How to open a recruitment agency. How to open an HR agency from scratch, where to start and how much you can earn How to open a recruitment agency step by step guide

What is the article about?

At the beginning of their activity, many entrepreneurs try to find and occupy a profitable niche. The lack of investment at the start pushes you to look for such an idea for a business that will allow you to start earning with minimal investment.

And how about starting a recruitment agency from scratch and succeed in this direction? Many enterprises are puzzled by the search for qualified personnel. This is due to the fact that the success of their activities and the amount of profit depend on the professionalism and skills of employees. For this reason, the services of a recruitment agency will always be in high demand.

What are recruitment agencies and why are they needed?

If an entrepreneur decides to create a recruitment agency for staff recruitment and build a successful business in this field, you should understand its features in detail. What is the purpose of such companies and what do they represent?

There are several types of recruitment agencies that are engaged in the selection of employees for organizations that have left relevant applications. In addition, applicants can be sent for preliminary training, if such a clause is specified in the agreement between the employer and the recruiter. Often, factories and factories, private small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as manufacturing firms of various profiles, act as customers. It is known that it can take a lot of time to find good specialists. For this reason, organizations turn to recruitment agencies for help and impose a number of requirements on applicants, according to which the necessary employees are selected.

If a person has firmly decided to work for himself and organize his own recruitment agency, he should be aware of the features of this type of activity. As with any other type of business, there are pros and cons. The benefits of running a recruiting company include:

  • high monthly income;
  • the presence of a small starting capital for opening an agency;
  • fast return on investment;
  • lack of dependence on seasonality;
  • the ability to create a large base of regular customers.

If the enterprise selects highly qualified specialists for the customer who fully meet his requirements, in the future partnerships are built between both organizations. This leads to the fact that they cooperate on an ongoing basis and mutually beneficial conditions. An entrepreneur has the opportunity to choose any format of a recruiting agency and develop in this direction. In addition, there are practically no serious obstacles to entering the market, therefore, with the right organization of activities, you can quickly occupy your niche and develop successfully.

Despite such a rich list of advantages, this business is not without drawbacks. First of all, you need to understand that not every employer is ready to direct their own funds to pay for the services of such agencies. In addition, a significant part of organizations prefer to cooperate with recruiters on an ongoing basis. For this reason, it will be quite difficult for a young company to find large customers at first, until it gains a certain authority. Also, entrepreneurs who want to develop their own recruitment agency, production, or, for example, open a self-service car wash, must remember the high level of competition.

Types of recruitment agencies for recruitment

Before opening a recruitment agency, an entrepreneur needs to decide on the direction of his activity. There are several types of such organizations, each of which has a specific specialization:

  1. Classic staffing agency. They are often referred to as recruiting companies. This format will be the easiest to master for novice businessmen, since the demand for the services of recruitment agencies for recruiting is quite high and does not require special knowledge to start. The main task of such companies is to find the specialists needed by customers with further employment. KA are somewhat different from other recruiters in the way they receive remuneration for the work done. In the first case, the organization transfers money for each specialist brought in in the amount of his monthly salary, and in the second, the customer pays a fixed amount for the services provided. Despite such an insignificant difference, the principle of their work is identical. These organizations act as intermediaries between job seekers and employers. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to actively work on creating a base of customers and people of various specialties who need to get vacancies. This will allow in the shortest possible time to acquire a valuable asset (personnel) and offer it to potential customers. For example, a company is in dire need of a chief engineer. If the CA presents the employer with several candidates to choose from within 20-30 minutes, the latter will see prospects for further cooperation with an unknown recruiting firm.
  2. Staffing agencies of narrow specialization. From the name of such companies, it becomes clear that their main activity is the search for narrow-profile workers. For example, it can be hired staff for the home or specialists serving a large organization. Customers almost always make high demands on applicants. They want to know everything about the future employee: education, social status, character traits, health status, feedback on his activities, etc. Finding people who have a narrow specialization in a particular field almost always presents certain difficulties, because there is practically no information about them in the public domain. It is also quite difficult to obtain personal information from applicants to fill out personal data, because not every person will agree to disclose them. Nevertheless, as they say: the game is worth the candle, because when employed, applicants receive a high and stable salary, and the agency receives a decent fee.
  3. Headhunting agencies. The specialization of such companies is the search for professionals in a particular field of activity. For example, it can be TOP managers who large organizations want to see in their staff, and smart engineers or developers of innovative solutions. It is quite difficult to find a high-class specialist. It is not uncommon for organizations to offer high fees to headhunters if they find the right employee. In most cases, this can be extremely difficult to accomplish, since tough specialists are worth their weight in gold, and for them enterprises create all the conditions that allow them to live comfortably. Even high salaries, bonuses, social packages and other benefits are sometimes not of interest to professionals, so it is very difficult to lure them to the side of the customer. This is the main task of headhunters.
  4. International CA. This type of enterprise specializes in providing job seekers with services for employment abroad. To organize such a company, an entrepreneur needs to find many foreign companies willing to cooperate and hire Russians. The vacancies of IT-specialists, engineers and medical workers who have their own scientific papers or technologies are in great demand.

