for unlimited roles across every discipline — no percentage of salary, no placement fee. A single avoided agency placement typically covers a year of listings.
And because every candidate’s professional registration (NMC, GDC, RCVS, GOC, HCPC) is verified, you skip the other hidden cost of cheap job boards: clinical time wasted screening unqualified applicants.
How the calculator works
Agency cost = average salary × agency fee % × number of hires per year. The Practice Standard cost is the cheaper of pay-per-listing (£149 × hires) or Practice Pro (£249/month, unlimited). Your saving is the difference. Figures exclude VAT and are an estimate for comparison.