April 27, 2026 | Heinz W. Süess
Many care facilities are desperately looking for specialist staff - and yet they still end up with expensive individual appointments, temporary work or placement models with high commission per hire.
This ties up budgets, creates uncertainty and does not usually solve the basic problem in the long term: a stable supply of suitable nursing staff.
1. the problem: why traditional mediation in care is reaching its limits
1.1 High commissions, little predictability
Traditional recruitment in the care sector usually works according to the „success fee“ principle:
A high success fee is only charged when a care professional signs on.
This sounds fair at first glance - but it has three specific disadvantages for facilities:
- Each individual appointment incurs high one-off costs.
- Budget planning becomes difficult because no one knows how many hires will actually be made.
- The focus is strongly on the Entry date, less on sustainable commitment and suitable „cultural fit“.
At the same time, several agencies are competing for the few available skilled workers.
For nursing homes, hospitals and Spitex organizations, this often feels more like competition for profiles than reliable partnership to.
1.2 Reactive instead of strategic recruitment
The second problem:
Many recruitment processes in the care sector are reactive - a search is carried out when someone quits or the workload in the team becomes too high.
Typical patterns:
- A position becomes vacant, the job advertisement is updated and published.
- At the same time, an agency is commissioned to deliver profiles as quickly as possible.
- Management and HR are tied up in day-to-day business, feedback to applicants takes time, good candidates drop out.
There is no time to ask fundamental questions:
- How attractive is our employer brand to the outside world?
- Are our processes (from initial contact to contract) fast enough for today's market?
- Do our requirements match the reality of the teams?
2 What is embedded recruiting in the care context?
2.1 Definition: Recruiting like an internal function - on a temporary basis
With embedded recruiting, you don't bring a traditional recruitment agency into your company, but a embedded recruiting resource.
This person (or a small team) works for a defined period of time - for example 1, 3, 6 or 12 months - as if they were part of your organization:
- Participation in HR and management meetings
- Use of your tools (applicant management, e-mail, Teams/Slack etc.)
- Direct exchange with ward managers and HR
- Joint definition of profiles, requirements and processes
The difference to traditional mediation:
The focus is not on the individual cast, but on the development of a functioning recruiting system - including processes, candidate journey and employer positioning.
2.2 Settlement without commission
Instead of a success fee per placement, embedded recruiting usually works like a Subscription or retainer model:
- Fixed monthly amount, clearly defined scope of services
- No additional fee per hire
- Focus on results and capacity, not on „selling heads“
This has three effects for care facilities:
- Budget becomes plannable.
- It is worth making structural improvements together (e.g. processes, employer branding, talent pool).
- The external partner can contribute its own expertise without being under constant „placement pressure“.
3. differentiation: embedded recruiting vs. placement & temporary work
3.1 Traditional personnel placement
- Remuneration: Success commission per placement
- Role: Supplier of candidate profiles
- Focus: filling vacancies quickly
- Relationship: Project or case-related
Risk for facilities:
High one-off costs, little influence on process quality, loss of know-how after the end of the project.
3.2 Temporary work / temporary assignments
- Remuneration: hourly or daily rates, often higher than permanent employment costs
- Role: Bridging bottlenecks
- Focus: securing supplies in the short term
- Relationship: strong focus on availability, less on long-term development
Risk:
High running costs, binding of care expertise to external providers, integration into the team made more difficult.
3.3 Embedded Recruiting / Recruiting as a Service
- Remuneration: Monthly fixed amount, no fee per hire
- Role: Temporary integrated recruiting team
- Focus: sustainable talent acquisition, process development, in-house knowledge building
- Relationship: based on partnership, with clear goals and key figures
Advantage:
The institution invests in Structural recruiting competence, instead of just „buying“ individual cases.
4. practical examples from the care sector
Here are three typical scenarios in which embedded recruiting can make a difference in practice.
4.1 Nursing home with several vacancies
Initial situation:
One nursing home has four vacancies for nursing staff at the same time.
Ward managers are working at their limits, HR is lean and staff turnover is increasing.
The classic way:
- Several agencies are commissioned in parallel.
- Job advertisements are placed on job portals and social media posts are published.
- Feedback to applicants takes time because there is not enough time internally to check dossiers.
- Each successful placement generates a high individual commission.
Embedded recruiting approach:
- An embedded recruiter is „in-house“ for 3-6 months and is closely linked to HR and management.
- She works the four positions as Joint recruitment contract with a uniform strategy and coordinated communication.
- Together with the nursing home, it optimizes: job advertisements, interviews, response times, candidate experience.
- Costs: predictable monthly rate, no additional fee per hire.
Result:
The result is not just short-term staffing, but a reusable procedure for future recruitment - including templates, texts and process standards.
4.2 Acute clinic with bottleneck in night and weekend service
Initial situation:
A clinic has large gaps in certain services (night/weekend).
Many existing employees reduce their workload or switch to day structures.
The clinic is struggling with high overload and short-term solutions.
The classic way:
- Simply try to advertise the „problem positions“ more frequently.
- Individual agency mandates for specific profiles.
- Short-term, expensive temporary work when services cannot otherwise be covered.
Embedded recruiting approach:
- Embedded Recruiting first analyzes together with HR and divisional management which profiles are realistic and attractive for night and weekend shifts (e.g. students, people returning to work, specific work-life models).
- There will be a separate Recruiting campaign developed:
- Target group-specific texts
- Suitable channels (online, local networks, cooperations)
- Faster processes and clear decision-making paths
- The embedded recruiter accompanies every step, conducts initial preliminary interviews and ensures that good candidates do not „get lost“.
Result:
The clinic not only gains individual employees, but also a clearly structured offering for this specific target group - including tested messages and processes.
4.3 Spitex organization that no longer wants to pay commission
Initial situation:
One Spitex organization has repeatedly worked with agencies in recent years.
Some of the appointments were successful, but the sums per appointment add up massively over time.
At the same time, the feeling remains: „We are dependent on external intermediaries.“
Embedded recruiting approach:
- Instead of continuing to award individual mandates, the organization opts for a Embedded/subscription model over e.g. 6 or 12 months.
- The embedded recruiter role takes over:
- Building and maintaining your own talent pool (e.g. former applicants, interns, contacts from further training)
- Ongoing optimization of the platform presence and social media activities
- Training managers in interview techniques and decision-making
- Every successful hire flows into joint key figures and learning loops - without additional commission.
Result:
The Spitex organization is shifting its recruiting from „buying in when the going gets tough“ to „gradually building up expertise in-house“.
5. how you can check whether embedded recruiting is right for your organization
Embedded recruiting is not a panacea - but it is a powerful model for organizations that want to structural want to work on their recruiting.
The following questions will help you with your assessment:
- Do you regularly have several vacancies, not just random ones?
- Is your HR or management team missing the following in particular Time and capacity, not know-how?
- Would you like to move away from one-off commissions and towards predictable costs?
- Are you ready to work together on processes, communication and employer image - not just on individual dossiers?
If you can answer „yes“ to several of these questions, embedded recruiting is a strong model for your organization.
6 Conclusion: From individual staffing to a structural solution
Finding nurses without commission per hire is possible - if recruiting is not just about „sourcing individual profiles“, but about Integrated function is commemorated.
Embedded Recruiting combines the best of both worlds:
- the closeness and understanding of an internal team
- the flexibility and specialization of an external partner
Instead of repeatedly paying large sums for individual cases, you invest in a predictable, partnership-based development of your recruiting structures.
For many nursing homes, clinics and Spitex organizations, this is precisely the difference between „constantly running behind“ and a calmer everyday life on the wards.