Important: international CAs have the right to provide recruitment services only if they have the appropriate licenses. Getting foreign employers as business partners is extremely difficult. Entrepreneurs who want to try their hand at this niche should be aware of the high competition, as well as create a very profitable offer for potential partners.

How to open a recruitment agency?

Let's consider the main stages.

Business registration

A novice entrepreneur who wants to create his own recruitment agency or, for example, become a real estate appraiser, is required to register a business. To do this, you need to contact the tax office at the place of residence and register a limited liability company or individual entrepreneur. The second option would be preferable for a small agency: registration is fast, and the state duty is 800 rubles.

Registration of an LLC takes much longer, in addition, it will be mandatory to deposit the amount of 10 thousand rubles in the form of authorized capital. As a taxation system, you can choose UTII or STS. You also need to open a bank account, which is necessary for the receipt of funds and displaying the expenses of the enterprise.

During the registration of the agency, you will need to indicate the OKVED codes. To do this, select 74.50.1 Provision of recruitment services or 74.50.2 Provision of recruitment services. Upon completion of the registration procedure and obtaining the appropriate certificate, the entrepreneur can start doing business.

Premises selection

Specialists will work in the office of the recruitment agency, as well as receive visitors. For this reason, it is necessary to create comfortable conditions for the company's activities there. It is necessary to carry out repairs and ensure the uninterrupted operation of engineering communications (electricity, telephony, Internet, water supply). In addition, high-quality furniture should be installed inside the office. The room does not hurt to divide into several zones:

  • reception;
  • director's (administrator's) office;
  • places for interviews and receptions;
  • location of personnel workplaces;
  • bathroom.

Of great importance is the location of the building with the office of the recruitment agency. The ideal option would be to find a room in the central part of the city or the business district of the village. If this is not possible, the office should be opened elsewhere, however, to attract customers, you will need to spend more money on advertising.

The building where the company will be located should be located near a major transport hub and have a car park. For the activities of a recruitment agency, it is enough to choose a room with an area of ​​​​50-60 m². The monthly rental price varies within 30 thousand rubles.

Important: if novice entrepreneurs have extraordinary ideas that will benefit the state and make good profits, they can turn to educational organizations such as business incubators. Participants of training programs are provided with assistance at all stages of the formation of a young organization up to the beginning of independent activity.

Purchase of equipment

After the repair work, the agency must be equipped with furniture and modern office equipment. This will create the necessary conditions for the operation of the enterprise. To equip a small company, you will need:

  • laptop (4 pcs.) - 150 thousand rubles;
  • router - 1 thousand rubles;
  • landline phone (4 pcs.) - 4 thousand rubles;
  • furniture (racks, wardrobe, tables, chairs) - 20 thousand rubles.

Thus, the cost of purchasing equipment and furniture will amount to 175 thousand rubles. You will also need to purchase stationery, office paper and leave some money for travel expenses. Total - the total amount of investments is 180 thousand rubles.

Personnel attraction

It is necessary to attract specialists to the staff of a recruitment agency who will perform certain functions. The administrator of the company must have the ability to negotiate with visitors and customers. In addition, his responsibilities include coordinating the work of all specialists. The administrator keeps order in the company, buys consumables and is responsible for managing the workflow.

