careers.metcalfsearch.com
You found the back room.
This is where Metcalf Search hosts careers pages for the small and mid-sized businesses we partner with. Not a lot of people find this page. You did. Pick whichever path fits.
What is careers.metcalfsearch.com?
Metcalf Search is a fractional recruiting firm based in Columbus, Ohio. We partner with small and mid-sized businesses on a flat monthly fee instead of per-hire commissions. As part of that partnership, we build and host custom careers pages for our clients on this subdomain, so every company we work with has a real, professional place to send candidates.
"Small businesses employ 46% of the private sector workforce and make up 99.9% of U.S. companies. I built this model for them, and for the people who hire them."
Jay Metcalf, Founder
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, 2025
Why fractional?
The recruiting options for small and mid-sized businesses are usually bad. Here is why, and how the fractional model fixes it.
Contingent fees punish success
Most recruiting agencies charge 20% to 30% of first-year salary, paid every time you hire. If you are growing, you are bleeding money to every successful hire. Fractional recruiting is a flat monthly fee. Hire one person or ten. The cost does not change.
Doing it yourself eats your time
You did not start your company to write job descriptions, screen resumes, or chase references. Doing hiring right takes dozens of hours per role, and shortcuts show up later as turnover. A fractional partner handles the process so you can handle the business.
You are not ready for a full-time recruiter
A full-time in-house recruiter costs $80,000 to $120,000 a year plus benefits. If you are hiring 3 to 10 people a year, that math does not work. Fractional sits in the gap: real recruiting capability at a fraction of the cost, sized for the volume you actually have.
Frequently asked questions
What is fractional recruiting and how is it different from using an agency?
Fractional recruiting is an embedded, ongoing partnership. Instead of paying a commission every time you hire (typically 20% to 30% of first-year salary through a contingent agency), you pay a flat monthly fee and get a recruiter who works inside your hiring process as part of your team. Agencies are transactional, fractional is relational.
Why do small businesses struggle with hiring?
Small businesses face three structural problems: agency fees are built for enterprises with big hiring budgets, in-house recruiters are too expensive at low hiring volumes, and doing it yourself burns founder time that should go to the business. Most SMBs end up hiring reactively, which leads to bad fits, high turnover, and critical roles sitting unfilled for months.
How much does it cost to hire a recruiter for a small business?
A full-time in-house recruiter costs $80,000 to $120,000 per year plus benefits and overhead. Contingent agencies charge 20% to 30% of first-year salary per placement. Fractional recruiting typically runs a flat monthly fee based on scope, making it accessible for companies hiring 3 to 15 people per year.
Can I get a careers page without signing up for full recruiting services?
Yes. Metcalf Search offers standalone careers page hosting starting at $99/month with monthly updates, with higher tiers available for more active hiring needs. Pages are custom-designed to match your brand, hosted, and maintained. Visit careers.metcalfsearch.com/pages for details.
What kinds of roles does Metcalf Search recruit for?
We work across the roles small and mid-sized businesses actually need to fill: operations, skilled trades, sales, HR, finance, customer-facing, and leadership. The model is industry-agnostic because the bottleneck for most SMBs is process and bandwidth, not industry knowledge.
Where is Metcalf Search located and who do you work with?
Metcalf Search is based in Columbus, Ohio, and works primarily with small and mid-sized businesses in central Ohio and the surrounding region. We partner with companies that typically hire 3 to 30 people per year and want hiring handled well without building a full internal recruiting function.
You still need a careers page.
Even if you are not hiring today, candidates are looking. The best people for your future openings are already researching companies they might want to work for someday. If they land on your website and there is no careers page, or the careers page is a dead link, or it is a Word doc from 2019, you have quietly told them you are not the kind of place they want to work.
A real careers page costs less than most SaaS subscriptions and works for you around the clock. It catches passive candidates, legitimizes your employer brand, and gives your team somewhere to point people when the question comes up. You do not have to be in full recruiting mode to benefit from having one.