Services · Talent acquisition consultancy
Talent acquisition consultancy for UK employers who hire at volume.
Independent, senior help with why the right candidates aren’t arriving and what fixes it. Attraction, careers site, AI visibility, process and cost per hire, diagnosed with evidence and fixed in order.
Talent acquisition consultancy is independent, senior help with how an organisation attracts, reaches and converts the people it needs to hire. Not more candidates pushed at you. A clear read on why the ones you want aren’t arriving, and the fixes that change that.
SetpointHQ is run by Andy Pirie, a recruitment marketer with 20 years in employer brand and candidate acquisition, most of it in high-volume, candidate-short sectors. We don’t place candidates and we don’t take fees per hire. We work on the system that produces the hires, so the improvement stays with you after we leave.
When a consultancy is the right call, and when RPO is
Most organisations looking for talent acquisition help are choosing between 4 shapes of support. They solve different problems, and buying the wrong one is expensive in both directions.
| Option | What you buy | Best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talent acquisition consultancy | Diagnosis, strategy and the fixes to your attraction system | Hiring is slowing or costing more and nobody can say exactly why | A report nobody implements. Insist on a prioritised plan with owners |
| RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) | A provider runs all or part of your hiring for you | You need capacity at scale and are happy to hand over the process | Long contracts, and the capability leaves when the contract does |
| Agency recruitment | Candidates for specific roles, paid per placement | Hard-to-fill or senior roles where a network matters | Fees per hire that rise with volume |
| Full-time in-house hire | A permanent head of TA or recruitment marketing | The work is big enough to fill a full-time job | A 3 to 6 month search, and £80,000 to £120,000 a year before on-costs for director level |
Director-level salary range as used on our fractional marketing director page, before employer NI, pension and benefits.
Consultancy is the right call when the problem is not a lack of hands but a lack of clarity. If applications are falling, cost per hire is rising, or the right candidates never seem to apply, adding recruiters or an RPO multiplies whatever is already broken. Fix the system first, then decide how much capacity it needs.
Adding capacity to a broken attraction system multiplies the problem. Find out why the right candidates aren’t arriving before you pay anyone to process more of the wrong ones.
What we look at
Every engagement starts from the same 5 questions, because between them they explain most hiring shortfalls we see.
- Attraction. Are your adverts, channels and budget reaching the people you need, or the people who were easiest to reach? We look at channel mix, advert quality and where spend actually converts.
- The careers site. Is the place candidates land doing its job? Job pages, structured data, speed, and whether the content answers what candidates actually ask. The free Careers Site Check covers 6 of these areas on its own.
- AI visibility. When a candidate asks ChatGPT or Gemini who to work for in your sector, are you named? We benchmark you against The SetpointHQ Index of 100 UK employer brands. More on why this matters in how your employer brand shows up in AI search.
- Process. Where do candidates drop out between application and offer, and how long does each step take? Slow processes lose the best candidates first.
- Cost per hire. What each hire really costs once job boards, agency fees, recruiter time and failed hires are counted. The free cost per hire calculator gets you a first number.
Sectors we know best
We are deepest in high-volume, candidate-short hiring, where every unfilled shift or vacancy has a direct cost:
| Sector | Typical roles | The usual constraint |
|---|---|---|
| Healthcare and social care | Nurses, carers, support workers | Candidate shortage and competition from agencies |
| Logistics and warehousing | Drivers, warehouse operatives, shift leads | Volume, seasonality and shift patterns |
| Hospitality | Front of house, kitchen, site management | High turnover and fast time to hire |
| Construction | Trades, site managers, engineers | Scarce skills and project-driven peaks |
We work outside these sectors too. The methods travel; the benchmarks are strongest here.
How an engagement starts
Almost every engagement starts with the Recruitment Marketing Audit: £999, fixed, 7 areas, delivered in 7 working days with a prioritised 90-day plan. It gives both of us an evidence-based view before anyone commits to more. If you go on to a build, the audit fee is credited towards it.
From there, work tends to take one of 3 shapes, set out on our services page: a defined build such as a Workforce Engine, a retained fractional marketing director, or the plan handed to your team to run.
What you get in the first 30 days
- A scored audit of your attraction system across 7 areas, with evidence for every finding.
- Your AI visibility benchmarked against 100 UK employer brands.
- A prioritised 90-day plan: what to fix first, who owns it, and what it should change.
- A 60-minute debrief to walk through the findings and agree the first moves.
One result, for scale
In a previous in-house role, rebuilding the attraction system delivered 107% application growth with no increase in media spend. That is the kind of change a diagnosis-first approach is aiming for: more of the right candidates from the budget you already have.
Common questions
What does a talent acquisition consultancy do?
It diagnoses why an organisation is struggling to attract or convert the people it needs, then designs and helps implement the fixes. That covers channels and adverts, the careers site, employer brand, AI visibility, process and cost per hire. It improves the system rather than supplying candidates.
How is a talent acquisition consultancy different from RPO?
An RPO provider runs your hiring for you, usually on a longer contract. A consultancy fixes how your hiring works and leaves the capability with your team. Many organisations fix the system first, then decide whether they need outsourced capacity at all.
How much does talent acquisition consulting cost?
We start with the Recruitment Marketing Audit at £999, fixed, delivered in 7 working days. Anything beyond that is scoped with you and confirmed in writing before you commit, and the audit fee is credited towards a build.
Do you recruit or place candidates?
No. We are recruitment marketers, not recruiters. We don’t take placement fees; we work on the system that brings candidates to you.
Which sectors do you work in?
We are strongest in high-volume, candidate-short hiring: healthcare and social care first, then logistics, warehousing, hospitality and construction. The methods work elsewhere too.
Can you work alongside our in-house TA team?
Yes, that is the usual set-up. We diagnose and plan with your team, help build what is needed, and hand over so the improvement keeps running after we leave.
Start with a conversation, or with the audit.
Tell us what’s in front of you and we’ll give you a straight read on the right first step. Or go straight to the £999 audit: 7 areas, 7 working days, a prioritised 90-day plan.
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SetpointHQ is a recruitment marketing business run by Andy Pirie. Index figures: The SetpointHQ Index, 100 UK employer brands, scored monthly.