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Executive Search vs RaaS — model your year-one savings.
Compare per-hire executive-search fees against a monthly RaaS retainer across your actual hiring plan. Peter's current RaaS engagements average 67% savings per year vs paying per-hire fees on the equivalent volume — the calculator lets you plug in your numbers and see where the break-even sits.
Your inputs
Change any value — results update instantly.
District Manager, Director of Ops, VP HR, CHRO, Regional VP — anything you'd otherwise engage a search firm on.
Executive-search fee is 20% of first-year cash comp per hire.
Annual cost comparison
Compare at a glanceHighest annual outlay at this hiring plan: Per-hire executive search
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RaaS saves you $129,600 this year — about 60%
At 6 senior hires this year, a RaaS monthly retainer folds every placement inside a predictable $86,400 annual line item — instead of $216,000 spread across 6 per-hire executive-search invoices. On top of the fee savings, RaaS shortens time-to-fill because the recruiter is already inside your company when the seat opens. Peter's current RaaS engagements average 67% annual savings vs the per-hire alternative.
Side-by-side breakdown
What each model costs across 6 hires at an average $180,000 base.
| Per-hire search | RaaS retainer | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing basis | 20% × base | $7,200 / mo |
| Per-hire fee | $36,000 | Folded in |
| 12-month total | $216,000 | $86,400 |
| Annual savings | — | $129,600 (60%) |
| Payment timing | On delivery | Monthly, predictable |
| Extras included | Search only | ATS, process, reporting, vendor mgmt |
Cost of the vacancy
per open seat at 60 days open
Estimated at $2,423 per business day, based on a 3.5x blended productivity multiplier for multi-unit ops roles. Applies to both models — but RaaS shortens time-to-fill because the recruiter is already inside the company when the seat opens.
The nuance
Get Peter's take on your hiring plan
The numbers cover the math. A conversation covers the nuance — role mix, seniority spread, geography, the actual scope of a scoped retainer. Your calculator inputs come along in the message so Peter sees the whole picture.
How the numbers work
- Per-hire executive search: 20% of first-year cash comp per hire, staged on delivery, with a 90-day replacement guarantee. This is Platt Partners' own executive-search fee — not a retained-firm average.
- RaaS monthly retainer: scales with the hiring plan at roughly $1,200 per projected hire per month, floored at $5,000/mo and ceilinged at $18,000/mo. Retainer covers weekly submissions, ATS + process optimization, market intel, vendor management, and executive reporting. A pilot option is available where the retainer scales with the number of open seats Peter is running for you at any given time.
- Cost of vacancy: Estimated as (base salary × 3.5x blended productivity multiplier) / 260 working days × days open. Model-independent — the vacancy costs the business whether you run per-hire search or RaaS — but RaaS typically shortens time-to-fill because the recruiter is already inside the company. Directional figure, not a warranty.
- Where the 67% average comes from: Blended annual savings across Peter's current RaaS engagement roster vs the counterfactual of paying per-hire fees on the same volume. Individual clients land anywhere from ~50% to ~75% depending on plan volume, base salaries, and seniority mix.
- What this calculator does not model: cost of a mis-hire (typically 200-400% of first-year comp), fully-loaded cost of your internal recruiter's time, or the compounding value of a recruiter who already knows your business the next time a seat opens.
Common questions
What VP HRs and CHROs ask most
About executive search fees and RaaS retainers.
How much does executive search cost vs RaaS (Recruiting as a Service)?
For a 6-hire annual plan at a $180,000 average base salary, per-hire executive search runs 6 × 20% × $180K = $216,000 in fees for the year. A RaaS monthly retainer scoped to that plan runs roughly $7,200/month × 12 = $86,400 — folding every placement, ATS + process work, and executive reporting into one predictable line item. On that plan, RaaS saves about $130,000 (60%) year over year. Across our current RaaS engagements the average savings comes to 67% per year vs paying per-hire fees on the equivalent volume.
What is RaaS (Recruiting as a Service) and how does it work?
RaaS is an engagement model where an experienced recruiter operates as your outsourced Head of Talent on a monthly retainer, rather than being paid per placement. Peter runs the recruiting function inside your company — weekly candidate submissions, ATS + process optimization, market and comp research, vendor management, executive reporting. Every hire is folded into the retainer, so there are no per-placement invoices to plan around. The same model is sometimes called fractional recruiting, TA as a service (TAaaS), or embedded recruiter depending on the buyer.
When does RaaS beat per-hire executive search on cost?
RaaS starts saving money at about four senior hires per year and the savings widen as the plan volume grows — a 6-hire plan saves roughly 60%, a 15-hire plan saves roughly 67%, a 20-hire plan approaches 75%. Below three hires per year, per-hire executive search is usually cleaner: the RaaS retainer floor ($5,000/month = $60,000/year) starts to outweigh the fees on one or two actual placements. Model your own numbers with the calculator above — it will tell you which model wins on your specific plan.
What is included in a Platt Partners RaaS retainer?
The retainer covers Peter operating as your embedded Head of Talent: weekly candidate submissions with a fixed cadence, hiring-manager intake calls, ATS and hiring-process optimization, market and comp research, vendor + agency management, executive-level reporting on time-to-fill and source-of-hire, and (when volume demands it) an internal TA team build-out that eventually replaces the retainer. No per-placement fees on hires that land inside the retainer scope.
When is a per-hire executive search the right call over RaaS?
Per-hire executive search fits when you have one or two senior seats with a clear start and finish — a VP Operations backfill, a confidential CFO replacement, a Regional President for a new geography — and no ongoing hiring beyond it. The 20% flat fee is paid on delivery, the search stays exclusive, and you never carry a monthly retainer past the placement. For hiring plans that ARE ongoing (5+ hires per year across a role family), the per-hire fees compound faster than a RaaS retainer, and RaaS becomes the cleaner economic call.
What is the true cost of a vacant multi-unit operations role?
Beyond the recruiter fee, a vacant District Manager or Director of Operations role costs the business roughly 2.5x to 6x the person's annual base salary in lost productivity, delayed initiatives, and covered-scope inefficiency — divided across working days. A $200K Director of Operations open for 60 days represents about $115,000 in delay cost. This is often larger than the recruiter fee itself — and it applies whether you use per-hire search or RaaS. RaaS shortens time-to-fill because the recruiter is already inside the company when the seat opens, which is where a lot of the 67% average savings actually comes from.
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