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What is an embedded seat, and how can it cut your hiring costs?

A woman taking notes during a video meeting with three people on a laptop.

Most companies know the traditional recruitment routine. A vacancy opens, a brief goes to an agency, candidates arrive, and when someone is hired a fee follows, usually a percentage of the new starter's salary. Then it starts again for the next role.

For businesses that hire regularly, or that hit a sudden peak in demand, this model is expensive and slow to flex. An embedded seat is a more flexible alternative.

What is an embedded seat?

An embedded seat means placing one of our experienced researchers inside your hiring function for an agreed period, working as an extension of your team rather than as an outside supplier you brief role by role.

It is always for a set period of time. Seats can run from as little as two weeks to as long as twelve months, and we agree the length and the number of days per week at the start. A researcher might be with you two or three days a week for a quarter, or full time for a short sprint, depending on what you need. This is done remotely, rather than physically inside your office building!

During that time, your embedded researcher:

  • Works to your priorities, taking weekly briefings from your talent or search lead rather than assignment-by-assignment instructions
  • Supports hiring manager briefings where useful
  • Learns your business, language and the profile of people you want to attract
  • Agrees outputs and KPIs against each briefing, with data exported to you from our CRM so you keep everything we have found
  • Is backed by the wider Talent Acumen team, so cover is in place if they are ever unavailable

What can an embedded researcher do?

Because the seat is not tied to a single vacancy, the work can flex as your needs change from week to week. Typical activity includes:

When does an embedded seat make sense?

Embedding tends to work best when you have more hiring than your internal team can comfortably handle, but not enough to justify a permanent hire. For example:

  • Your in-house team needs extra capacity for a defined period, such as a major project mobilisation, growth in a division or a spike in senior turnover
  • You are hiring senior or specialist roles that are slow and expensive to fill through agencies
  • You want to build succession plans or talent pipelines but do not have the time
  • You would like cover for a maternity leave, a vacancy in the team or a seasonal peak

We currently work this way with major UK organisations, including a large construction and infrastructure group, where our researcher supports an internal executive search team of three on senior roles (typically £100k and above), succession planning and diversity and inclusion requirements, as demand across the business grows. It is a model that clients return to: the same flexible support has been used on more than one occasion.

Where the cost saving comes from

1. Time-based fees, not a percentage of salary. Traditional agencies typically charge a fee of a fifth or more of the first year's salary on every hire. Our fees are based on days worked, at a day rate of £600, so the cost of a hire does not rise just because the salary does. This matters most on senior roles, which are the most expensive to fill through an agency.

2. No placement fees, ever. Any number of appointments made from the research, whether now or in the future, costs nothing extra. One hire or ten, the investment is the time purchased.

3. Discounts as the seat continues. The longer the seat runs, the less each day costs. In a recent three-month arrangement, discounts of 10 percent and 15 percent applied as the engagement moved into its second and third months. Longer seats of up to twelve months offer the potential for further savings.

4. Flexibility to start, stop and scale. Seats are agreed in periods, with a break clause at the end of each. You are never locked into more capacity than you need, and you can increase or reduce days as priorities shift.

5. No duplicated effort. With several agencies, you pay more than once for the same market to be searched and the same briefing to be repeated. One embedded researcher who knows your business removes the overlap.

6. Talent pipelines that last. Candidates identified for one role stay available for the next, reducing reactive, last-minute and expensive recruitment.

An illustration

Imagine a business with a senior hire at £100,000. At a fee of 20 percent, one placement costs £20,000.

Now consider an embedded seat for three months. A researcher works two and a half days a week in the first month (10 days, £6,000), then three days a week in months two and three (12 days each, £7,200 at the standard rate). With a 10 percent discount in month two and 15 percent in month three, the total comes to about £18,600 plus VAT, for 34 days of research.

That is less than the cost of a single agency placement, and it covers a whole programme of search, mapping and succession work, with no fee on any hire that results. If you make two or three appointments from that work, the saving is significant.

This is an illustration only. The real saving depends on the length of the seat, days per week, the difficulty of the roles and the volume of hiring.

Is an embedded seat right for you?

It is likely to suit you if you:

  • Need extra hiring capacity for a defined period, from a couple of weeks to a year
  • Currently pay percentage fees on senior or specialist hires
  • Want a dedicated researcher who learns your business, without the commitment of a permanent headcount
  • Want transparency on activity and outputs
  • Would like to build pipelines and succession plans, not just fill the next vacancy

If that sounds familiar, we would be glad to talk through how a seat could work for you.

Contact Talent Acumen