The Administration Recruitment Process: Steps, Costs and Checks

The administration recruitment process has eight stages: confirm the need, define the role and its pay, advertise, screen, interview, check references and eligibility, make the offer, and onboard. Most hiring mistakes in administration happen in the first stage, before anyone sees a CV, when the role is vaguely defined and the pay is not checked against the award. This guide takes an Australian small business through each stage, shows what agency fees typically look like, and explains what to check in a fee agreement.

TL;DR

• Define the work first: tasks, outcomes, reporting line and the award classification that sets the minimum pay.
• Screen against the role, not the title. Use a phone screen, a structured interview and reference checks before any offer.
• Agencies charging a percentage of salary commonly sit in the 10% to 18% plus GST range, according to one Australian university’s guidance. A fixed-fee model removes that link between salary and fee.
• Read the fee agreement for the trigger point, what is included and how the replacement guarantee works.
• Our Recruit option starts with an $895 engagement fee, with a placement fee of $3,900 to $5,000 when you hire.

Table of Contents

• Step 1: Confirm you need to hire, and what for
• Step 2: Define the role, not just the title
• Step 3: Advertise and source candidates
• Step 4: Screen applications and run a phone call
• Step 5: Interview against the role
• Step 6: Reference checks and pre-employment checks
• Step 7: Make the offer and sign the contract
• Step 8: Onboard properly
• What administration recruitment costs in Australia
• What to check in any recruitment fee agreement
• Our perspective: why we think the process works best with a fixed fee
• Hiring through us
• FAQ
• Sources

Step 1: Confirm you need to hire, and what for

Before writing an ad, confirm the need. A university recruitment hub lists this as the first stage: confirm the need to recruit, taking workforce planning, budget and resourcing into account. For a small business, that means asking three plain questions:

• Is the work ongoing, or is it a peak that a temporary arrangement would cover?
• Can the budget carry the full cost of the role, including superannuation, leave and the one-off cost of recruiting?
• Is this a full-time, part-time or casual position?

The last question matters because the Fair Work Ombudsman notes that pay, leave and entitlements differ between full-time, part-time and casual employees. Settle the employment type early, because it shapes the advert, the award coverage and the candidates who will apply.

Step 2: Define the role, not just the title

“Administrator” can mean a receptionist, an office manager, an accounts clerk or an executive assistant. A candidate who is excellent at one may struggle at another. Describe the actual work.

Government guidance on job descriptions suggests covering the purpose, responsibilities, tasks, skills, reporting lines and what success looks like. For administration roles, we find it helps to write down:

• Workload: the recurring tasks, such as invoicing, diary management, customer enquiries, filing, payroll inputs and supplier follow-up, with a rough weekly split.
• Systems: the software the person must already know, and what you can teach on the job.
• Judgement: what the person can decide alone and what they must escalate.
• Outcomes: what a good first three months looks like, in measurable terms.

This list becomes your advert, your interview questions and your reference-check questions. Writing it once saves time at every later stage.

Check the award and set the pay

Most Australian administration roles are covered by a modern award or an enterprise agreement. The Fair Work Ombudsman says employers should establish the employment type, applicable award and minimum wage before hiring. Creative Workplaces adds that classifications set different rates for different responsibilities and duties and help prevent underpayment.

The award minimum is not the whole picture. Business.gov.au’s employment contract tool points out that employers must also account for penalties, overtime, loadings and allowances where the award applies. And if you publish a salary in the advert, note that job ads cannot include pay rates that breach the Fair Work Act, an award or a registered agreement.

If you are unsure which classification fits, ask the Fair Work Ombudsman or a workplace relations adviser before you advertise. An advert pitched below the correct rate wastes the whole campaign.

Step 3: Advertise and source candidates

A good administration advert is short and specific. Lead with the work and the location, state the employment type, give a salary range that complies with the award, and list three to five must-have skills. Leave out wish lists that read like a job for two people.

You have three main sourcing routes:

Administration is a high-volume field. A single advert can bring in far more applicants than a small business can read carefully, which is why many owners hand over screening at this point. Our own guide to administration recruitment tips for employers covers sourcing in more detail.

Step 4: Screen applications and run a phone call

Screen in two passes.

