Recruitment Agencies - How much ?

I work for a company that uses recruitment agencies from time to time to recruit for temp and sometime permanent vacancies - however of late we are finding them very expensive !! (currently 15%)

We are curently cutting our costs and want to shop around in effect

Does anyone know whether there are any agencies offering better rates than this?

What are the average fees for both permanent and temporary recruitment ?

I'm looking for work and see that companies are now looking for staff directly themselevs and expressly don't want r-agents to apply. Check out irishjobs.ie or recruitireland.com

(You're probably not aware but this site is owned by a recruitment agent!)

For permanent there are certainly deals to be had, albeit it may depend on the type of people you are looking for and the numbers/salary involved, but 10-12% would be the most I'd expect to pay and unless it was a technical/specialist role, I wouldn't look at an agency charging 15%.

For temps, it's more complicated, I'm assuming the agency picks up employers PRSI, but are they making any payments relating to pensions and is leave paid/unpaid and if paid, who's paying, are you paying the agency directly for the days in question or is it included in their mark up?

Remember VAT as well, hence for perms, it may be cheaper to try and do it yourself

15% is a bit cheeky in the current climate.

We are a small international recruitment agency specialising in the Hotel & Catering Industry and our fee is 8%.

15% is the norm but you could negotiate down to 12.5% if you gave them more than one position to fill