In 2026, you are likely facing increasing pressure on HR budgets: recruitment costs are rising, long-term hiring is often not feasible, and it is becoming harder to cover peak periods in your business. According to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report, over 60% of organizations expect significant increases in labor costs, while McKinsey data shows that recruitment processes now take, on average, 15–20% longer than in previous years. In this context, personnel leasing becomes a practical solution for companies that need flexibility and budget control without long-term commitments.
What You’ll Learn From This Article:
why personnel leasing is increasingly used as a financial optimization tool in 2026;
how it helps you reduce recruitment and employee management costs;
how Smartemp calculates its rates and what is actually included in the cost;
why this model offers more budget predictability in economically unstable times.
The economic context in 2026: growing pressure on people-related costs
Labor costs have become one of the hardest expense categories to control. Beyond salaries and social contributions, companies also bear indirect costs that are difficult to measure: recruitment, onboarding, turnover, hiring mistakes, and management time.
According to SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), the total cost of recruiting and integrating an employee often ranges between USD 4,000 and 7,000. At the same time, PwC studies show that the lack of predictability in workforce planning is increasingly perceived as a major financial risk for 2025–2026.
What personnel leasing is and why it’s becoming increasingly popular
Personnel leasing, regulated as temporary agency work, involves outsourcing the hiring and administration of staff to an authorized provider. Employees work within the client company, but they are legally employed by the agency, which takes over all administrative and legal obligations. From a financial point of view, this model turns hard-to-estimate costs into clear, structured, and easy-to-budget expenses.
How personnel leasing helps you optimize your budget
1. Lower Recruitment Costs
Internal recruitment involves ongoing direct and indirect costs for job ads, screening, interviews, onboarding, and managers’ time. With personnel leasing, these costs are taken over by the provider.
2. Administrative savings
Harvard Business Review shows that outsourcing HR administrative processes can reduce recurring costs by 10–20%. In personnel leasing, payroll, contracts, time tracking, and reporting are already included.
3. Budget flexibility
Companies pay only for the period and volume of work they actually need, without impacting their headcount and without costs related to layoffs or restructuring.
Smartemp: a financially focused approach
With over 13 years of experience in personnel leasing and extensive collaborations with large and multinational companies, Smartemp operates based on a consultative approach, adapted to the economic and legislative context.
"Smartemp provides a comprehensive approach to workforce leasing—from sourcing and recruiting candidates to managing employment contracts, payroll, and employee benefits (housing, transportation, per diems, etc.). Additionally, we have strategic partnerships with large-scale companies that require complex workforce management and even on-site presence. We adopt a consultative approach, collaborating with organizations in sectors that need constant updates to their benefits and salary packages due to legislative changes and competitive market pressures," says George Georgescu, Smartemp HR Business Development Manager.
How Smartemp calculates its rates and what it takes into account
Personnel leasing rates are not based on a standard price, but on the actual cost of the employee and the specific requirements of the project.
Salary and job requirements
The calculation starts with the gross salary, aligned with the level of qualification, working schedule, and labor market conditions.
Contributions and legal obligations
All legal taxes and contributions are included in the rate and paid by Smartemp as the legal employer.
Administrative and Operational Costs
The rate covers contract management, time tracking, payroll, legal support, and ongoing HR support.
Recruitment and selection
This service includes job advertising, CV screening, interviews, onboarding, and staff replacement within contractual limits.
“In an ever-changing economic environment, companies need flexible and efficient solutions to manage their workforce. Personnel leasing services offer exactly that – flexibility, speed, and legal compliance. At Smartemp, we start every partnership with a discovery meeting that helps us understand each client’s specific needs and build tailored solutions,” explains George Georgescu, HR Business Development Manager at Smartemp.
Personnel leasing offers financial predictability
With direct hiring, personnel costs go far beyond salaries. Companies also pay for recruitment, HR and management time, contract and payroll administration, potential replacements, and legal compliance risks. In personnel leasing, all these expenses are included in a single monthly cost. The difference is not about price, but about structure: separate and hard-to-track costs versus a single, easy-to-budget figure.
“It has been proven that outsourcing HR activities reduces operational costs by 20–25%, according to the PwC Workforce Expectations and Challenges Romania 2024 report. In recent years, we have seen growing awareness in this area. We receive more requests from Romanian companies, and this openness is driven by changes in management and by the fact that, in business, people talk about results,” says Mariana Vaida, CEO Smartemp.
Contact us at office@smartemp.ro
or call +40 738 662 370 for a personalized personnel leasing offer.
Personnel leasing as a risk management tool
Studies by the Upjohn Institute show that companies using temporary staff significantly reduce the risk of mass layoffs during difficult economic periods. The ability to quickly adjust team size helps preserve the core permanent workforce and protect operational stability.
In 2026, decisions about people are inevitably decisions about money, pace, and risk. Personnel leasing is not a solution for every situation and does not replace permanent hiring where long-term stability is needed. But it gives you a clear advantage when workloads fluctuate, when you have fixed-term projects, or when you want to stay flexible without adding pressure to your internal structure.
What you gain, in essence, is control: a simpler way to budget, size your teams, and avoid administrative bottlenecks. Instead of managing recruitment, paperwork, time tracking, payroll, and compliance risks separately, you work with a more coherent model, where responsibilities are clearly defined and costs are easier to plan.
Whether it is right for your company depends on your context: seasonality, deadline pressure, candidate availability, turnover levels, and how much predictability matters to you. What is important is to treat personnel leasing as a management tool, not as a “Plan B.” Used with clear rules and transparency, it can give you exactly the room to maneuver you need in a year where fast adaptation really counts.
Sources
Staffing Industry Analysts – Global Staffing Industry Market Size
Deloitte – Global Human Capital Trends
McKinsey – State of Organizations / Future of Work
SHRM – The Cost of Hiring a New Employee
Harvard Business Review – The Real Cost of Hiring and How to Lower It
PwC – Global Workforce Hopes & Fears Survey
Upjohn Institute – Temporary Staffing and Employment Stability
Read also:
Key Trends Shaping the Temporary Labor Market in 2026 — How to Stay Ahead of Change