HR managers must look for new clients of the agency, communicate with customers, be able to conclude contracts and organize meetings of applicants with company management. The recruiter enters data into the client base and also communicates with people about vacancies. He must be able to explain to a person how to behave at an interview and get the desired vacancy, for which they can be fired from work, what rights and obligations the applicant has, etc. The agency's psychologist conducts trainings for his colleagues, talks with clients and provides assistance in work situations.

The staff of a recruiting company might look like this:

  • administrator - 25 thousand rubles;
  • recruitment manager - 20 thousand rubles;
  • HR specialist - 15 thousand rubles;
  • psychologist - 15 thousand rubles.

Total - the cost of staff salaries will amount to 75 thousand rubles. In a small agency, the position of recruiter and manager can be combined by one employee, which will reduce the costs of the enterprise. For the same reason, the duties of an accountant should be outsourced, which will take about 8 thousand rubles a month.

Organization of promotions

First of all, even before the opening of the enterprise, it is necessary to create a business card website for the organization. This will allow a large number of people to learn about the activities of the company and promote the business through the Internet. On your own resource, you should place information about the location of the KA, indicate contact numbers, e-mail address, regularly publish updates on existing vacancies and highlight the benefits of cooperation with your agency. Promotion of business in social networks will give good results - in groups you need to constantly post information about vacancies, the cost of services, and also fix a commercial offer for employers.

Advice: The Internet allows you to get any information in a matter of minutes (for example, quickly find information about banks that give loans with a bad credit history, information about competitors, etc.). According to statistics, 75-80% of clients apply to recruitment agencies using the Global Network.

Speaking of marketing tools, printed materials should be singled out. You need to turn to designers who will develop booklets and business cards for the company. Advertising in the media will cost about 50 thousand rubles. It should include the placement of advertisements on radio, municipal TV channels and in the press. Taking into account the creation of the website and its promotion, the cost of the advertising campaign will amount to 67 thousand rubles. In the future, this amount will be reduced to 20 thousand rubles for the promotion of the agency.

Recruitment agency business plan

To organize the work of the enterprise, it is necessary to draw up a business plan for a recruitment agency. It is a calculation that allows you to find out the amount of a one-time investment in a project, mandatory monthly costs and its profitability. So, for opening a company, one-time expenses will be:

  • registration of the enterprise - 1 thousand rubles;
  • rent of office premises - 30 thousand rubles;
  • repair work, replacement of communications - 70 thousand rubles;
  • purchase of equipment and furniture - 180 thousand rubles;
  • advertising campaign - 67 thousand rubles;
  • staff salary - 75 thousand rubles;
  • the company's reserve is 10 thousand rubles.

Total - the amount of initial investment will be 433 thousand rubles. Now let's calculate the amount of mandatory monthly expenses, which include:

  • rent - 30 thousand rubles;
  • advertising campaign - 20 thousand rubles;
  • taxes - 15 thousand rubles;
  • utilities - 15 thousand rubles;
  • staff salary - 75 thousand rubles.

The total amount of payments is 155 thousand rubles. As practice shows, after 2-3 months of work, a small recruitment agency can count on a profit of about 120 thousand rubles. Return on investment is possible after 6 months of active activity.

Personnel business, according to experts, is quite specific. Therefore, the proverb applies to him: not knowing the ford, do not go into the water. You should open a recruiting agency with experience in this field. It is important to understand the internal business processes and features of the provision of services, because here everything can go according to an individual scenario, and you need to respond to changes in a timely manner. Depending on the characteristics of the vacancy, sources, tools and methods of search and selection are selected.

Where to begin?

Experts advise: you need to work in this area on a hired position. Because if you enter the market from the outside, you will definitely make a lot of mistakes. It is necessary to have a sufficiently deep understanding of the personnel market, the quantity and quality of candidates for a vacancy, monitoring salaries and other indicators, because the personnel business is a complex and long-term business. This is not a simple resale of goods, this is a project work: every employer, every vacancy is a project. Therefore, you should first work as an hr-manager or development manager in a serious recruiting company. You can participate both at the sales stage and at the stage of closing a vacancy.

