How much does it cost your agency to close one vacancy? Not the fee you charge, but the actual cost — the recruiter's hours multiplied by their rate. If your answer is “roughly, more or less” — you're running your business blind.
And chances are, some of your vacancies are actually running at a loss — you just can't see it.
Cost per Hire is a fundamental recruiting metric, and it rests on one number most agencies never actually track: how many hours it really took. A time tracker for a recruiting agency gives you that number — along with unexpected answers to questions you never even thought to ask.
This is a cluster article for the topic Time Tracker: What It Is and How to Choose One.
Which Service Actually Makes You Money
Tie hours to specific vacancies, and you'll see a picture that often flips your strategy on its head. Here's what it looks like in practice:
| Vacancy | Fee | Hours | Cost | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head of Sales (senior) | $2,400 | 94 | $2,000 | +17% |
| 10 Operators (bulk hire) | $3,200 | 60 | $1,280 | +60% |
| Middle Developer | $2,000 | 80 | $1,700 | +15% |
| Executive Search | $5,300 | 210 | $4,470 | +16% |
Look closely: the “prestigious” $5,300 executive search is actually the least profitable. And the “unglamorous” bulk hiring that agencies are often embarrassed to admit doing is the most profitable of all. Many agencies brand themselves as an “executive search boutique” and can't figure out why they're barely making money. The answer is right there in the table — nobody had ever built it before.
[insert Yaware screenshot here: “Time by Project” report — recruiter hours broken down by vacancy/client]
Where Recruiters Waste Time Without Even Noticing
The second thing a time tracker reveals is where time actually goes inside the process. Sourcing channels deliver wildly different returns:
| Channel | % of Time | % of Placements |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Recruiter | 35% | 45% |
| Internal Database | 10% | 25% |
| Job Boards | 30% | 20% |
| Cold Sourcing | 20% | 8% |
The internal database is an underused goldmine: a quarter of your results for a tenth of the time. Meanwhile job boards and cold sourcing eat up half the day for a measly 28% of placements combined. Simply reordering the workflow — internal database first, then LinkedIn, then everything else with whatever time is left — typically shaves several days off an agency's closing cycle. Not by working harder, but by working smarter.
Not by working harder — by working smarter.
The Fee Conversation You'll Actually Win
“Why 25% of the salary? You just posted the job online.” Sound familiar? The problem with this conversation is that the client doesn't see the work. They see the result — the candidate — and have no idea what it took to get there.
Show them. A report from a comparable closed vacancy: 47 hours, 180 profiles reviewed, 34 initial contacts, 12 interviews, 4 finalists.
Once the client sees this, “why is this so expensive” turns into “oh, that's how much work goes into it.” You're no longer justifying — you're demonstrating.
[insert Yaware screenshot here: detailed report for a single vacancy — hours by stage, ready to show a client]
“Sourcing Is Chaos — It Can't Be Tracked”
This is the most common objection recruiters raise. And it's actually an argument for a time tracker, not against one. Precisely because sourcing is chaotic — 50 open tabs, jumping between LinkedIn, email, CRM, and calls — tracking it manually is impossible. But automatically, it's easy: the system recognizes work-related resources on its own and separates them from personal browsing. The chaos doesn't disappear — it just becomes visible. And manageable.
Another benefit of automation: recruiters don't have to log anything themselves. The only action needed is switching the active vacancy when they change focus — one click. Everything else happens in the background.
FAQ
How does the tracker distinguish work on different vacancies?
Through linking time to a specific vacancy or client — the recruiter switches the active vacancy with one click, or the system pulls context from the profile currently open in the CRM/ATS. With 5–10 vacancies running in parallel, time gets allocated correctly, which is something that's impossible to do manually at recruiting speed.
Won't this slow down an already demanding job?
Quite the opposite. The tracker runs in the background, and the recruiter doesn't log anything manually. In return, they get analytics that show exactly where their time is going — and how to close vacancies faster.
What can you show a client who says it's “too expensive”?
A report from a comparable vacancy: hours by stage and the funnel in numbers. Concrete data instead of an abstract percentage shifts the tone of the conversation from haggling to understanding.
Want to know the real cost of every vacancy? Try Yaware free for 14 days — time by vacancy, sourcing analytics, and client-ready reports.
