What are on demand recruiting services?
On demand recruiting is a middle path between an agency and an in-house team. You do not hire a recruiter and you do not pay a percentage per placement. Instead you turn recruiting capacity on for the roles you have this month and off when the roles are filled. The provider supplies a recruiter, the sourcing tools and the process, and you supply the brief and the interview decisions.
It grew out of the problem that hiring is lumpy. A company might have eight roles open in one quarter and one in the next. An in-house recruiter is idle in the quiet quarter and overloaded in the busy one. An agency charges a full fee on every one of the eight. On demand recruiting fits the shape of real hiring.
How does scaling up and down work?
With Scowter, scaling is per role. Open three roles this month and you pay three flat fees. Open none next month and you pay nothing. There is no minimum term, no retainer that runs while you have no roles, and no penalty for pausing. If a hiring plan changes mid-search, the role can be paused and resumed.
Capacity scales because the search is done by AI agents rather than only by people. A recruiter at Scowter starts every role with screened matches from the talent pools and from more than 150 job boards, so adding roles does not mean waiting for another recruiter to be hired and trained.
What is included in a recruiter on demand engagement?
Everything from brief to accepted offer. The list below is what Scowter includes for each role.
- A brief call to define the role, the must-haves and the pay range
- AI search of Scowter's talent pools and 150 plus job boards
- AI screening of every CV against the brief
- Human recruiter interviews with each match
- Availability, notice period and salary expectation checks
- CV verification
- A ready-to-hire shortlist with written notes on each person
- Interview scheduling and candidate follow-ups
- Offer coordination until the candidate accepts
How does it compare with the other models?
The comparison below uses sourced industry ranges where they exist. Contingency fees of 15 to 25 percent of first-year salary come from AIHR and Top Echelon. SHRM puts the average internal cost per hire at nearly 4,700 dollars, which is the hidden cost of doing it yourself.
| Model | Commitment | Pricing | Who does the searching | Scales down? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-house recruiter | Permanent employee | Salary, benefits, tools, plus about 4,700 dollars average cost per hire per SHRM | Your recruiter | No, cost continues when hiring stops |
| Contingency agency | None | 15 to 25 percent of first-year salary per hire | Agency recruiters | Yes, but each hire is a full fee |
| RPO | Usually a multi-year contract | Monthly fee plus per-hire fees | Outsourced team | Slowly, within contract terms |
| Contract recruiter | Fixed period | Hourly, daily or monthly | One person | At the end of the contract |
| Scowter on demand | Per role, no term | One flat fee per role | AI agents plus a human recruiter | Yes, immediately |
Who uses recruiting on demand?
Startups after a funding round that need to hire a team in a quarter and then slow down. Mid-size companies whose single in-house recruiter is overloaded. Companies opening in a new country with no local network. HR leads who want a fixed budget per role they can defend to finance. Founders who are doing all the screening themselves and want their evenings back. In each case the common thread is a need that will not be the same size in six months.
A simple test: if you can write down how many roles you will open in each of the next four quarters and the number is roughly the same, an in-house recruiter may be cheaper. If you cannot, or the numbers swing, on demand capacity fits better because you only pay in the quarters where you hire.
How does Scowter run each on demand role?
Scowter's process is the same five steps every time, which is what makes it switchable. You describe the role. AI agents search the talent pools and job boards and screen the CVs. Human recruiters interview, check availability and salary and verify the CV. You get a shortlist with notes. Scowter handles scheduling, follow-ups and the offer.
The talent pools are a live database of pre-vetted candidates who are actively looking for work, covering tech, sales, healthcare, finance and operations, with people in the United States, India, the United Kingdom and the Gulf. For a common role the first interviewed matches often come from the pools within days.
What should you check before choosing an on demand provider?
Ask whether the price is per role or per month, and what happens to a monthly fee when you have no roles. Ask whether candidates are interviewed by a person before you see them or only matched by software. Ask whether the provider handles scheduling and offers or stops at the CV. Ask what the replacement terms are if the hire leaves early. And ask whether you can pause a search without losing the fee.