So, you have gained experience in the field of recruiting. Now you need to understand What segment do you want to recruit for?. Medium and small businesses are one potential base. You can choose some narrow direction like IT, and this is a different base of employers. And other specifics of work. After all, for example, if you are conducting a mass selection, the main thing here is speed. The search for IT specialists is difficult, the search is not only in the region, but throughout the country, it is poaching people from other companies, long closing times, high price for closing an application, this is knowledge of technical nuances, terms, aspects. There are agencies that select everything for everyone. There are agencies that select only mass personnel. There are agencies that select only sales specialists. And the client base of recruiting companies is formed depending on the specifics.

Elvira Nurmieva

In our business, we need to react to the situation. It is necessary to approach the client outside the box, not according to the template. Therefore, in business you need to cook, have a large set of tools for selection. I will give an example of non-standard treatment. Commercial real estate agency is looking for an employee. It is engaged in the sale of large real estate, and rent, has a ready base, reputation. However, this is a very narrow segment. Experienced candidates on the market - 20 people per month. That is, the probability of closing a vacancy is low. You can search among the inexperienced - take any sales manager and refocus on commercial real estate. But there is a large percentage of discrepancies, misses, failures. At the same time, the employer wants to hold something like a competition, let a large number of applicants through himself, recruit a team of 3-5 people and leave one or two of them. We help develop an adaptation plan, give recommendations on how to properly introduce a newcomer to the position. We also provide screening services - that is, we call candidates and invite them to the employer, creating a constant flow of candidates. In this case, we approached the search sources in an unconventional way: we sent out a mailing list in social networks to candidates from the real estate sector.

As a rule, most companies turn to a recruiting agency when they need an employee yesterday or tomorrow.

work strategy should be built, immediately asking the client whether he has someone to replace the employee, whether a new representative office is opening in the region or they have been working here for a long time, whether there is already formed functionality or this is a new position, an employee is urgently needed or you can still think, etc. d. This preparatory work is often carried out by the agency free of charge before the conclusion of the contract in order to fully understand the request. Sometimes the employer himself does not know what kind of employee he needs. Suppose he hires the head of sales for the first time and does not know what salary, what functionality, and what requirements for the vacancy. Based on this, the profile of the candidate and the cost of his selection are formed. As a rule, clients need time to make a final decision on cooperation with the agency - on average, from one to ten business days.

Elvira Nurmieva

director (founder) of the recruiting company "Candidate"

There are a wide variety of personnel assessment methods. And you can evaluate a candidate for hours. But there is no time for that. We have developed our own unique four-factor personnel assessment system: motivation, personal qualities and behavior patterns, professional knowledge, reliability of information and recommendations are assessed. It allows us to get the necessary information about the candidate in 40 minutes - an hour in order to understand whether it is necessary to refer him to the employer. We use the testing system only if these are professional tests, when you need to understand the competence of a narrow specialist. We also sometimes involve external experts who are already successfully working to evaluate the candidate.

Enterprises are ready to outsource recruitment to recruiting agencies in three cases.

If the company does not have full-time HR or if the company does not have a monthly turnover of two or three positions, it is cheaper for them to contact the agency. Or if the manager has no time to deal with this issue himself, because recruitment is, first of all, a waste of time searching, calling, inviting, interviewing, evaluating. Downtime of the workplace costs the company much more than the services of a recruiting agency. Employers who first try to recruit staff on their own very soon realize how difficult it is, and after a couple of unsuccessful attempts, they turn to a recruitment agency.

Investment size

Elvira Nurmieva

director (founder) of the recruiting company "Candidate"

To find funds to start you can apply for a grant, contact specialists who will help you to properly process the documents. You can look for investors, for example, among familiar businessmen. You can contact the business association - there may be people interested in your project. In the same place, by the way, you can find contacts of future potential customers. You can take a consumer loan - a lifting amount for two or more founders. The most important thing is to have an adequate business plan. It is sobering and helps to talk to the investor in the language of numbers. It is necessary to predict profitability, profitability for six months or a year.

