Recruitment and selection provides you with an employee on their own contract; secondment provides temporary staff at an ongoing hourly rate; and recruitment marketing builds up a steady stream of candidates through targeted campaigns. If you’re looking for someone for the long term, a secondment hourly rate is almost always the most expensive; recruitment marketing is usually the most cost-effective option for recurring vacancies.
The confusion lies in the comparison. Temporary staffing feels cheap because you only pay once someone starts working, but over twelve months the costs add up considerably. Recruitment and selection is a one-off investment, and recruitment marketing actually reduces your cost per hire the more often you recruit. Below, you can compare the three models side by side.
What is the difference between recruitment and selection, secondment and recruitment marketing?
Recruitment and selection means that an agency searches for and shortlists candidates, after which you hire the employee yourself. You usually pay a one-off fee upon successful placement. The candidate joins your payroll and gains experience within your own organisation.
Staff secondment works differently: the employee remains employed by the secondment agency and is loaned to you at an hourly rate that includes a mark-up. This is useful for peak periods or temporary projects, but you do not retain ownership of the candidate. If the assignment ends, that expertise leaves with it.
Recruitment marketing uses paid campaigns on Meta, Google, LinkedIn and TikTok to ensure your job vacancy reaches the right target audience, including those who are passively looking for work. This enables you to attract candidates yourself, whom you can then take on as permanent staff. If you’d like to know how this works, read more about our data-driven approach.
How much does recruitment and selection cost compared with secondment?
Recruitment and selection incur a one-off fee per placement, whilst secondment adds a mark-up to the salary for every month worked. In the case of a long-term role, with secondment you pay that margin on an ongoing basis, meaning that the total costs over a year are often higher than a one-off recruitment fee plus a market-rate salary.
Would you like to find out more about data-driven recruitment?
- Recruitment using AI and data
- Takes an average of 3–8 weeks to complete
The problem is that secondment costs are incurred in a piecemeal fashion. An hourly rate that is, for example, just a few euros above the collective agreement wage may seem small, but multiply that by 1,700 to 1,800 workable hours per year and the picture changes completely. Technical and logistical roles are known to be difficult to fill, and it is precisely in these areas that long-term secondments are on the rise (UWV, 2024).
Recruitment marketing differs from both: you pay for reach and campaign development, not by the hour or per individual job advertisement. At FosFor, this approach is based on data from hundreds of campaigns, meaning that, on average, a vacancy is filled within 3 to 8 weeks with candidates who join your payroll.
When should you opt for secondment, recruitment and selection, or recruitment marketing?
Opt for temporary staffing for short-term peaks or temporary projects, recruitment and selection for a single specific permanent vacancy, and recruitment marketing when you regularly seek the same type of candidates. The table below will help you make that choice quickly, based on your recruitment needs.
| Model | Cost structure | Candidate employed by | Best suited for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secondment | Flat hourly rate with a margin | Staffing agency | Temporary peaks, project capacity |
| Recruitment & Selection | One-off fee per placement | Your organisation | One-off, specific permanent vacancy |
| Recruitment marketing | Investment in campaigns and reach | Your organisation | Recurring or multiple vacancies |
If you’re recruiting a single operator or technician, traditional recruitment and selection can work very well. If you’re looking for several welders, drivers or sales staff each year, a structured campaign approach will reduce your cost per hire. You’ll then build up your own pool of candidates rather than having to recruit from outside time and time again.
How do you calculate the actual cost per hire?
Calculate the cost per hire by dividing the total recruitment costs for a given period by the number of candidates hired. Many employers overlook the hidden costs, which makes temporary agency work and one-off recruitment appear cheaper than they actually are.
Make sure to include these steps in your calculations:
- Add up all the direct costs: agency fees, hourly rates, advertising budget and campaign costs.
- Take into account the internal hours your team spends screening applicants and conducting interviews.
- Calculate the costs of a vacant post: lost production, overtime or lost turnover per week.
- Divide this total by the number of actual recruitments.
That third step is often underestimated. An unfilled technical role costs productivity every week, and over a long period this adds up significantly. FosFor minimises this time by ensuring clients only interview the 2 to 4 best candidates each month, so your team spends less time on pre-selection. See the benefits for yourself at our measurable recruitment results.
Why recruitment marketing often works out more cost-effectively for recurring vacancies
Recruitment marketing becomes cheaper per hire the more often you recruit, as you reuse your brand, target audience data and campaigns rather than having to buy them in anew each time. With secondment, the hourly rate per employee remains the same, regardless of how many people you need.
Furthermore, employers often discover, through target audience data, that candidates have different preferences to those they might have expected. Where you might have thought that salary was the deciding factor, it turns out that journey time, shift work or career progression carry more weight. These insights help you refine your job advertisement and increase your response rate – something an hourly rate never does.
For hard-to-find roles, such as those in the maritime and shipbuilding sectors, this is doubly true. There is a severe shortage of staff in these sectors, and Statistics Netherlands confirms the ongoing pressure on the technical labour market (CBS, 2024). A structured campaign that raises your brand’s profile will therefore prove more effective than one-off, expensive agency work. If you’re looking for that sort of profile, have a look at our current technical vacancies.
If the calculation applies to you in practice, you can work it out with us. Book a no-obligation strategy meeting and you’ll discover which model delivers the lowest cost per hire for your recruitment needs, with positions filled more quickly and less time spent on applicants.
Frequently asked questions about recruitment and selection, secondment and recruitment marketing
Is recruitment and selection cheaper than secondment?
For long-term, permanent roles, recruitment and selection is usually more cost-effective. You pay a one-off fee rather than an ongoing hourly rate with a mark-up. Staff secondment is only more competitively priced for short-term, temporary assignments where you do not wish to take on a permanent employee.
What is the difference between recruitment marketing and a temporary employment agency?
Recruitment marketing attracts candidates whom you hire directly, through targeted campaigns and audience data. A temporary employment or secondment agency provides staff who remain on its payroll. With recruitment marketing, you build up your own expertise; with temporary staffing, that expertise is lost as soon as the assignment ends.
How quickly can a vacancy be filled using recruitment marketing?
At FosFor, a vacancy is filled within 3 to 8 weeks on average, depending on the sector and the role. Thanks to data-driven campaigns and a comprehensive pre-selection process, as a client you’ll only interview the 2 to 4 best candidates each month, which significantly reduces the recruitment time.
In which sectors does a data-driven approach work best?
This is particularly true for hard-to-fill vacancies in engineering, industry, construction, logistics, sales and the maritime sector. The labour market is tightest in these sectors, and standard job advertisements are rarely effective. A targeted campaign also reaches latent jobseekers who are not actively applying for jobs but are open to a good career move.
How do I calculate cost per hire fairly?
Add up all the recruitment costs for a given period, including internal hours and the costs associated with a vacant post, and divide that by the number of candidates hired. It is precisely these hidden costs, such as lost productivity, that determine whether secondment is really as cost-effective as it seems.