1. Paper screen. Check each application against your must-haves. Look for relevant systems experience, evidence of accuracy, and a clear work history. Short gaps are common and rarely a problem on their own; ask about them rather than assume.
2. Phone screen. Ten to fifteen minutes is enough. Confirm availability, pay expectations, work rights and the core skills. The Fair Work site provides telephone-screening and reference-checking templates you can adapt.

Red flags worth probing

A red flag is a reason to ask another question, not a reason to reject someone on the spot. In administration screening, these are the signals we pay attention to:

• A CV with typos or inconsistent formatting, when the role depends on accuracy.
• Vague answers about what the person personally did, as opposed to what the team did.
• Dates that do not line up between the CV, the application and the referees.
• Reluctance to name a recent manager as a referee.
• Pay expectations far outside the range you advertised, which usually signals a mismatch of role level.

Treat each one as a prompt for a follow-up question, and judge candidates on the same criteria so the process stays fair.

Step 5: Interview against the role

A structured interview asks every shortlisted candidate the same core questions, scored against the role requirements. A university hiring guide, for example, says to interview against the role requirements and selection criteria rather than on general impressions.

For administration roles, build the interview around situations drawn from your workload list:

• “Tell me about a time you had three urgent requests from three people. What did you do first?”
• “Describe a mistake you found in your own work after it had gone out. How did you handle it?”
• “Walk me through how you would set up a filing or tracking system for incoming supplier invoices.”

Add a short practical task where it fits, such as drafting a reply to a customer complaint or tidying a messy spreadsheet. A fifteen-minute task tells you more about attention to detail than another round of questions.

A word on the 80/20 rule

In recruiting, the “80/20 rule” is used loosely, and people mean different things by it. A common reading is that a small share of candidates, or a small share of your effort, produces most of the quality hires. For administration hiring, a practical use of the idea is this: spend most of your effort on the few things that predict success in the role (reliability, accuracy, communication, systems fluency) and less on everything else. Treat it as a prioritising habit, not a measured law.

Step 6: Reference checks and pre-employment checks

Do reference checks before the offer, and ask the same questions of each referee. Good questions for administration staff include:

• What were their main responsibilities, and how reliable were they?
• How did they handle pressure and competing deadlines?
• How accurate was their work, and how did they respond to feedback?
• Would you hire them again?

Then cover eligibility. The Fair Work checklist for hiring includes work rights and visas, tax and superannuation, workplace health and safety, discrimination protections, and licence or qualification checks. Verify work rights for every hire.

Some administration roles handle payroll, client money or personal data, and employers sometimes add a police check or other background check for them. The rules on what you can ask and when are specific, so read our guides to background checks in Australia and police checks and spent convictions for employment before you decide. When we run checks for clients, the optional criminal check costs $129 and a psychometric evaluation costs $199 per candidate.

Step 7: Make the offer and sign the contract

An offer should set out the role, pay, hours, start date and any conditions, such as a probation period or satisfactory checks. Business.gov.au lists employment contracts and onboarding or induction as separate employer tasks, so plan time for both. Put the agreed terms in writing, and make sure the pay matches the award classification you identified in step 2.

Expect some negotiation on salary, hours or working-from-home days. Decide before the call what you can offer and what is fixed.

Step 8: Onboard properly

A new administrator who has no login on day one, no named contact and no clear first week will form an impression quickly. A simple plan helps:

• Before day one: accounts, equipment, a welcome message and the first week’s schedule.
• Week one: introductions, the key systems, and two or three small tasks with quick feedback.
• Month one: a check-in against the outcomes you wrote in step 2.
• Months two and three: a review before the probation period ends.

This period also matters if you use an agency with a replacement guarantee, because the guarantee window is short and early problems are best raised early.

What administration recruitment costs in Australia

The cost of hiring has three parts: advertising, your own time, and agency fees if you use an agency.

For traditional agencies, an Australian university’s recruitment guidance states that agencies may charge about 10% to 18% plus GST of the candidate’s remuneration package. The same page says the fee may include superannuation, bonuses and motor vehicles, and is usually separate from advertising and travel expenses. On a package of $70,000, that range works out at $7,000 to $12,600 before GST. Our guide on permanent placement fees for Australian employers compares percentage and fixed models in more depth.

