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Recruitment ROI Calculator

Compare the return on agency hiring against building it in-house, and see what each hire really earns you.

Your numbers

Market range is typically 15 to 25%
Use the Cost per Hire calculator to estimate this
Agency vs in-house
 
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How is recruitment ROI calculated?

Subtract your recruiting cost from the value the hires deliver, divide by the recruiting cost, then multiply by 100. A positive figure means your hiring is returning more than it costs. Comparing agency and in-house paths shows which delivers the better return.

Where Compono fits

Lower cost only pays off if the people you hire in-house are as good as the ones an agency would have found. The risk of building internally is hiring poorly to save a fee. Compono Hire adds culture-fit and behavioural data on top of the applicant tracking system (ATS) process, and idibu pushes your roles across 450+ agencies and job boards from one place, so you get reach and quality without the full agency bill. Lyre's used Compono Hire to scale from 4 to 70 people across five continents in two years without losing fit.

See how it works

How it's calculated

Recruitment ROI is the value of your hires minus your recruiting cost, divided by recruiting cost, multiplied by 100. We compare two cost paths: the agency route at a fee percentage of salary (default 18%, with the market usually running 15 to 25%) and the in-house route at your internal cost per hire. Referred hires typically cost 40 to 60% less than agency placements, which is why the in-house and referral mix usually wins on return.

New to the term? Read the plain-English definition of cost per hire in the HR Glossary.

Common questions

Is it cheaper to hire through an agency or in-house?

Agencies charge 15 to 25% of first-year salary per placement, so at volume they are usually the more expensive path. Referred and in-house hires cost 40 to 60% less, though in-house only wins if you maintain hire quality.

What costs should I include for in-house hiring?

Count recruiter time, hiring-manager hours, advertising and job-board spend, assessment tools, and any referral bonuses. Leaving these out makes in-house look cheaper than it is and skews the comparison against the agency route.

How does idibu fit in?

idibu is Compono's job-distribution tool. It posts your roles across 450+ agencies and job boards in 17+ countries from a single place, giving you agency-level reach while you keep hiring in-house and hold down your cost per hire.

This page is general information, not legal advice. We check figures annually and update them on a best-efforts basis, but employment rules change and we cannot promise everything here is current or complete. Before you act on it, confirm the detail with the relevant authority in your country or your own adviser. Last reviewed July 2026.