One-time placement fee or monthly agency?

Two ways to pay for finding a person

• Placement fee: the recruiter finds and screens candidates; you hire the person directly, pay them yourself and pay the recruiter once. After that, the recruiter earns nothing from the relationship.
• Monthly agency or managed service: the agency contracts or employs the person and bills you one monthly price. The person's pay and the agency's margin are both inside that price, for as long as the arrangement lasts.

Both are honest models. They suit different needs, and they cost very different amounts over different spans of time.

How a one-time fee works: the Stafka example

Stafka sends three matching profiles within 5² business days of a brief. If you hire one of them, you pay a one-time fee of $2,500¹ on the start day, and nothing before. You sign a contract directly with the person and pay them every month, for example through Deel, Wise or Payoneer; for reference, our executive assistant vacancies pay $800–1,100³ a month and our customer support vacancies $700–1,000⁴ a month. We take nothing from the person's pay.

Stafka replaces the person free of charge if they leave or do not work out within 180¹ days of the start date: one replacement per placement, once the placement fee has been paid and as long as the role, hours and pay stay as agreed. The fee itself is not refunded. Optional ongoing support costs $250¹ a month and can be stopped any month.

How a monthly agency works

You agree a plan, often by hours per month, and the agency assigns a person. Depending on the agency, the price can include payroll and contracts, a replacement when someone leaves, backup cover during holidays, an account manager and sometimes training or quality checks.

What you usually do not see is how much of the price reaches the person. That is not wrong in itself, but ask: it tells you how the agency competes for good people, and how likely your assistant is to stay.

The break-even arithmetic

Put both routes on the same timeline. The formula fits on a napkin:

If the person you would hire directly earns about the same as the agency's assistant, the monthly difference is roughly the agency's margin. Our comparison with a managed assistant service runs these numbers with one provider's published prices, and the cost of hiring calculator covers the comparison with a US hire.

When a monthly agency makes more sense

• You need help for a few months only, or you do not yet know for how long.
• You want to cancel at short notice, without a notice period owed to a person.
• You do not want to manage a contractor agreement, payments or replacements yourself.
• You need cover beyond one person: holidays, sick days, several shifts.
• You want the agency to supervise the quality of the work.

When a placement fee makes more sense

• The role is long-term, and you expect to keep the person for a year or more.
• You want to choose the person yourself and build a direct working relationship.
• You are comfortable paying a contractor through Deel, Wise or Payoneer.
• You want the person's own pay, rather than an agency margin, to be what keeps them.

If neither list fits clearly yet, you can test the market with a job post first: posting a job is free; pricing shows when a fee applies.

Questions to ask either kind of provider

1. What exactly do I pay, when, and for how long?
2. What does the person receive, and who sets their pay?
3. What happens if the person leaves: replacement, conditions, refund?
4. Is there a minimum term or a notice period for me?
5. Can I hire the person directly later, and is there a conversion or buyout fee?
6. Who holds the contract with the person, and who can see my data?

The fifth question matters most with monthly models: some charge a fee if you take the person on directly. Ask before you start, not when you want to.