Step-by-step instruction

Let's talk about the price for services. It is important to consider how much the employer is willing to pay for the search for one specialist. It depends on the complexity of the vacancy and the level of the specialist. For example, people with working specialties are constantly required - masons, welders, craftsmen, but the rate for finding such specialists will be several times less than the rate for finding middle and senior personnel. Therefore, it is economically more profitable to engage in selection, starting from the middle link. Recruiting and the human resources market is highly responsive to economic changes. If the business in your city stagnates, the number of applications and vacancies will not grow, you need to either focus on other cities or other vacancies.

There are agencies that start low in order to be competitive. This technique should be used only at the start.

Experienced players do not recommend delaying this even for half a year, because there is a healthy payback and cost that has shaped the market, and a strong deviation in price towards a discount is fraught with detrimental consequences for a startup. You still have to select high-quality staff (otherwise the client will not be satisfied), you still have to pay salaries and motivate employees. Project work assumes that you can close a position in one or two weeks, and in two or four. And some positions - as a leader, top manager, regional director - can be delayed for six to eight weeks, depending on the narrowness of the personnel market and the requirements of the employer. Understanding this, you need to lay an adequate price for your services.

Elvira Nurmieva

director (founder) of the recruiting company "Candidate"

The amount of the agency's remuneration depends on whether it is classic recruiting or headhunting, regional or federal search, whether a narrow specialist or a simple one is required. On average, the selection of one specialist costs from 10 to 12% of his average annual income. It's from local agencies. Federal agencies - from 15 to 20%. Our fixed rate is 10-11% of the average annual income. The service includes a three-month free employee replacement guarantee. If the employer wants to get a big discount, then you can offer him to recruit staff without a guarantee with a 25% discount. You can also come up with various additional services for the client, the price of which varies from 5 to 15 thousand rubles.

How can you optimize current expenses? Transfer accountants, lawyers, cleaners, marketers to outsourcing. Distribute the functionality of the courier, office manager among the main employees. However, experts do not advise cutting the salaries of employees, because people need motivation. The office is the face of your company, and it should look decent. Normal communications and working equipment, databases from work sites are also needed. You can move to a home office, but this is no longer a business, but a freelance job. You can save money by buying real estate and reducing rental costs.

Now about that how to recruit employees for an agency. A good HR can be a graduate of the psychological, pedagogical faculties or personnel management. If the education is different, then you need to see if the person has a long-term personal motivation to work with the staff. Therefore, we need people who are interested in interacting with people, selecting, evaluating, organizing them. Any novice employee can engage in search, but only intellectuals with analytical abilities and a critical eye can engage in personnel assessment. A person must be psychologically balanced, be able to abstract. He must be able to listen, but at the same time isolate the necessary information from the point of view of its correspondence to the employer's map, that is, the portrait of the desired employee.

Elvira Nurmieva

director (founder) of the recruiting company "Candidate"

There are agencies that only hire experienced HR. We most often take people with no experience or with minimal experience. It is easier for me with young and beginners, I myself create qualified specialists from them. It happens that people with experience also come, and if our assessment systems coincide, we work together. How do we attract to our agency? Training and the fact that we give the opportunity to gain serious experience in one or two years. After all, no one needs a personnel manager without experience in enterprises. In our company, managers become professionals in a short time - from six to 12 months of work.

Where is the best place to locate an office? recruiting agency? It is important to have parking and a separate entrance. As a rule, this is an office center or a separate building. The room should be from 20 sq.m. depending on the number of employees. It is advisable to have a separate room for interviews.

Elvira Nurmieva

director (founder) of the recruiting company "Candidate"

Daylight, communication with the outside world, fresh air and air conditioning are important to me, because these are intellectual activities. Lighting should be normal so that the eyes do not get tired. Our ceilings are high - more than two and a half meters, do not press. The minimum area for 2-3 managers is 18-20 sq.m.

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The client base and recruitment technology are two elements that determine the success of such an undertaking as opening a recruitment agency. A manual for dummies is unlikely to be useful here, since the necessary knowledge, as a rule, is gained with experience. You can buy it by working, for example, for some time as a consultant in a foreign recruitment agency. Thanks to this, you will be able to explore the entire kitchen from the inside and assess the capabilities of potential competitors as accurately as possible.

