Recruitment fees

Last updated: June 2026

Every search is one fixed fee, set by the band your hire’s total package falls in. It is a fixed amount for the band, not a percentage of salary, so improving an offer inside a band does not change the fee. The figure on the table below is the figure on the invoice.

There are two amounts. The $800 engagement fee is payable to commence the search. The fixed fee for the band is invoiced on the day your hire starts and is charged on top of the engagement fee: the engagement fee is never credited back against it. All figures on this page are ex-GST.

Every search is exclusive. While it runs, the role goes through us: you pause your own advertising for it, and applications that reach you directly come to us to be assessed against the brief. This exclusivity is what the fixed price and the 30-day shortlist guarantee are built on.

The fee table

The band is set by the total package: base salary, plus superannuation, plus any guaranteed extras. Above the top band the work is quoted to the brief rather than banded.

Packages below $60,000 are quoted to the brief rather than banded, the same as those above the top band. The bespoke fee is agreed in writing before the search begins.

One worked example, three endings

It runs in the order the money is charged. The engagement fee comes first and starts the search. The band fee follows once your candidate has accepted and started.

You brief a role at a total package of $100,000: $800 starts the search. Your candidate accepts at $100,000, which sits in the $95,001 – $110,000 band, so the fixed fee is $11,500, invoiced on your hire’s start date. You pay $12,300 in total. An agency charging 15% to 20% of the same package would invoice $15,000 to $20,000, so the same hire costs you between $2,700 and $7,700 less with us.

Now the endings where the offer moves. Settle at $92,000 and the package lands in the band below: the fee follows it down to $9,500, so $10,300 in total. Stretch to $115,000 and it lands in the band above: the fee follows it up to $13,500, so $14,300 in total. Same table, both directions, and you know the number before you make the offer.

What the fixed fee covers

The fee covers the whole search: we write and run the standard advertising at our own cost, with no shortlist fee and no hourly component. Three things sit outside it: premium or specifically requested display advertising, agreed in advance and charged at cost; any psychometric or specialist testing you ask for, at your cost; and any candidate travel or accommodation for interviews, only ever with your prior written approval, at your cost.

• The advertisement, written by us and run under the talyn name
• Every application screened against your brief
• A phone screen with each applicant worth taking further
• A shortlist that gives you the reasoning behind every name on it
• Interview scheduling and coordination with your team
• Reference checks on the candidate you choose
• Offer negotiation and management through to the day they start

If the package lands in a different band

The band follows the package your hire accepts, not the package briefed. Accept above the briefed band and the fee moves up; accept below it and the fee moves down.

The package is the annual gross base salary, plus superannuation, plus anything guaranteed. Counting toward the band: a car allowance, a contractual loading, a thirteenth month, a guaranteed shift loading, a bonus paid regardless of performance, and anything else the offer guarantees, with a non-cash benefit valued at its reasonable annual cost. Not counting: anything that has to be earned, such as a discretionary bonus or commission on results. Part-time roles are banded on the full-time-equivalent package.

Hiring again within 6 months

Any further placement starting within 6 months of your most recent hire’s start date is charged at 20% off the fixed fee for its band. Each qualifying placement resets the window. After a longer gap, the next placement returns to the full fixed fee.

In the $95,001 – $110,000 band that takes the fixed fee from $11,500 to $9,200. The engagement fee is unchanged either way and is never discounted. A replacement made under the guarantee is not a placement for this purpose, so it neither earns the discount nor resets the window.

When each amount is payable

The $800 engagement fee is payable to commence the search, and applies once per role brief we take on rather than once per placement. If one search produces two hires for you, there is no second engagement fee, and each hire carries its own fixed fee for its band. A new role, or a new search, carries its own engagement fee.

The fixed fee is invoiced on your hire’s start date and payable within 14 days.

If the candidate withdraws before starting, through no fault of yours, no fixed fee is payable, and we resume the search under the replacement guarantee if you want us to. If you withdraw the offer, or decide not to proceed after the candidate has accepted, the full fixed fee is payable within 14 days of invoice.

Withdrawing a role part-way through a search is different again. Outside the shortlist guarantee below, the $800 engagement fee remains payable and is not refunded. The one exception is a force-majeure withdrawal under the Terms of Business, where it is held as a 12-month credit instead.

If it does not work out

If we have not delivered a shortlist worth interviewing within 30 days of your engagement-fee payment reaching us, you are entitled to a full refund of that engagement fee. Whether a shortlisted candidate is worth interviewing is your decision. The refund is not automatic: you claim it by telling us in writing that you are ending the engagement. It covers the engagement fee only and applies once per engagement. If you would rather not end it, the search simply continues and you keep that entitlement for as long as no shortlist worth interviewing has been delivered.

The 30-day clock counts only days we are not waiting on you. If we are waiting on approval of the brief, feedback on candidates, information or interview availability, the clock extends by the days we waited. If you materially change the role, the package or the requirements, it restarts from the date of the change. If you put the role on hold, it pauses until the search resumes.

Tell us within 5 business days whether a shortlist is worth interviewing. If we do not hear back in that time, that shortlist counts as worth interviewing. If it is not worth interviewing, say so in writing with your reasons against the brief, and we may revise it within the time left on the clock.

Once someone is placed, the guarantee runs the other way. If your hire resigns within 120 days of starting, or you end their employment within 90 days, we run the search again and replace them at no further fixed fee. The remedy is the replacement itself rather than money back: the fixed fee is not refunded, and if the replacement’s package sits in a higher band you pay only the difference.

Tell us in writing within 14 days of the candidate’s last day. The role, reporting line, package and conditions need to be materially what was presented to the candidate at offer, and the fee for that placement needs to have been paid in full. If a payment is missed, we send a written notice, and the guarantee only lapses if it is still unpaid 7 days later. It runs once per placement and is not available for replacement candidates. It does not apply where the departure was caused by redundancy, restructure, a change in role scope or location, serious misconduct, or a breach by you of your obligations to the candidate. If we are given at least 4 weeks of exclusive opportunity and still cannot find the right replacement, you choose between continuing the search and taking a credit for the fixed fee against a future fee, valid 12 months. A cash refund is not payable.

The figures and guarantees on this page are a summary of our Terms of Business. Where the two differ, the Terms of Business apply. A copy is available on request.

Talk to us about a role

Questions about exclusivity, who writes the advertisements, and the roles we will and will not take on are answered on the FAQ. When you have a role in mind, brief us on it and we will come back with our read on what it will take to fill.