Hiring great engineers has never been harder.
If you are trying to hire software developers in the UK or Nordics, you are competing in one of the most saturated talent markets in the world. Roles stay open for months, salary expectations keep rising, and the best candidates are rarely the ones actively applying. At the same time, your roadmap is not slowing down to wait.
This is why many companies turn to IT recruitment agencies. They hope an external partner can speed things up, fill hard roles, and reduce the pressure on internal teams. But traditional IT recruitment models were not designed for today’s reality of global, product-led engineering.
INSCALE takes a different approach. We help you build and run global tech teams, not just fill individual roles. Our Tech Hubs, Remote Teams, and Tech Recruitment services are all designed to give you something many IT recruitment agencies cannot: long-term, embedded delivery capacity you actually control.
In this article, we explain:
- What IT recruitment agencies do, and where they work well
- The limits of traditional IT recruitment for scaling engineering teams
- How INSCALE’s model is different from an IT recruitment agency
- When to use a standard IT recruitment agency, and when to work with INSCALE instead
The aim is simple: to help you make a clear, logical decision about the best way to build your next tech team.
What do IT recruitment agencies actually do?
An IT recruitment agency helps companies find and hire technology professionals. Their core services usually include:
- Sourcing candidates for roles such as software developers, DevOps engineers, QA, product owners, and architects
- Screening CVs and conducting initial interviews
- Presenting shortlists of candidates
- Coordinating interviews between candidates and your team
- Supporting offer negotiation and acceptance
Most IT recruitment agencies in the UK work on:
- Contingent search: you pay a fee (often 15–25% of annual salary) only if you hire a candidate
- Retained search: you pay an upfront fee to secure the agency’s focus on a critical or senior hire
They are optimised to answer one core problem: “We need to fill this role. Quickly.”
When you have a well-structured in-house team and only need a few extra engineers in London, Manchester, Copenhagen, or Amsterdam, a good agency can be useful. But once your challenge shifts from “we need to fill a vacancy” to “we need a reliable, long-term delivery”, the limits of this model show up quickly.
Where IT recruitment agencies help, and where they struggle
Traditional IT staffing solutions solve parts of the problem, but not all of it.
They work well when:
- You are hiring in your existing markets
- Your internal HR and talent teams are overloaded and need support
- You want market intel on salary ranges and candidate availability
- You have a clear, stable team structure and just need to fill a position
IT recruitment agencies operate at the “front door” of hiring. They introduce you to people. Once the contract is signed, their job is usually finished. What happens to delivery, culture, or retention is out of scope.
For many UK and Benelux technology leaders, that is no longer enough.
How can INSCALE help?
INSCALE is a tech team delivery partner. We help technology-driven companies in the UK, Nordics, and Benelux build and run dedicated engineering teams from strategic locations such as Lisbon, Skopje, and Kuala Lumpur, as well as through remote setups.
Our core delivery services are:
- Tech Hubs
Dedicated teams based in INSCALE offices in Portugal, Malaysia, and North Macedonia, fully integrated into your organisation, leadership, and delivery rhythm. - Remote Teams
Embedded remote engineers across Europe (Poland, Bulgaria, Portugal, North Macedonia, Denmark) and Asia (Malaysia), working in your tools, and time zones, with INSCALE handling contracts, HR, and compliance. - Tech Recruitment
Strategic tech recruitment in the UK, Nordics, and Benelux when you want to hire directly into your own entity. We find and evaluate candidates based on skills, mindset, and culture fit.
Across all models, we use the same foundation:
- A structured evaluation framework (INSCALE Evaluation) for motivation, cognitive ability, technical skills, and personality fit
- Ongoing support for retention, performance management, and team engagement
- A Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model that lets you take over the team when you are ready
In other words, we do not just introduce talent. We help you build a team, run it, and, if you choose, eventually own it.
INSCALE vs IT recruitment agencies
Traditional IT recruitment agencies in the UK and technical recruitment providers in Benelux focus on filling roles. INSCALE focuses on building systems of delivery.
Here is a simplified comparison:
| Area | IT recruitment agency | INSCALE |
|---|---|---|
|
Primary focus |
Filling vacancies |
Building and running high-performing engineering teams |
|
Engagement types |
One-off placements |
Ongoing delivery partnership |
|
Ownership |
You own the hire, agency steps away |
You own delivery, while INSCALE owns operations and team infrastructure as your extension |
|
Scope |
Recruitment only |
Recruitment, integration, HR, compliance, employee retention, team growth |
|
Geography |
Mainly local market (e.g. UK, Nordics) |
Portugal, Malaysia, North Macedonia, Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria |
|
Time horizon |
Short-term vacancy filling |
Long-term capacity and team stability |
|
Evaluation depth |
CV, interviews, basic screening |
Motivation, cognitive, technical and culture fit using INSCALE tools |
|
Risk |
High if hire fails |
Lower, due to structured evaluation and delivery oversight |
Both models have their place, but they serve different goals.
If you just need a single specialist in London, an IT recruitment agency is a logical choice. But, if you need to build a scalable, embedded engineering function, INSCALE is designed for that challenge.
If you are exploring tech recruitment in the UK, facing repeated delays, or simply want a more strategic way to build your next engineering team, INSCALE can help you move from reactive hiring to structured, global delivery.
We do not just help you recruit. We help you build the teams that carry your product forward.
