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Unlock Your Potential with Top Talent Solutions

Connecting your businesses with exceptional candidates to drive success together.

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Active Applicants

14,879 users

Many applicants are still actively applying with the help of our platform

Global Reach

Find the best talent from around the world with our network.

Active Applicants

14,879 users

Many applicants are still actively applying with the help of our platform

Hiring hasn’t changed in years. That’s the problem

Connect cuts the cost, removes the pressure, and gives you an edge.
Guided Hires
A Fixed Fee recruitment service.
We do (most of) the work.  You hire as many people as you like at no extra cost.

£650 per slot

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Hiring Toolkit
Everything you need to hire regularly without agencies.
Full support and unlimited hires at no extra cost.

From £500 per month

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Talent Vault
A free-to-access live shortlist of pre-screened candidates.
Costs spread over 12 months.  Only pay if you hire (and they stay).

1.5% of salary for 12 months

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It’s a different take on recruitment. Low-risk, flexible, and actually built around what smaller manufacturers need.
Most agencies don’t get how tough it is to hire in engineering. This model shows you do.
This isn’t just another CV service. It feels more like a proper hiring setup we can rely on.
I haven't got the skills to write adverts like yours

All from as little as £400 per month.

Explore Pricing

Hiring is a bottleneck to growth.

It slows down delivery, stops you scaling, and steals your time.
And most of the fixes being offered haven’t changed in years.
Recruiters still post your job spec to the boards, scan a few CVs, and hope something sticks. If it does, they take their cut and move on. No accountability. No skin in the game.
Connect gives you a different way.
One that lets you take control, without taking on all the legwork.
You get the tools recruiters use, plus a few they don’t, and you’ll hire on your terms.

Why's It So Hard to Fill a Job?

You’re Wading Through CVs.

None of them are right. But you're still the one reading them.

We help filter first.

Better adverts, smarter screening, fewer time-wasters.

You Keep Getting Let Down at Interview.

Looked great on paper. Fell flat in person.

We help get the right people through.

Sharper ads. Structured shortlisting. Better results.

Your Favourite Candidate Dropped Out, Again

Counter-offered. Ghosted. Just disappeared.

We help speed things up.

Efficient process. No bottlenecks. No faff.

You’re Already Working Flat Out.

 Now you’re expected to be a recruiter too.

We take the admin off your plate.

Templates, workflows, and support when you need it.

You Thought You’d Hired Well.

They said all the right things. Then did all the wrong ones.

We help you hire with confidence.

Interview structure. Benchmarking. Less guesswork.

 You’re Still Paying Per Placement.

 It doesn’t feel worth it, but there’s no obvious alternative.

We keep it simple.

Fixed pricing. No fee per hire.

Sound Familiar? That’s Exactly Why We Built Connect.

Hiring Shouldn’t Be Painful. Here’s How We Help You Break Free From the Old Way of Doing Things:
Price: £650 per role (or cheaper if you buy in bulk)

Guided hire  

Sick of the job boards and agencies aren't much better?

Guided hire gives you access to all of the people and tools your agencies use at a fraction of the cost (and without the pushy sales tactics).

Here’s how Guided Hire works:

  • A properly written job ad that speaks to the right candidates
  • Every applicant reviewed, scored, and ready to contact
  • Hire as many as you like for a single fee
Find out more
Book a call
Price: From £500 per month (pay monthly or annually)

Hiring Toolkit

Planning to hire more consistently but can't seem to find a predictable system?

The Hiring Toolkit is for companies that hire consistently. It can work as your in-house recruiter, or as the support your existing team can't live without.

Here's what's included:

  • Monthly guided hire credits
  • Branded ATS & careers page, job templates, and workflow tools
  • Strategic support to help you hire better, faster
Find out more
Book a call
Price: 1.5% per month (over 12 months) per hire

Talent Vault

Know what you want but not sure how to find it?

Our Talent Vault (powered by Optima) is your "shop window"; full of pre-screened candidates who are actively looking for change.

Here’s how it works:

  • We handle intros, you make the call      
  • Fees only apply after hiring
  • Spread costs over 12 months and stop paying if they leave
View the Talent Vault
Sign up for free

Flexible Hiring Solutions for Every Team

Choose from Guided Hires, Bundles, or Subscriptions based on what works best for your growth stage.
Guided Hires
Hire with expert guidance and tailored support.

