What is included
Bought as a whole desk or as individual lines.
- Research and name generation — longlists built to your brief, so your consultants spend their time on conversations rather than on searching.
- Screening and qualification support — first-stage calls against your criteria, with a written summary per candidate covering motivation, notice, expectation and any restriction.
- Compliance and credentialing — right-to-work evidence gathering, registration and licence verification, reference chasing and document collection, tracked to a checklist you can audit.
- CV formatting and data cleaning — candidate documents reformatted to your template, and ATS or CRM records deduplicated and brought up to date.
- Interview coordination — scheduling across time zones, confirmations, reminders and rescheduling, so nothing sits in an inbox overnight.
- Pipeline maintenance — keeping warm candidates warm between requisitions, with contact and status records kept current.
- Out-of-hours desk cover — work progressed while your office is closed, so candidates get an answer the same day they ask.
- Reporting — a weekly written update with the pipeline and the compliance checklist attached.
Who buys it
| Buyer | The problem | What they buy |
|---|---|---|
| In-house talent functions | Capacity, without adding permanent headcount for work that peaks and troughs | A monthly desk, or a project pack for a hiring programme |
| Recruitment and search firms | Consultants spending billable hours on back-office work | White-label desk cover, usually monthly |
| Healthcare and clinical employers | A credentialing burden that is heavier than any other sector | Per-candidate credentialing, or a desk |
| Organisations hiring across borders | Eight countries, eight different compliance checklists, one HR team | A desk with market-specific checklists |
| Businesses with a seasonal peak | Three months of volume that does not justify a permanent hire | A project support pack |
What it is not
Stated plainly, because the overlap with RPO causes most of the confusion in this market.
| Recruitment support (this) | Full-scope RPO | |
|---|---|---|
| Owns your requisitions | No | Yes |
| Runs your ATS | Works in it or alongside it | Yes, usually owns it |
| Manages hiring managers | No | Yes |
| Makes offers | No | Yes |
| Priced | Fixed fee or monthly desk | Per hire or managed service |
| Candidate experience owner | You | The provider |
| Commitment | Rolling monthly, no minimum term | Multi-year contract typical |
| Best for | Teams that want capacity and keep control | Sustained high volume where you want the process owned |
We provide RPO support, not full-scope RPO. If you need a provider to own the end-to-end process under a per-hire contract, that is a different purchase and we will tell you so rather than sell you a desk that does not fit.
The full comparison, including where each model fails, is on the RPO versus recruitment support page.
The compliance layer
This is where support earns its fee rather than just saving time.
Hiring administration varies far more between countries than hiring itself does, and almost none of the variation is visible until something has already gone wrong.
Austria requires social insurance registration before the first hour worked, not the first day. Belgium requires a Dimona declaration before the employment relationship starts and a Limosa declaration for incoming workers, with work permits administered regionally. The US requires Form I-9 Section 2 within three business days, and a two-step FCRA adverse action process if a background report influences a decision. Australian Working with Children Checks are state-based and not automatically portable. UAE certificate attestation has to start weeks before anyone travels.
Each of our eight market pages carries that market’s checklist: what applies, when it has to happen, and what the common failure is. We maintain them because we work to them, and we link every item to the primary government source so your own team can verify rather than take our word for it.
White-label delivery
A large share of this service is bought by recruitment and executive search firms who present it as their own. We built it around that rather than treating it as an exception.
Candidate-facing communication goes out in your name. Documents use your template. We never contact your client, and we do not take direct work from a client we have supported you on without your agreement.
Commercially it lets an agency carry back-office capacity as a variable monthly cost with a known margin, instead of hiring resourcers who are underused in a quiet quarter and overwhelmed in a busy one.