Where does the base in a recruitment agency come from? As for the base of a personnel or recruiting agency for employment, you can either buy it or create it yourself, working as a consultant. A business like a recruitment agency does not require a large initial investment. And this fact can be added to the category of significant advantages. You will need money to rent an office for a recruitment agency and pay salaries to employees, who may be few in the beginning. You will also need a minimal set of furniture and office equipment, you will not be able to do without repairs, since the appearance of the office is of great importance.

Employees in the agency can work for a percentage of the transaction, or on a fixed salary. As a rule, in large recruiting companies, specialists receive about 1 thousand dollars a month, in smaller companies the monthly salary of a consultant is no more than 10 thousand rubles.

As the analysis of the market of recruitment agencies shows, the first money will begin to flow to the cash desk not earlier than after a couple of months of activity. And this fact should be taken into account when forming the company's budget. Under the condition of competent business management and proper organization of the work of a small recruitment agency, the average monthly income can be approximately 5-7 thousand dollars. But the formation of profit to a greater extent depends on the abilities of the agency's specialists.

The main directions of the personnel policy of the recruiting agency are the understanding that recruiters are not trained in any university. Therefore, you will have to take people practically from the street, and engage in the cultivation of professional specialists within the company. In parallel with staff training, you will have to deal with the promotion of the agency. And here, too, there are peculiarities. Conventional advertising is considered ineffective. A significant role belongs to the Internet: you can create your own website, or post vacancies on well-known specialized portals.

When organizing a recruitment agency, a businessman may doubt his abilities, not knowing exactly how to open a recruitment agency, how to promote it in a short time. If such doubts overcome you, take as a basis a competent business plan of a recruitment agency, and act in accordance with its recommendations. This document contains a detailed description of the work of a recruitment agency, and talks about the various intricacies of this business.


The first recruitment agencies in their current form appeared in Russia in the mid-nineties. Problems with employment forced citizens to seek help from specialists who, for a fee, helped the suffering to find a good job. Along with reliable recruiting companies, firms that are engaged in banal money-raising without providing quality services have flourished and are flourishing.

An entrepreneur who decides to open a recruitment agency needs to know all the pros and cons of this business, but it is even more important to understand that the company's reputation is the key to its stability and prosperity. It is necessary to clearly understand what difficulties await you at the start, when opening a recruitment agency from scratch. There are many of them, despite the fact that this business does not require a solid initial investment. The main difficulty lies in the fact that it is extremely difficult to find a sufficient number of customers who will be able to provide a good profit.

Much depends on how correctly you choose the specialization of the agency. There are several options for entering this sector of the market. Along with the usual recruitment agencies, highly specialized companies are also successfully operating, for example, in the selection of domestic staff. Try to determine which agency format is right for you.

Having decided to open his own business in the personnel field, an entrepreneur often finds himself at a crossroads. The choice of the format of the company, first of all, depends on the source of profit, as well as its volume. Opening a regular recruiting agency assumes that its main clients will be people who want to get a job. By paying for the services of the agency, they thereby form its profit. The cost of services can be fixed, when a person pays for access to the database, or for the company to provide several addresses of organizations where they need an appropriate specialist; but more and more often, a different method of payment is being used recently, when the client gives the first salary to the agency after successful employment.

Opening a recruitment agency has a fundamentally different approach to working with clients, which are the employers themselves. For the selection of personnel that meets the necessary criteria, agencies take a fixed amount of payment, usually equal to the candidate's average monthly salary. Some entrepreneurs prefer narrow specialization, opening, for example, their own recruitment agency for the selection of domestic staff. In large cities, such services are in good demand, since wealthy citizens do not risk hiring people from the street as maids or nannies.

Opening a recruitment agency for the selection of home staff is more profitable, of course, if you can provide high quality services to clients. To do this, you will need to carefully check each candidate so that there are no annoying punctures in the future. How should the organization of personnel work be built, where to start if you decide to open a recruitment agency in a small town - you will find answers to all these questions in a professional recruitment agency business plan. It will become your reliable support both at the stage of creating a business and in the process of its development. And if you decide to open a branch of a domestic staff recruitment agency in another city, you do not have to study other documents. With our business plan, you will always stay on top.