How our fixed fees work

We charge a flat fee, in two parts, set by the candidate’s salary tier rather than a percentage of it. Prices as published on our site:

The engagement fee starts the search. The placement fee is paid when you hire someone. Optional extras are a criminal check at $129 and a psychometric evaluation at $199 per candidate. If a hire does not work out within the first two to three months, a replacement campaign is available for $1,000. You can see the full structure on our simple flat fee structure page, and how payments are split in our guide to placement fee payment terms.

What to check in any recruitment fee agreement

Whichever model you choose, read the agreement before you sign. A legal-information article for Australian employers recommends checking the service scope, fee formula, remuneration inclusions, GST treatment, invoice trigger and due date, and the replacement guarantee. The same source says the agreement should define exactly when the fee is triggered, such as offer acceptance or commencement, rather than relying on the vague phrase “successful placement”.

A practical checklist:

1. Trigger: Is the fee due on acceptance, on the start date, or at another named event?
2. Inclusions: Does the fee cover sourcing, screening, interviewing, reference checks, shortlisting and help with the offer? Employment agency contract guidance lists these as services to specify.
3. Guarantee: How long does it last, what triggers it, is the remedy a replacement or a refund, and what exclusions apply?
4. Ownership: Who owns the candidate introduction, and for how long after an introduction can the agency claim a fee?
5. Termination: Which fees stay payable if you end the agreement?

One point catches employers out. A replacement guarantee is generally a separate remedy, not a reason to withhold the original fee, unless the agreement expressly says otherwise. Read that clause before you rely on it.

Our perspective: why we think the process works best with a fixed fee

We built The Recruitment Alternative around one observation: for small businesses, the cost of a permanent administration hire should not rise because the candidate is good and asks for a higher salary. A percentage fee ties the agency’s income to the salary, so the same work costs more for a stronger candidate. A fixed fee separates the two.

We also think the process matters more than the fee. The strongest administration hires we see come from employers who define the work clearly in step 2, screen against it, and check references before making an offer. An agency can run these steps for you, but it cannot replace a clear brief. Our clients who spend half an hour on the role description tend to get shortlists that are right the first time.

Our replacement option exists because no process removes all risk. If a hire leaves in the first two to three months, a replacement campaign costs $1,000 rather than a new full fee.

— Josh Townsend

Hiring through us

If you would rather not run the screening yourself, our fixed fee recruitment service covers permanent administration roles, from office support to finance administration, for employers across Australia and New Zealand. You can compare Recruit and Recruit+ on our flat fee pricing page and see how the replacement campaign works before you commit.

FAQ

How long does the administration recruitment process take?

The time varies with the role, the market and how quickly you decide. The stages themselves (advertising, screening, interviews, checks and offer) are sequential, and delays usually come from slow feedback after interviews or late reference checks. Agree your decision timeline up front and book interview slots in advance.

What are the steps in the recruitment process?

Confirm the need, define the role and pay, advertise, screen, interview, check references and eligibility, make the offer, and onboard. Public-sector guidance follows the same sequence, with approval of the appointment added before the contract is offered.

What are the recruitment agency fees for administration staff in Australia?

Traditional agencies may charge about 10% to 18% plus GST of the remuneration package, according to university guidance. Our fixed-fee Recruit option has an $895 engagement fee and a placement fee of $3,900 to $5,000, and Recruit+ has a $2,495 engagement fee and a $5,000 to $6,000 placement fee.

Do I need to check the award before advertising an administration job?

Yes. The Fair Work Ombudsman advises employers to establish the employment type, award and minimum wage before hiring. Adverts also cannot state pay rates that breach the Fair Work Act, an award or a registered agreement.

What happens if the new administrator leaves soon after starting?

That depends on your agreement, so check the guarantee period, the trigger and the remedy before you sign. With us, a replacement campaign is available if the hire does not work out in the first two to three months, at $1,000.

Sources

• Recruiting your team, Australian Catholic University
• Hiring employees, Fair Work Ombudsman Small Business Showcase
• How to prepare a job description, Creative Workplaces
• Employment Contract Tool, business.gov.au
• Employees, business.gov.au
• Recruitment agencies, Australian National University
• What to include in a recruitment fee agreement, Sprintlaw Australia
• Employment agency contracts, Sprintlaw Australia

Recommended

• Administration recruitment tips for employers: 2026 guide
• Sourcing Administration Staff
• Unsure Where to Start in Your Recruitment Process?
• Employers: 8 Step Admin Assistant Hiring Checklist With Fixed Fee