The Screening Margin: Why Hiring Software Decides Agency Headcount Economics

Hiring software stopped being an HR line item the moment screening models began acting on their own recommendations. For agencies, the category now sets two numbers that determine retainer margin: how many delivery hours a hire consumes before billing, and how much of the candidate relationship a client still owns. Agencies that treat the ATS as a client-facing service line rather than internal plumbing convert recruiting into recurring revenue; those that leave it as back-office tooling absorb the cost without the markup.