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In-house recruiting vs. agency: compared
Four routes to choose from, all with the same design flaw: they start from zero at every vacancy. Where the threshold sits for building your own system.
A machinery builder or technical service operator with an open service technician role has four routes to choose from. All four work. All four share the same design flaw – and it does not show at role one, it shows at role six.
The four routes compared
| Route | What it costs | What it delivers | What it leaves behind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job advertisement | low, per posting | reaches the 6 % of skilled workers actively searching | nothing |
| Recruitment agency | 15–25 % of annual salary, market average 27.5 % | one hire, fast, with network access | nothing |
| Temp staffing | markup factor 1.5–2.0, indefinitely | bridges capacity immediately | nothing – the person never belongs to the company |
| Agency on retainer | monthly, without an endpoint | ongoing campaigns and applications | nothing – accounts and data sit with the agency |
The last column is the actual comparison. After every hire the engagement ends, access expires, and the knowledge of what worked in your region leaves with it. Six months later the same process restarts – same cost, none of the head start.
Why this weighs more in machinery and technical service than elsewhere
Because the frequency is higher than most companies assume. At 10 to 15 percent turnover in industrial and technical roles, a company of 150 employees fills eight to twelve technical roles a year: service technicians, industrial mechanics, CNC machinists, operators, plus replacements driven by age structure.
And the age structure will sharpen this: 23 percent of employees in German mechanical engineering are over 55, only 12 percent under 30, average age 46.2 years. According to IW Köln and the Impuls Foundation, around 296,000 will retire by 2034 while 118,000 enter.
What an in-house system actually means
In many companies “in-house recruiting” means the management assistant handles staffing on the side. That is not a system, it is a responsibility without a tool – and it fails at the response rhythm, because Monday is dispatch planning and the application sits for three days.
A system consists of six parts, and the difference to an agency lies in each final line:
| Module | What stays in the company |
|---|---|
| Role profile with travel radius, on-call, control systems | the template for every future role |
| Careers page on your own domain | the page, including access and source code |
| Channel to those who are not searching | ad accounts, audiences, creative |
| 72-hour response rhythm | process, message templates, ownership |
| Pre-selection on technical criteria | questionnaire, scoring logic, applicant data |
| Handover | training and everything documented in writing |
When it pays off – and when it does not
The threshold sits at two technical roles a year. From there the recruiter fees you stop paying overtake the one-time build.
Below that it generally does not pay off. Anyone hiring two technicians a year cannot use a system to capacity; an agency is the cheaper math. There are exceptions – a new site, an age structure with several foreseeable departures, a territory being opened up – but they are exceptions and should be named as such.
Above it the calculation inverts. At eight hires a year at around €8,900 in fees each, placement costs alone run to about €71,200 annually – and around €356,000 over five years, without a single module remaining in the company.
The honest objection
“If the system belongs to us, what does the provider live on?” That is the right question, and it has an uncomfortable answer: on building new companies every year – not on old ones never finishing.
Which is precisely why a recruitment agency, a temp staffing firm and a retainer agency cannot make this offer. It attacks their own business model. If you think that is a sales trick, test it at the one place where it shows: does the ad account run under your name or the provider’s? That single question separates a system from a campaign more reliably than any brochure.
Four questions to decide
- How many technical roles do you fill in a normal year? Under five: agency. Five or more: evaluate a system.
- Do the roles repeat? Service technicians, industrial mechanics and CNC machinists draw on the same pool – one system carries all three.
- How old is your service team? If you know who leaves in five years, you already know your demand.
- What happens if you cancel your current provider tomorrow? Does anything remain? If not, you know what you have been buying.
How the system is built in detail is on the page for the in-house recruiting system.
Waiting list
One company per specialisation and area. Every slot is currently taken.
Put your name down. As soon as a slot opens in your area we will come back to you – with an assessment, not a pitch.
What happens next
- You leave a postcode and a website. That is all we need to place your catchment area.
- We come back as soon as we can – and we decline if your area is taken or the role cannot be filled. Honestly, before you lose time.
- If it fits, we run your area together: how many suitable technicians work within range, and what the build would cost you – including when we advise against it.
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