The invoice is not the cost. Add the rework and the overnight wait and a £4 CV is usually closer to £10.
Outsourcing formatting to an offshore or freelance team is a sensible move and it does take the work off your consultants. It is also the option whose real cost is most often understated, because only part of it appears on an invoice.
The rest shows up as ten minutes of consultant time fixing each CV when it comes back, a client waiting until tomorrow for something they asked for at four o'clock, and a full candidate CV sitting on a third party's systems for as long as they choose to keep it.
| Outsourced team | Dresscode | |
|---|---|---|
| Headline price | About £4 per CV | £199 a month for up to 300 CVs |
| True cost per CV | About £9.83 once you count the rework | £1.33 at 150 CVs a month, £0.66 at the plan cap |
| Turnaround | Overnight, or later the same day | About 60 seconds |
| Rework | Assume around 10 minutes of consultant time per CV | None in the normal case |
| A CV needed at 4pm | Tomorrow morning | Before the call ends |
| Consistency | Depends who picks it up that night | The same engine, every CV |
| Where the candidate's data goes | A third party's team, inbox and storage | Processed, delivered, then deleted |
| GDPR position | A processor agreement, and retention you do not control | Nothing retained after delivery |
| Commitment | Usually a monthly minimum | Change plan or cancel at any time |
Based on the default assumptions in our ROI calculator: 150 CVs outsourced a month at £4 each, 10 minutes of consultant time tweaking each one, and a consultant hour valued at £35. At 150 CVs a month the Growth plan applies at £199. Change the rework minutes to nil and outsourcing still costs £600 a month against £199.
Most offshore recruitment support teams do far more than format CVs, and the rest of it is work we do not touch.
At the volumes most agencies run, yes, and by a wide margin once rework is counted. At 150 CVs a month an outsourced team at £4 a CV invoices £600 while the Growth plan is £199. The gap widens as volume rises.
It is processed, the formatted document is emailed back, and the original is deleted. Nothing is retained afterwards.
You can test it before you decide. Email a CV to trial@cvdresscode.com and compare what comes back with what your provider sent you last night.
Attach any CV and email it to trial@cvdresscode.com. It comes back cleanly formatted in about a minute, then we delete it. No signup, no card, no call.
As a customer, every CV comes back in your agency's exact format and branding.