From £12,000 per hire

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Bundles
Buy more, save more – flexible hiring packages.

From £12,000 per hire

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Subscriptions
Rolling monthly “guided hire” credits, branded ATS, Talent Vault & more.
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Free Business Growth Guides

Explore a curated selection of guides hosted on HubSpot – designed to help you grow smarter.

Guide 1:
Marketing Mastery

Guide 1:
Marketing Mastery

Guide 1:
Marketing Mastery

Access All Guides & More in Our Circle
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Take a look under the bonnet.

Here’s what you get with each package.

£500 per month / £6,000 £5,000 per year (one payment - 16.7% discount)

For busy, growing SMEs with ongoing hiring and no time for admin

  • Dedicated ATS (track applications, build talent pools etc.)
  • Hosted careers page (basic branding on Connect’s domain)
  • Up to 3 active job adverts
  • 1 Premium Advert per month included (worth £300).
  • Access to the Talent Vault (Live List) – view pre-screened candidates
  • Vault hire discount – 1.75% per month over 12 months (equivalent to 21%)
  • Hiring Helpdesk – submit questions and receive advice within 1 working day
  • Access to interview toolkits, onboarding templates & hiring guides
  • Access to Connect’s training and peer community
  • Cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice
For you, if:

You’re consistently hiring and need a professional support team who’ll run your hiring process, improve quality, and rid you of hassle, without paying extortionate 30% spot fees.

£1200 per month or £14,400 £12,000 per year (one payment - 16.7% discount)

For bustling teams scaling their hiring with automation, superior candidate experiences and premium tools.

  • Dedicated ATS (track applications, build talent pools etc.)
  • Branded careers page embedded on your own domain
  • Up to 10 active job adverts on the Optima Connect board at any one time
  • 3x premium adverts/month included (worth £900)
  • Talent Vault hire discount – 1.5% per month over 12 months (18% total)
  • DE&I-compliant CV formatting (on request)
  • Workflow templates for candidate management and shortlisting
  • Branded onboarding flow templates
  • McQuaig Job Fit benchmarking
  • Optional quarterly hiring strategy reviews
  • Cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice
For you, if:

You hire for 3+ people at a time and want a professional internally-run process. Structured perfectly to scale, but flexible enough to stay lean.

£1500 per month or £18,000 £15,000 per year (one payment - 16.7% discount)

This plan is suitable for the beginner IT specialist and will allow you to familiarize yourself with all the main functions of the service.

  • Job advert writing by our team (with AI copy support if needed)
  • First-stage CV screening & shortlisting handled by us
  • Candidate comms support and DE&I-compliant formatting
  • 3x premium adverts/month included (worth £900)
  • Access to the Talent Vault (Live List) – view pre-screened candidates
  • Targeted email campaigns to Connect’s pre-engaged talent pool
  • Talent Vault hire discount – 1.25% per month over 12 months (15% total)
  • Weekly check-ins and hiring performance tracking
  • McQuaig Job Fit benchmarking
  • Custom interview process design & manager coaching tools
  • Cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice
For you, if:

You’re consistently hiring and need a professional support team who’ll run your hiring process, improve quality, and rid you of hassle, without paying extortionate 30% spot fees.

This plan is suitable for the freelancers and will allow you to familiarize yourself with all the main functions of the service.

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Things to Try Before Working With Us

There’s loads of things you can do before getting in touch with us.  Here’s a few of them:

Get Referrals

Ask your current team if they’ve ever worked with anyone that could do the job.  People won’t usually suggest someone they can’t trust, so you’re ¾ of the way there without any of the heavy lifting.

LinkedIn / Social Branding and Outreach

Having a good social presence is an easy way to become “front of mind” for people.  If you post consistently and show the reasons you’re a good employer, people will want to work for you.

Advertise it Yourself

You can advertise for free on Indeed and LinkedIn.  As long as your advert tells someone why they’d want to work for you (rather than just listing what you want from them) you might find it does the trick.  Clearly, you’ll need to put the salary in the advert and make it easy for someone to apply.

Hire an internal team, or grow your current one

Give them access to all of the job boards, a LinkedIn recruiter licence, pay for some formal training on candidate attraction and assessment, invest in tools that take menial admin tasks away and back them when they come to you to say they’re struggling to get your hiring managers to review CVs, give interview feedback or stop responding to every recruiter that throws a CV over the fence.

