Recruitment Lite
Recruitment – done the HR way (hourly, not 20% of salary)
Most recruitment agencies charge a commission based on the successful candidate’s salary – often 15–25% every time you hire.
Winnchester does it differently.
We offer recruitment as an HR consulting service, not a commission-based sales product. That means:
hourly billing at a transparent rate,
no salary-based commissions, and
a fixed placement success fee (not linked to salary), payable only when a hire is made.
You get experienced HR support, a defensible process and a clear view of where your money is going.
How our recruitment model works
We work on an hourly consulting basis rather than a percentage of salary.
Hourly rate: $180 + GST per hour
Billing: in 15-minute increments
Minimum per role: 3 hours ($540 + GST)
Before we start, we give you a realistic range of hours for the role, based on the level, market conditions and how much you want us to own.
We track time and keep you informed as we go, so there are no surprises.
Placement success fee (fixed, payable on acceptance)
To keep pricing transparent (and avoid salary-based commissions), Winnchester applies a fixed placement success fee for each successful hire.
Payable when: the successful candidate accepts your written offer of employment
Per role filled: success fees apply per vacancy/role filled
Not salary-based: fees do not vary based on the candidate’s salary
Typical hours and placement success fee by role level
As a guide:
Support / Admin roles
Typical hours: 8-12 hours
Placement success fee: $2,000 + GST
Coordinator / Advisor / Supervisor roles
Typical hours: 12-18 hours
Placement success fee: $3,500 + GST
Manager / Senior Specialist roles
Typical hours: 18-25 hours
Placement success fee: $5,000 + GST
Executive or hard-to-fill roles
Hours: scoped
Placement success fee: $7,500 + GST
What’s included
You can use us for end-to-end recruitment, or just the parts you don’t have capacity for:
Role briefing with the hiring manager
Refining the position description and selection criteria
Writing and refining job adverts
Advising on where to advertise
Reviewing CVs and creating a shortlist
Conducting phone or video screening interviews
Providing candidate summaries and recommendations
Coordinating interviews with your hiring managers
Support with offer structure and basic contract wording (non-legal)
We can also provide structured interview guides and scoring tools to help your managers interview well and defend their decisions if they are ever challenged.
What’s not included (and stays with you)
There are some things that will always remain with you as the employer:
Final decisions about who to hire
The terms and conditions in your employment contracts
Compliance with industrial instruments and workplace laws
Any on-hire or labour hire arrangements (we do not supply temps or contractors on our books)
We’ll flag when you should seek legal advice, and we’re happy to work alongside your existing legal advisers if needed.
Advertising and third-party costs
To keep things clean and transparent:
We don’t charge a mark-up fee on advertising and third-party costs.
Advertising spend and third-party costs are passed through at cost (or paid directly by you, if preferred).
Why SMEs choose Winnchester for recruitment
Our clients tend to come to us when they’re tired of:
paying large commissions every time someone is hired,
getting generic CV forwarding without real insight, or
worrying if their process will hold up if a decision is later challenged.
With Winnchester, you get:
Big-company HR thinking, sized for small and medium business,
Clear, audit-ready processes that align with your policies and the Fair Work framework,
Senior HR expertise owning the process, not junior recruiters on commission,
A pricing model that rewards thorough, defensible work – not speed at any cost.
When recruitment with Winnchester makes sense
Our recruitment service is a good fit when:
you don’t recruit often enough to justify an in-house talent role,
you want HR eyes over both the hire and the risk,
you’re recruiting into sensitive or complex roles (HR, leadership, finance, safety, client-facing positions), or
you want to build a repeatable process and documentation you can re-use next time.
If you need ongoing advice as well as recruitment, we can also wrap this into an on-call HR advisory retainer, so you have support before and after the hire.