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Taro vs a recruitment agency

Both get you a doctor. The difference is what your clinic is left holding after the invoice is paid, and what the next vacancy costs you. That difference is structural, so this page compares structures, not brands.

The two models, side by side

	Recruitment agency	Taro
Fee structure	15–25% of the candidate's annual salary, per placement (Manpower Australia, 2026)	One flat fee, tied to the first hire; half up front, half only when you hire
Second hire	Full fee again	Free of charge; the system is yours
Who does the searching	The agency, from its list	The system, from your mapped catchment
Outreach goes out as	The recruiter	Your clinic, under your own name and domain
Replies go to	The recruiter, who filters and forwards	You, directly
After the engagement	Candidate list, relationships and market knowledge stay with the agency	Map, infrastructure, conversations and bench stay with your clinic
Reaches doctors who aren't looking	Sometimes, from the existing list	Yes; the whole catchment is mapped, active or not

What the percentage model actually costs

Australian agencies typically charge 15–25% of the candidate's annual salary as a one-time placement fee, with healthcare at the premium end of that range (Manpower Australia, 2026). Against typical GP earnings in the $200,000–$250,000+ range (public GP salary calculators: Transition Medical, Aussie Clinicians), the multiplication is easy to do, and worth doing yourself.

Two features of the model matter more than the fee's size:

It repeats. Your second GP costs the same as your first. So does your fifth. The fee buys a doctor; it never buys the capacity to find one.

The machinery leaves. The candidate list, the relationships, the market knowledge: when the invoice is paid, all of it walks out the door with the recruiter. Your next vacancy starts from zero, at full price.

What the flat model buys instead

Taro charges one flat fee, tied to the first hire: half up front, half only when a practitioner found through the system starts at your clinic. No percentage of salary, no monthly fees.

What it buys is not a placement. It's the machine that produces them: your catchment mapped, outreach running under your clinic's own name, replies landing in your inbox, and on the first hire the whole system is handed over. The map, the infrastructure, every conversation, and the bench of doctors who said "not right now" all stay with your clinic. Every hire after the first is free of charge.

The honest version of the trade-off

An agency is still the right call in some situations, and pretending otherwise would be marketing. If you need one hire handled entirely by someone else, want to make no changes to how your practice presents itself, and accept owning nothing afterwards, an agency does that job. Flat-fee recruitment services do the same job with a smaller invoice; the structure is identical, pay per hire and own nothing after.

Taro asks slightly more of you: one setup call, approving messages, and answering interested doctors yourself, same day. In exchange the outreach carries your clinic's name, which is why doctors answer it, and the machine stays when the engagement ends.

If you plan to hire once and never again, the models compete on price and convenience. If your clinic will ever have a second vacancy, the models aren't comparable: one of them starts the second search from zero, the other starts it from a built map and a warm bench.

The vacancy cost sits under both

Whichever model you choose, the meter that matters is the vacancy itself. An average full-time GP writes roughly $6,500 a week in billings (Cubiko practice benchmarks); a vacant consulting room writes none. The right comparison isn't "which fee is smaller" but "which route fills the room faster, and what does each additional month cost". The full arithmetic is in the cost guide below.

FAQ

Typically 15–25% of the candidate's annual salary per placement (Manpower Australia, 2026), with healthcare at the premium end. It's charged again on every subsequent hire.

One flat fee, tied to the first hire, not a percentage of salary. Half up front, half only when you hire. The system is yours to keep, free of charge, for every future hire. The exact figure is stated on the call and doesn't change once quoted.

Cheaper per hire, same structure: pay per placement, own nothing after. A better invoice, not a different model.

When you want a single hire handled entirely by someone else, with no involvement from your practice, and you accept starting from zero on the next vacancy. That's a real preference and an agency serves it.

See both numbers against your own role.

A call puts real figures on your catchment and your vacancy, including Taro's exact fee, stated before any commitment. If an agency is genuinely the better fit for your situation, we'll say so.

Book a call