Find a good recruiter

Some rightly get a bad rap but ask yourself how hard you’d work on a job if you’d just been beaten down on price and still didn’t have any guarantee that someone was going to buy from you at the end.  Find an agent, one you can trust, pay them properly and do what you can to have them prioritise working your job.

Join our FREE community

You’ll find loads of guides, hints and tips that could help if and when you do come to hire.  There’s even a private networking group you might be able to use to win business.

Why Did We Build Connect

Connect exists to reduce costs and improve the way people hire
It’s not that we hate all recruiters, but we’re just not sure you can always rely on them to do the right thing for your business.
Over the years we’ve seen great businesses delay growth, bin off projects, or make rushed hires because they felt they had no other option.
Here’s what a few of them said:
A physiotherapist applied for our Service Engineer role. That pretty much sums up the job boards.

Engineering Manager

Machinery Manufacturer

We had a recruiter poach our engineer 13 weeks after placing them. Never again.

MD

Engineering SME

Most agencies don’t get what we do. They just throw CVs over and hope one sticks.

Technical Director

Automation

A physiotherapist applied for our Service Engineer role. That pretty much sums up the job boards.

Engineering Manager

Machinery Manufacturer

We had a recruiter poach our engineer 13 weeks after placing them. Never again.

MD

Engineering SME

Most agencies don’t get what we do. They just throw CVs over and hope one sticks.

Technical Director

Automation

Most agencies don’t get what we do. They just throw CVs over and hope one sticks.

Technical Director

Automation

Most agencies don’t get what we do. They just throw CVs over and hope one sticks.

Technical Director

Automation

A physiotherapist applied for our Service Engineer role. That pretty much sums up the job boards.

Engineering Manager

Machinery Manufacturer

Most agencies don’t get what we do. They just throw CVs over and hope one sticks.

Technical Director

Automation

Most agencies don’t get what we do. They just throw CVs over and hope one sticks.

Technical Director

Automation

Most agencies don’t get what we do. They just throw CVs over and hope one sticks.

Technical Director

Automation

Frequently Asked Questions

 I’ve been burnt by recruiters before.  How is this any different?

The whole point of this is to help companies avoid paying needless fees to agencies.  The pricing model we use means there’s no incentive for us to “sell” a candidate to you that won’t fit in, regardless of the service you use.  We’re on your team with this, offering support at every stage to allow you to make the right decision.  If you get it right you’re winning, but so is the candidate and the industry in general.  That just feels better than putting a bum on a seat and hoping they stick it out for 12 weeks when your rebate period ends.

Can you guarantee this will work for me?

Honestly, nothing is guaranteed:

  • Your ideal candidate might not even see your advert.
  • If they do, we can’t guarantee that they’ll be open to a move to all.
  • Even if they’re actively looking there’s no way to be sure that they’d consider working for you.
  • And even if they would we can’t guarantee that this job will interest them.
  • If it does, and you decide to interview them, we can’t guarantee they’ll interview very well (or that you will).
  • Let’s say they interview well, and you offer them the job; we can’t guarantee they’ll take it, or that they’ll decline any counter-offers that come their way.
  • Last but not least, there’s no way to guarantee that the hire will work out / that you’ll actually enjoy working with them if you did hire them.
I only have one live role.  Which option is best for me?

It depends.  If you’re unlikely to hire again for a while afterwards, a Guided Hire could make most sense.  If you tend to have 1 or 2 live roles at any time in the year, the Hiring Toolkit could make more sense.  But you might want to check out our Talent Vault, which gives you access to our network for a fraction of the cost. You’ll only pay a small fee for every person you hire, and can even cancel your payments whenever they leave. If you’re still now sure you can speak to us any time by clicking here

This seems cheap.  Is it really that good?

It is cheap. But we’ve packaged our process in a way that gives you total control, without the “success fee” or any of the pointless stuff you usually pay for. Frankly you, or someone in your team, will need to do a little bit more of the work than normal, but then you’re paying about 10% of a recruitment fee, so I guess you’d probably expect that.

 How quickly can you start?

We’ll get started as soon as your payment is processed so “How quickly can you pay?” might be a better question.

Get in Touch

We're here to help! Whether you have a question, need more information, or just want to say hello send us a message and we’ll get back to you soon.