What a fractional recruiter does with ten hours a week
A fractional recruiter is an experienced talent professional who runs part of your hiring on a fixed weekly schedule instead of a full-time payroll line. At ten hours a week, one person can own the intake calls with hiring managers, write the job posts, source candidates, screen them, and keep every open role moving through your interview loop.
The work is practical. Mornings go to outreach and replies, afternoons to phone screens and scheduling. Once a week the recruiter sends a short pipeline report so you can see how many candidates sit at each stage and where roles are stuck.
The role is also about process. Many small companies hire from memory: a post, a few referrals, a rushed interview. A fractional recruiter writes down a scorecard for each role, sets the interview stages, and trains managers to give feedback within a day. That structure stays with your team after the contract ends.
If you need a broader people function, including policies and compensation, look at a fractional HR lead. If your open roles are mostly engineering, filter the shortlist for recruiters with technical sourcing experience.
Signs your hiring needs a part time recruiter
Most companies do not need a full-time recruiter until they hire many people every quarter. Before that point, the pain shows up in other ways.
- Founders or managers spend evenings reading resumes and booking interviews.
- Roles stay open for months and nobody can say why.
- Good candidates drop out because replies take a week.
- Offers get declined and no one knows what the candidate chose instead.
- You are about to open five roles at once after a funding round or a large contract.
Each of these is a capacity or process problem, and both can be solved with focused hours. A hiring push of three to six months is the classic case. You need real recruiting skill now, and you do not want a salary and severance for a function that may shrink later.
It also helps when the hiring manager is strong but busy. The recruiter takes the repetitive work, such as outreach, screens, and scheduling, so the manager can spend interview time on judging skill.
What the first 30 days of a recruiting engagement look like
A good engagement starts with a plan, not with a flood of resumes. Here is a realistic first month for a company opening three to four roles.
- Week one. Intake calls with each hiring manager. The recruiter drafts a scorecard per role, confirms salary ranges, and reviews your current job posts and interview steps.
- Week two. Job posts are rewritten to be specific about the work and the pay. Sourcing starts on the channels that fit each role, and the first outreach goes out.
- Week three. Phone screens begin. The recruiter sends short written summaries so managers can decide in minutes who moves forward.
- Week four. First manager interviews run on a set schedule. The recruiter collects feedback within a day and sends the first pipeline report with stage counts and blockers.
By the end of the month you should have a visible pipeline, a documented process, and a clear view of which roles are hard to fill and why. Offers, reference checks, and close conversations usually follow in the second month.
Fractional recruiter, in-house hire, or recruiting agency
There are three common ways to add hiring capacity. They differ in cost structure, speed, and how much knowledge stays inside your company.
| Option | Typical cost | Time to start | Seniority | Commitment | Contract and payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fractional recruiter on Side.work | $85 to $150 an hour plus a 12, 8, or 5 percent platform fee | Days, after an intro and a signed contract | Senior, profiles verified | Weekly hours cap, notice period | Standard contract with NDA, one invoice |
| In-house recruiter | Salary, benefits, tools, and management time | Often months to find and onboard | Varies | Full time, open ended | Employment |
| Recruiting agency | Usually a percentage of first year salary for each hire | Fast to engage | Varies by recruiter assigned | Per search | Agency terms and guarantee periods |
Agencies make sense for a single urgent search in a niche market. A fractional recruiter makes more sense when you have several roles over a few months, because you pay for hours worked and keep the process afterward.
What to ask a recruiter on the first call
Good recruiters are easy to test. Ask for specifics and listen for how they think, not for a list of company names.
- Which roles have you filled in the last year that look like mine, and how did you find the people?
- How do you write a scorecard, and how do you handle a manager who keeps changing the brief?
- What does your weekly report include?
- How do you handle compensation questions when our range is below the market?
- How do you work with an applicant tracking system that we already use?
- What would you stop doing if we only had five hours a week to give you?
Check profile signals too. Side.work verifies work email domain, LinkedIn profile, portfolio links, and payout identity, so you can focus the call on fit. Weak answers usually show up as vague process talk and no examples of rejected candidates, which is a normal part of the job.
Be clear about who owns candidate communication. Candidates remember how they were treated, and your recruiter represents your brand in every message.
A worked monthly cost for ten hours a week
Take a Series A software company that opens three roles and needs a recruiter for ten hours a week. A mid-range rate from the guide is $110 an hour.
Ten hours a week at $110 is $1,100 a week. Multiply by 4.33 weeks a month and the approved hours come to $4,763 a month. On the Growth plan the platform fee is 8 percent, which adds $381.04. The single monthly invoice is $5,144.04, plus the plan subscription.
Compare that with an agency fee for three hires at a typical percentage of salary, or with a full-time recruiter whose cost runs every month whether or not you are hiring. If the push ends after four months, the fractional cost ends with it, and your notice period in the contract sets the exact stop date.
Rates run from $85 to $150 an hour. At the low end, ten hours a week is $3,680.50 before the fee. At the high end it is $6,495 before the fee. See the pricing page for plan fees and role limits.
The weekly report and the numbers worth watching
A recruiter who works part time must be easy to supervise. The simplest tool is a one-page weekly report. Ask for it in the first call and put it in the scope of the contract.
A useful report covers each open role on a single line. It shows how many people were contacted, how many replied, how many passed the phone screen, how many are in interviews, and how many offers are out. Beside each count, the recruiter writes one sentence about what is blocking progress, such as a salary range that is too low or a manager who has not given feedback.
Three ratios tell you most of what you need. The reply rate on outreach shows whether the message and the job post are working. The share of screened candidates who pass the manager interview shows whether the scorecard matches what the manager wants. The number of days candidates wait between stages shows whether your own team is the slow part.
Do not push a recruiter to chase raw volume. A long list of weak candidates burns manager time and annoys good people. A short list of well-matched candidates with a written reason for each is a better sign.
Bad habits to watch for include a recruiter who never rejects anyone, who cannot explain why a candidate was sent, or who talks to candidates without telling you what was promised. Candidate care is part of the job. Replies should go out quickly, rejections should be polite, and offers should never come as a surprise.
Finally, keep the data. All candidate notes and scorecards belong in your own tracking system, so the work stays with you when the contract ends and a new recruiter or an in-house hire can pick up where the last one stopped.
How hiring a recruiter on Side.work works
You enter the role, the hours per week, and your budget. Side.work returns a ranked shortlist of verified recruiter profiles with weekly availability bars and rates, so you can see who really has ten hours open.
Send intros to the people you like. After a call, you agree on scope and sign a contract with a weekly hours cap and a notice period. A standard NDA and IP assignment are attached by default, which matters when a recruiter handles candidate data and salary ranges.
Each week the recruiter submits a timesheet and you approve it. You pay one invoice that covers approved hours and the platform fee. The recruiter is paid by the platform and keeps 100 percent of the agreed rate. The full flow is on the how it works page, and security details are on the security page.
If your hiring problem is really a sales or product leadership gap, look at a fractional sales leader or a fractional head of product first.