A professional team is the key to the success of any business. Large companies are responsible for the selection of personnel. Therefore, the demand for the services of recruitment agencies is high.

We will figure out how to open a recruitment agency from scratch, what documents are needed for this, where to find employers and whether such a business is profitable.

The recruitment agency is the link between the employee and the employer. Agencies are:

  • Full cycle services for both employers and job seekers
  • Part-time work only for those who are looking for or offering a job
  • Highly specialized help to find an employee or find a job in a certain area - for example, in IT

What services does a recruitment agency provide to clients?

  • Handles a large number of requests. Employers get a lot of responses for some vacancies. Not all companies have the resources to consider them
  • Finds rare specialists. According to the announcement, such an employee cannot be found, but in a large database of a recruitment agency - for sure
  • Conducts trainings and refresher courses. The demand for such services is growing every year. Employers want to make employees not only smarter, but also happier
  • Helps job seekers to find a job. Competent personnel officers can make a "candy" from the resume of any applicant for a vacancy and prepare it for an interview

Experienced recruitment agencies can organize all of the above quickly and efficiently.

Is it profitable to open a recruitment agency

The costs of starting a staffing agency from scratch depend on which market segment you are targeting.

So, for an online recruitment agency, it is enough:

  • computer
  • phone
  • Internet
  • own site
  • Access to specialized sites

If you intend to conduct full-fledged interviews and meet with employers, you will also have to rent an office.

In addition, the new business will need funds to pay employees and promotion.

Let's say you decide to open a full-service recruitment agency in St. Petersburg. You will need:

  • Rent a room - 80’000 ₽ per month, payment for the first and last month of rent is immediately paid
  • Computers and furniture - 200’000 ₽
  • Phone and Internet - 1’000 ₽
  • Access to specialized sites - from 60’000 ₽ per month
  • Creating your own website - from 50’000 ₽

Put another 100,000 ₽ for repairs.

Total: about 491,000 ₽ is needed to open a recruitment agency.

It will be possible to “recapture” the costs at the expense of customers. Thus, the commission of reputable recruitment agencies can reach up to 25% of the annual payroll fund of a hired specialist. With well-organized business processes, a recruitment agency pays off within the first year of operation.

Opening a recruitment agency from scratch step by step

When opening a recruitment agency, an entrepreneur must go through several stages:

  • Register with the tax office as an individual entrepreneur or LLC
  • It is better to rent a room with an area of ​​at least 20-30 m², in a place with high traffic and parking
  • Buy equipment and furniture
  • Pay for access to specialized Internet sites
  • Create your own website
  • Hire staff - people with specialized education, experience, self-confidence


In addition, a recruitment agency will need a package of internal documents - several types of reporting and contracts.

Basic documents of the recruitment agency:

  • Contract for the provision of recruitment services. It should contain all the conditions for interaction between the agency and the customer, including confidentiality issues.
  • Selection request. In it, the customer indicates the requirements for the candidate and working conditions
  • Applicant Questionnaire. Required if the applicant does not have a resume
  • Recruiter reporting forms. Needed to regulate the work of HR managers working in your agency
  • Management reporting - on vacancies, finances (losses and profits), advertising costs, etc.
  • Employment contract and job description of the recruiting manager
  • Conclusion based on the results of the interview - to report to the customer for each candidate: I liked / did not like the applicant and why
  • Resume standard - so that all resumes that you send to the client are designed in the corporate style of your agency

When all the formalities are met, start looking for the first customers.

Where can a recruitment agency look for employers?

To know about you, you need run an advertising campaign. Inform about yourself on all popular Internet resources of the city, order several banners, make business cards to leave them to potential customers.

pay attention to newly established organizations. New companies may need the services of a recruitment agency.

Meet. visit all profile events and make contacts among company recruiters. Some of them may bring you more than one client.

Study the market. Compose list of organizations with whom you want to cooperate. Make an individual commercial offer for each. Then arrange a meeting with the heads of organizations and try to prove yourself from the best side. Leave a good impression of yourself, and sooner or later a client will come to you.

Starting a staffing agency is a great idea for a small business. Be active and competently build business processes - then success will not keep you waiting.