Hourly rate for contract recruiting

I'm a recruiter that has always done contingency and reatined recruiting. I bill about 300-400K per year. I have a great client who has asked what I would charge for contract recruiting. I would bill them per hour I work on the search. Two questions:
1. what hourly rate should i charge?
2.How should a contract read?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
thanks

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on April 27, 2010 at 11:13am

$400,000 divided by 2000hrs = $200/hr. Why would you take a pay cut?

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Schmidt on April 27, 2010 at 11:16am

thanks Jerry! So is that a pretty typical rate?

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on April 27, 2010 at 11:18am

Nope. Though I'm not aware of most contract recruiting bill rates - I suspect they're in the 40-75/hr range.

Just keep in mind what you make working for yourself. Good luck!

Samantha Schmidt said:

thanks Jerry! So is that a pretty typical rate?

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on April 27, 2010 at 1:10pm

The question i have is would you lose the great client if you let them know that you would prefer not to work on a contract hourly basis? If not i would not go the contract route. If it's something you need to do to keep a great client happy i quote 100.00 an hour. Some clients start getting the idea that it's cheaper to hire a full desk recruiter by the hour than pay a contingency fee.

The contract recruiters that some of my clients use charge 40.00 an hour but they do not set up interviews, close or negotiate comp packages. They only identify and prescreen candidates and forward on to internal recruiters. If your client wants full service recruiting on a contract basis you might have the option of providing them with a contract recruiter at a rate of 75.00 an hour so that you are not spending your time on hourly work but can contract the recruiter through your firm at a rate that will make the contract recruiter happy and make you x amount per hour for their service to your client.

My thought is that you may be getting yourself into a bit of a trap but we do what we need to do to keep great clients happy. :)

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Schmidt on April 27, 2010 at 2:10pm

Great insight Sandra! Thanks for taking the time to share. Yes......I agree we do the best we can to keep great clients happy.

Sandra McCartt said:

The question i have is would you lose the great client if you let them know that you would prefer not to work on a contract hourly basis? If not i would not go the contract route. If it's something you need to do to keep a great client happy i quote 100.00 an hour. Some clients start getting the idea that it's cheaper to hire a full desk recruiter by the hour than pay a contingency fee.

The contract recruiters that some of my clients use charge 40.00 an hour but they do not set up interviews, close or negotiate comp packages. They only identify and prescreen candidates and forward on to internal recruiters. If your client wants full service recruiting on a contract basis you might have the option of providing them with a contract recruiter at a rate of 75.00 an hour so that you are not spending your time on hourly work but can contract the recruiter through your firm at a rate that will make the contract recruiter happy and make you x amount per hour for their service to your client.

My thought is that you may be getting yourself into a bit of a trap but we do what we need to do to keep great clients happy. :)