What in-house recruitment costs
A common misconception is that recruiting yourself is free, since you pay the manager's salary anyway. But their time is not unlimited: an hour spent reviewing CVs is an hour not spent on clients or management.
Let us calculate filling one specialist vacancy in house:
| What you spend | Volume | Cost, ₸ |
|---|---|---|
| CV database access | 1–2 months working the vacancy | 60,000 – 150,000 |
| Reviewing applications | 150–300 CVs, ~10 hours | ~90,000 |
| Phone interviews | 25–40 calls, ~8 hours | ~72,000 |
| In-person interviews | 10–15 meetings, ~12 hours | ~108,000 |
| No-shows and cancelled meetings | 30–40% of those scheduled do not arrive | ~40,000 |
| Reference checks | ~3 hours | ~27,000 |
| Total direct cost | roughly 33 hours of manager time | ~400,000 – 490,000 |
The hourly rate here is taken from a manager's income of 1,500,000 ₸ per month — about 9,000 ₸ per hour. If the owner does the recruiting, the rate is usually higher, and so is the total.
To this you add time. Recruiting a specialist in house takes on average one to two months — and throughout that period the position produces no result. The cost of that idle time is counted separately, and it is often greater than all the costs listed above combined.
What an agency costs
Professional recruitment in Kazakhstan starts from 300,000 ₸, and more for complex and senior positions. For that money you get not "access to CVs" but a filled vacancy: search, selection, verification, arranging meetings and support until the person actually starts work.
| Parameter | In house | Through an agency |
|---|---|---|
| Direct cost | 400,000 – 490,000 ₸ mostly manager time | from 300,000 ₸ |
| Manager's time | ~33 hours | 3–5 hours for final meetings |
| Time to fill | 1–2 months | 7–14 days for most positions |
| Market coverage | only those who applied | plus direct search for those not looking |
| If the candidate does not work out | start again at your own cost | free replacement under contract |
When you do not need an agency — honestly
There are situations where coming to us is genuinely not rational. Here they are:
You will manage on your own
- The role is simple and the candidate flow is large. A shop assistant, courier or cashier in a busy location is often filled by an advert within a week. There is no point paying an agency for that
- You have a strong in-house recruiter who is not overloaded. Then an external partner is only needed for peaks or unusual tasks
- You hire from your own network. If the role is filled through a personal recommendation, that is the cheapest and often the most reliable channel
- The vacancy is not urgent and you enjoy the process. Some owners deliberately select their team themselves. That is a reasonable position if you have the time
And when the saving turns into a loss
The opposite situation — when recruiting in house costs more:
- The role generates money and stands empty. Every day without a sales manager or production specialist is lost revenue that quickly exceeds the cost of recruitment
- The right person is not among the applicants. Strong specialists rarely send out CVs — they are working. You only reach them through direct search
- You have already tried and it did not work. If the vacancy has been open for three months, the issue is usually not persistence but approach
- A mistake is expensive. A chief accountant, head of a business area, or anyone with access to money or the client base — here the cost of an error is measured in millions
- Recruiting is damaging your core work. When an owner spends weeks in interviews, the business loses more than recruitment costs
How to work out the decision for your vacancy
Compare not "the agency fee against zero" but two complete scenarios:
In house = hours of everyone involved × their rate + job platform access + cost of the vacancy standing idle for 1–2 months + probability of a mistake × its cost
Through an agency = fee + 3–5 hours of your time + cost of idle time for 1–2 weeks
In most cases it is not the fee that decides but the "cost of idle time" line. If the position generates revenue, a difference of one month in time to fill usually outweighs the entire cost of recruitment.
The hybrid option people forget
The choice is not limited to "all myself" or "all to the agency". In practice it is often better to divide the work:
| Format | What the agency does | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Full recruitment | The whole cycle: search, selection, verification, support until start | Key positions, no in-house HR, urgent deadlines |
| Search and initial screening only | Brings you vetted finalists, you decide from there | You have time for interviews but no access to the market |
| Candidate assessment only | Evaluates the people you found yourself | You have applicants but are unsure about the choice |
| One-off consultation | Helps build the role profile and set up the process | You want to learn to hire independently |
A common situation: a company confidently fills frontline roles itself and brings in an agency for managers and rare specialists. That is a rational division, not an admission of weakness.
How payment works
Two main models exist in the Kazakhstan market, and the difference between them matters more than it seems.
- Payment on results. The fee is paid for an employee who actually starts. The risk sits with the agency, and so does the motivation to fill quickly. Suitable for most tasks
- Staged payment. Part of the sum is paid at the start of work, the rest on results. Used for complex positions where the search requires significant resources before the first candidates appear — for example, direct search for executives
Clarify the guarantee terms separately: within what period a replacement is provided, under what circumstances, and what happens if the replacement also does not work out. The phrase "three-month guarantee" without detail means very little.
A trading company spent six months looking for a head of sales in house. During that time they held around forty interviews and made two offers — both candidates ended up staying where they were after receiving counter-offers.
If you value only the owner's and commercial director's time spent on those forty meetings, the sum is comparable to the cost of recruiting through an agency. Meanwhile the sales department operated without a head for six months — and that loss turned out to be many times greater than any recruitment expense.
What to look for when choosing an agency
- The replacement guarantee is written into the contract, not promised verbally — with a specific period and conditions
- They give you a realistic timeframe, not "we will find someone in three days". An honest benchmark is 7–14 days for most positions and up to 30 days for rare ones
- They ask a lot of questions about the task. An agency that takes the job after a two-minute conversation will be searching blind
- They show how they search and provide interim reporting, rather than sending a batch of CVs from an open database
- They are willing to decline the job if the task is unrealistic in budget or timing — a sign of professionalism
In brief
Recruiting a specialist in house costs roughly 400,000–490,000 tenge when converted into manager time, and takes one to two months. An agency costs from 300,000 ₸ and fills the vacancy in 7–14 days. For simple, high-volume roles with plenty of applicants it is cheaper to search yourself. For roles that generate revenue or where a mistake is expensive, external recruitment is almost always better value — because of speed.