What questions should I ask any staffing agency before signing?

Seven: what is the fee percentage and what does it apply to, does the fee escalate by seniority or role type, what does the replacement guarantee actually provide, who owns candidates we sourced independently, what is the conversion fee if a contractor becomes permanent, how are candidates screened before submission, and what happens if we hire a second person from the same shortlist.

How much do staffing agencies charge?

US direct-hire fees typically run 20 to 30% of first-year salary, executive search 25 to 35%, and temporary or contract staffing carries a 40 to 60% markup over the worker's pay rate. Hyring charges a flat 14% of base salary for direct hire, published rather than quoted.

Why do agency fees vary so much for the same role?

Because the percentage is only half the equation. A fee quoted on total compensation rather than base can be nearly double for an identical hire, particularly in finance and sales where bonuses are large. Always establish the basis, not just the rate.

Does Hyring have an office near me?

Almost certainly not. Our only US office is on Market Street in San Francisco, and we say so on every location page rather than implying branches we do not have. Delivery everywhere else is remote-first.

Is a remote-first agency worse at understanding local markets?

It depends on whether the agency has local data. Our location pages carry verified employment figures, salary bands, and market conditions for each metro, and screening reaches candidates nationally rather than through one recruiter's local network. For professional roles, that is usually more useful than proximity.

What is a conversion fee and why does it matter?

It is a charge many agencies apply if you hire a contractor permanently, and it is frequently buried in the agreement rather than negotiated. On a long contract engagement it can add up substantially, so ask about it before signing rather than after you want to convert someone.

How do I compare agencies fairly?

Brief the same role to two or three and compare four things: how fast a shortlist arrives, what evidence comes with each candidate, whether the fee basis is stated plainly, and whether anyone tells you honestly that your role is a poor fit for them. The last one is the most informative and the rarest.

Guide · Choosing a Staffing Agency

Staffing Agency Near Me: How to Choose

A practical guide to when local presence genuinely matters, when it does not, and the seven questions worth asking any agency before you sign anything.

Last updated on: May 21, 2026Read time: 9 mins

Written byAdithyan RKFact checked bySurya N

20–30%

Typical US direct-hire fee

40–60%

Typical contract markup

14%

Hyring flat, published

Questions to ask before signing

If you searched for a staffing agency near you, the useful answer is not a list of local offices. It is a question: does this particular role actually require someone nearby, or have you assumed it does because that is how staffing has always been bought? For roughly half of hiring, proximity matters enormously. For the other half it is a habit that costs money.

This page is written to be useful whether or not you ever contact us. We will tell you plainly which roles need a local agency, which do not, what questions to ask before signing anything, and where our own model is a poor fit. Our US office is on Market Street in San Francisco and nowhere else, so if the answer turns out to be that you need someone local, we will say so rather than pretend otherwise.

When Local Genuinely Matters

Local presence is essential for on-site, shift-based, and high-volume work where same-day replacement and dispatch infrastructure are the actual product.

Use a local staffing agency when any of these apply:

The work is on-site and shift-based. Warehouse floor, light industrial, production lines, hospitality, retail, and event crew. Someone not showing up at six in the morning is an operational emergency that only a local dispatcher with a bench can solve.

You are hiring at volume, quickly. Forty people for a peak season, or a facility ramp with weekly intakes. Local agencies maintain vetted rosters precisely for this.

The role requires union hall relationships or trade certifications. Skilled trades in construction and industrial work run through networks that took years to build.

The candidate pool is genuinely neighbourhood-bound. Some roles draw from a specific community that a local recruiter knows personally and no database captures.

You need someone walked onto a site on day one. Facilities familiarity and physical induction sometimes cannot be done any other way.

If you recognised your role in that list, stop reading and search locally. That is the right answer and we are not the right vendor.

When It Does Not Matter

For professional, technical, and office-based roles, a local address adds little that a rigorous process and national reach do not provide better.

For engineers, accountants, marketers, sales professionals, HR staff, analysts, project managers, and most corporate functions, ask what a local office actually contributes. Usually it is three things: familiarity with local salary levels, a network of local candidates, and someone you can meet in person.

All three are solvable without proximity, and often better. Salary knowledge is data, and our location pages carry verified employment figures and salary bands for every market we cover, updated from public sources rather than from one recruiter's recollection. Candidate networks are the weaker argument: one local recruiter's contacts are narrower than thousands of specialist recruiters working a role nationally, which is what our Recruiting Partners network provides. Meeting in person is genuinely pleasant and rarely changes a hiring outcome.

What does change outcomes is evidence and speed: whether candidates arrive assessed, how fast a shortlist appears, and whether your team can judge someone from a recording rather than scheduling four calls. Those are process questions, not geography questions.

Seven Questions to Ask Any Staffing Agency

Most disputes between employers and agencies trace back to clauses nobody discussed at signing, and these seven surface almost all of them.

Ask these of any agency, including us. If an answer is evasive, that is the answer.