Three ways to buy it
| Model | Best for | Typical fee |
|---|---|---|
| Project support pack | A defined hiring programme or seasonal peak | $2,200–$5,800 |
| Dedicated support desk | Continuous cover — a named team working only your roles | $4,200–$9,000 per month |
| Per-candidate screening and credentialing | Variable volume, paid only for what you use | $260–$520 per candidate |
Fee bands by currency
Each market page also states its own.
| Engagement | USD | GBP | EUR | AUD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project support pack | $2,200–$5,800 | £1,800–£4,500 | €2,000–€5,600 | A$3,600–A$9,000 |
| Dedicated support desk (per month) | $4,200–$9,000 | £3,400–£6,800 | €4,000–€8,600 | A$7,000–A$14,000 |
| Per candidate, screening and credentialing | $260–$520 | £240–£420 | €270–€500 | A$460–A$820 |
What moves the number: volume, how many markets and therefore how many compliance checklists, how much of the credentialing burden sits with us, whether out-of-hours cover is included, and whether we work inside your ATS.
What never moves it: whether anyone is hired. Recruitment support is never priced per hire, because the compliance work happens either way.
Recruitment support FAQs
What are recruitment support services?
Recruitment support services are the activities that sit around a hiring process rather than replacing it: research and name generation, screening and qualification support, right-to-work and credentialing evidence, CV formatting and data cleaning, interview coordination, pipeline maintenance and out-of-hours desk cover.
They are bought by in-house talent functions wanting capacity without permanent headcount, and by recruitment and search firms wanting a white-label research and back-office engine.
Is this RPO?
No. Full-scope recruitment process outsourcing takes ownership of your requisitions, your ATS, your candidate experience and your hiring managers, and is usually priced per hire or as a managed service.
We provide the research and support layers behind your team or alongside an incumbent RPO provider, on a fixed fee or a monthly desk. We do not own requisitions, run your ATS, make offers or price per hire. The full comparison is on our RPO page.
How much does recruitment support cost?
A project support pack typically costs $2,200 to $5,800. A dedicated support desk typically costs $4,200 to $9,000 a month. Per-candidate screening and credentialing typically costs $260 to $520 per candidate, with GBP, EUR and AUD equivalents on the cost page.
Never per hire and never a percentage of salary.
Why do you refuse to price per hire?
Because the compliance and administrative work happens whether or not someone is appointed. A candidate who fails a right-to-work check, whose registration cannot be verified, or who withdraws after screening has consumed exactly the same effort as one who starts.
A per-hire model quietly makes that somebody’s loss, and the predictable result is corners cut on the checks that matter most.
Can you work white-label behind our agency?
Yes, and a large share of this service is bought that way. Candidate-facing communication goes out in your name, documents use your template, and we never contact your client.
It lets a recruitment firm carry back-office capacity as a variable cost instead of permanent headcount.
Do you work inside our ATS?
We can work inside your system under your access controls, or work alongside it and hand records back in an importable format. Which one is agreed at scoping, along with who owns data hygiene.
What we do not do is take ownership of the system or the requisitions in it.
Do you perform statutory right-to-work checks?
We gather and track the evidence, chase documents, verify registrations and licences against the relevant public register, and maintain the audit trail. Where a check is a statutory employer duty, the employer performs it and we make sure nothing is missing when they do.
Where a check can lawfully be delegated and you want us to run it, that is agreed explicitly in the scope rather than assumed.
What does out-of-hours cover mean in practice?
Work progressed from our Mumbai desk while your office is closed: screening calls to candidates in their evening, document chasing, scheduling and record updates.
For UK, European and US clients it usually means a candidate who asks a question at five o’clock has an answer waiting at nine. See out-of-hours coverage.
How quickly can a desk start?
A 30-minute scoping call, a written scope and fixed fee within one working day, and a desk live within a week of sign-off. There is no minimum term and no notice beyond the current month.
How do you handle candidate data?
Professional and process data only, held to the regime that applies in the market being worked, with a defined retention period and a documented lawful basis. Where we handle your candidate or employee data on your instructions we act as processor under Article 28 terms. See GDPR compliance.
Which markets do you support?
We publish compliance checklists for the UK, US, UAE, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Australia, and provide support across more than seventy markets.
Will you tell us if we need something else?
Yes. If the real problem is that your team cannot reach candidates, you need sourcing rather than support. If you want a provider to own the process end to end, you need full-scope RPO and we will say so.