Ask your current staffing agency what their margin is. Go ahead. I will wait.
They will not tell you. They might mumble something about “competitive rates” or “industry standard.” They might change the subject. They might give you a range so wide it is meaningless. But they will not give you a number.
And that should make you furious.
You are trusting this company to find the people who will build your product, run your infrastructure, protect your data. And they will not even tell you how much of your money actually reaches those people. Think about that for a second.
The Margin Game
Here is how traditional IT staffing works. A client pays EUR 100 per hour for a developer. The developer receives EUR 55. The agency pockets EUR 45. Nobody talks about it.
That 45% margin is not unusual. Some agencies run higher. I have seen margins north of 50% for specialized roles. The developer has no idea how much the client is paying. The client has no idea how much the developer is receiving. The information asymmetry is the entire business model.
Why do agencies hide this? Because the moment you see the numbers, you start asking uncomfortable questions:
- Why is the margin 45% when the agency’s actual cost of facilitation is a fraction of that?
- If the developer knew the client was paying EUR 100, would they still accept EUR 55?
- If the client knew the developer was only getting EUR 55, would they still feel good about paying EUR 100?
- Is the agency actually adding EUR 45 worth of value per hour? Every hour? For months?
The answer to most of these questions is no. And that is why they do not want you asking.
What Happens When You Show the Numbers
At InitLabs, we show you everything. The professional’s rate. Our fee. The total. No hidden margins. No creative accounting. No “it depends.”
When you can see exactly where every euro goes, something shifts. The conversation stops being about cost and starts being about value. And that changes everything.
Here is what transparent pricing actually does:
- For clients: You know exactly what you are paying for. You can see that the professional is well-compensated, which means they are motivated and less likely to leave. You can evaluate whether our facilitation fee is worth it based on the actual services , not a black box number.
- For professionals: They know their worth in the market. They know the client values them. They are not wondering whether they are being exploited. This removes a massive source of resentment that quietly poisons so many staffing relationships.
- For the relationship: When everyone knows the deal, there is no room for suspicion. The client does not wonder if they are overpaying. The professional does not wonder if they are underpaid. We do not have to dodge questions. Trust is the default, not something we have to manufacture.
Why Most Agencies Will Never Do This
Transparent pricing is not complicated. It is a spreadsheet. The reason most agencies will never adopt it is , it is existential.
If you show clients a 45% margin, they will leave. So the only way to be transparent is to have a margin you are not embarrassed by. And the only way to have a margin you are not embarrassed by is to run a fundamentally different where the value you add justifies every euro of your fee.
Most agencies cannot do this because their business model depends on the information gap. Remove the gap, and the model collapses. They know this. That is why they will call our approach “naive” or “unsustainable.” What they mean is: “If everyone did this, we would be in trouble.”
The Trust Dividend
Transparency is not charity. It is strategy. When clients trust you, they stay longer, refer more, and negotiate less. When professionals trust you, they perform better, communicate more openly, and do not ghost you for a competing offer the moment one arrives.
Hidden margins do not just cost money. They cost trust. And in a relationship business, trust is the only thing that actually compounds.
We have watched clients visibly relax when we walk them through our pricing. Not because our rates , sometimes they are not. But because they finally know what they are paying for. After years of agencies dodging their questions, someone just answered them.
That is a radical act in this industry. It should not be. But it is.
If your staffing partner will not tell you their margin, ask yourself what else they are not telling you. Then give us a call. We will show you everything.