1. What is the fee, and what does it apply to?

Base salary or total compensation? On a bonus-heavy role, the difference can be close to double for an identical hire.

2. Does it escalate?

Many agencies charge more for senior roles or scarce specialisms. Ask for the full schedule, not the headline rate.

3. What does the guarantee provide?

A replacement or a refund? Over what period? Those are materially different commitments and are frequently conflated.

4. Who owns candidates we found ourselves?

Some agreements claim candidates who applied to you directly during the engagement period. Check the wording.

5. What is the conversion fee?

If a contractor becomes permanent, what does that cost? This clause is where temp-to-hire arrangements get expensive.

6. How are candidates screened before submission?

A phone call from a recruiter, an assessment, a recorded interview? Ask what evidence arrives with the shortlist.

7. What if we hire two people from one shortlist?

Some agreements charge a full fee for each, others discount. Worth knowing before it happens.

Our answers, for the record: 14% flat on base salary, no escalation at any seniority, replacement under agreed terms, no claim on candidates you sourced independently, no separate conversion fee on contractors we placed, every candidate completes an AI first-round interview with a recording, and a second hire from the same shortlist is charged at the same flat 14%.

How Agency Fees Actually Work

US direct-hire fees typically run 20 to 30% of salary, executive search 25 to 35%, and contract staffing carries a 40 to 60% markup that continues every month.

Typical US staffing pricing structures

Model	Typical pricing	When it applies	Hyring
Direct hire	20–30% of first-year salary	Permanent employee on your payroll	Flat 14% of base
Executive search	25–35%, often retained	Senior and confidential mandates	Flat 14%, contingent
Contract / temp	40–60% markup on pay rate	Agency employs the worker	Staff augmentation, ~30% below big-firm quotes
Temp-to-hire conversion	Buyout fee, varies widely	Contractor becomes permanent	No separate conversion fee
RPO	Monthly fee or cost per hire	Outsourced recruiting function	~30% below big-firm quotes

The structure that surprises employers most is contract markup, because it recurs. A 50% markup on a contractor earning $150,000 means paying $225,000 a year, every year the engagement runs, where a placement fee is paid once.

Where Hyring Fits, and Where It Does Not

Hyring is remote-first with one US office, which suits professional and technical hiring and does not suit on-site volume staffing.

We fit when you are hiring engineers, finance and accounting staff, sales and marketing professionals, HR, legal, operations managers, or executives; when fee transparency matters; when you want candidates who arrive already interviewed with recordings and scores; and when reach beyond your local market is an advantage rather than an irrelevance.

We do not fit when you need warehouse or light industrial staff on site, hospitality or event crew, skilled trades, same-day dispatch, or high-volume shift cover. We do not operate branch networks or local rosters, and an agency that claims to do everything usually does the difficult half badly.

Every candidate we submit has completed an AI first-round interview, shortlists arrive in 48 to 72 hours, thousands of recruiting partners work each role nationally, and the direct-hire commission is a published flat 14% of base salary. If that matches your problem, the main staffing page covers services in detail. If it does not, a local agency is genuinely the better call.

Find Your Market

Each market page carries verified employment data, salary bands, and an honest assessment of what that metro is good and bad for.

West: San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas

Central: Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Detroit, Minneapolis

East and South: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Raleigh, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville

State guides: California, Texas, Florida, Washington, Massachusetts, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Minnesota

Written by

Adithyan RK

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CEO & Co-founder, Hyring

18+ years of experience

Adithyan RK is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hyring, an AI-native recruitment platform that has run over 900,000 AI interviews for companies ranging from early-stage startups to the Fortune 500. He has spent 18 years building technology businesses, starting with a digital consultancy in 2008 and a staff augmentation firm in 2017, before founding Hyring in 2022 to rebuild hiring around evidence instead of guesswork. Read more

Expertise

AI RecruitmentAI InterviewsRecruitment AutomationHR TechnologyHiring AnalyticsApplicant TrackingRecruiter Operations

Fact checked by

Surya N

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CTO & Co-founder, Hyring

6+ years of experience

Surya N is the Co-Founder and CTO of Hyring, where he architected the AI interviewing engine that has now conducted over 900,000 interviews for companies ranging from early-stage startups to the Fortune 500. A mechanical engineer who moved into artificial intelligence, he spent 6 years building AI applications inside a technology consultancy before co-founding Hyring, and wrote the first version of its AI interviewer from scratch. Read more

Expertise

AI Interview SystemsConversational AIInterview Fraud DetectionPlatform ArchitectureMachine Learning EngineeringApplied AISpeech and Voice AIBias Testing and Model Evaluation

FAQs

It depends entirely on the role. If the work is on-site, shift-based, or requires same-day replacement, such as warehouse floor, hospitality, trades, or event crew, a local agency with dispatch infrastructure is genuinely necessary. If the role is professional, technical, or office-based, a local address adds almost nothing that a good process does not provide better.