A 120-person European agricultural-machinery distributor in Campinas has two problems on the same desk. It needs a finance controller who can handle Brazilian tax and report to Madrid in English, plus forty warehouse staff for the five-month harvest season.
The HR manager has three proposals: a staffing group quoting a mark-up on temporary payroll, a São Paulo consultoria offering to find the controller “for one and a half salaries”, and an outsourcing firm suggesting it simply takes over the warehouse. They are not comparable. One is regulated temporary work, one is a recruitment fee and the third shifts legal risk in ways the proposal does not mention.
Brazil has one of the deepest recruitment and HR-services markets in Latin America. International groups, home-grown consultorias de recrutamento e seleção, executive-search boutiques, temporary-work agencies and payroll outsourcers compete for the same budgets, and words such as hunting, terceirização and RPO are used loosely in sales meetings. Each service sits under a different legal regime, and that is where employers get hurt.
This guide maps the market, the rules on temps and outsourcing and the firms in each segment, then gives you a question set for the first meeting. It sits in the Finding the Right Person hub, next to our Brazil recruiting playbook and the global guide to HR consulting and recruitment firms.
- Brazil’s market mixes international staffing and search groups with strong local consultorias, search boutiques and HR outsourcing houses.
- Temporary work runs under Lei 6.019/1974: registered agencies only, for up to 180 days plus a 90-day extension.
- Outsourcing (terceirização) of any activity has been lawful since 2017, but the client stays subsidiarily liable for the provider’s labour debts.
- Permanent fees are quoted as a multiple of monthly salary or a percentage of annual pay; agree whether the 13th salary and bonus count.
- Below: fourteen firms in three groups, a summary table and a twelve-question set.
How Brazil’s recruitment and HR-services market works
Start with the vocabulary. A consultoria de recrutamento e seleção finds candidates whom you employ directly under the CLT. An empresa de trabalho temporário employs temporary workers and places them with you. A prestadora de serviços in an outsourcing arrangement sells a service delivered by its own staff. Hunting is the research-led end of recruitment, and HR consultancies sell pay structures, surveys, assessment and payroll rather than people.
Agencies are a normal route in the big business hubs, especially for controllers, tax specialists, engineers and technology talent who are employed and not reading job boards. Staffing groups dominate volume roles, and the trainee-programme culture has created firms that specialise in graduates.
Licensing: light for recruiters, formal for temps
No specific licence is needed to run a permanent-recruitment consultancy. Temporary work is different: the agency must be registered with the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MTE) through the SIRETT system, and the government’s registration page lists a minimum share capital of R$100,000 under Lei 6.019/1974, Lei 13.429/2017 and Decreto 10.854/2021. Outsourcing providers need no MTE registration.
Fees, guarantees and the 13th-salary question
Permanent recruitment is usually priced on success. At the time of writing (November 2026), consultorias commonly quote either a multiple of the monthly salary (often around one to two salaries for specialist and middle-management roles) or a percentage of annual pay broadly in the mid-teens to mid-twenties. Executive search is retained, paid in two or three instalments against a percentage of first-year cash. These are indicative ranges, not survey data; our agency fees guide explains how to benchmark a quote.
The detail that trips foreign employers is the base. Brazilian pay includes a 13th salary and a vacation bonus of one-third of a monthly salary, so “annual compensation” can mean 12, 13 or 13.33 salaries before any bonus. Agree the formula in writing, and ask for a replacement guarantee that covers the contrato de experiência, which can last up to 90 days.
Notice periods and the counter-offer
When an employer dismisses without cause, the aviso prévio is 30 days plus three days per completed year of service, capped at 90 days; a resigning employee normally owes 30 days. Expect counter-offers in tax, data and engineering.
Temps, outsourcing and the rules that bind the client
Temporary work under Lei 6.019/1974 is allowed for two purposes only: the transitory replacement of permanent staff and complementary demand, such as a seasonal peak. A temp can stay with the same client for up to 180 days, consecutive or not, extendable by up to 90 days, and can only return to the same client after a 90-day gap. The agency is the employer, but the client is subsidiarily liable for the period and must guarantee safe working conditions.
Outsourcing of any activity, core business included, became lawful with the 2017 reforms, and the Supreme Federal Court upheld the principle in 2018. Three strings come with it: the provider must genuinely direct its own staff, former employees cannot return to you as outsourced workers within 18 months, and the client remains subsidiarily liable for unpaid wages and social charges. Foreign companies without a Brazilian entity should read our guide to hiring where you have no entity first; none of these routes employs a permanent hire for you.
Recruitment, selection and placement firms
These firms find, screen and place candidates; several also employ temps or run outsourced teams. First, Brazilian operations of international groups; second, Brazilian firms with deep local networks.
International groups with Brazilian operations
Lists permanent placement, project-based staffing, interim management and executive search, plus consulting in technology, risk, finance and legal.
Lists permanent and interim recruitment, executive search through Page Executive and enterprise solutions such as RPO, with desks from banking, tax and legal to logistics, retail and life sciences.
Covers temporary workforce recruitment and management, recruitment and selection for permanent roles and, through Randstad Enterprise, RPO and outplacement.
Operates through Manpower, Experis and Talent Solutions, listing temporary labour, recruitment and selection, terceirização, RPO and mass recruitment, trade marketing, hunting, assessment and outplacement.
Brazilian consultorias and staffing houses
A Brazilian HR company that says it has more than 50 years in employment services. It lists temporary work, recruitment and selection for CLT roles, people management, RPO and LuaLog for logistics recruitment.
Built around early-career hiring: internship and trainee programmes for more than 300 partner companies, recruitment and selection, employer branding, assessments and leadership development.
Branded “Employer Tudo do RH”, it lists temporary work, outsourcing, rural labour, recruitment, executive search and internship management, alongside payroll, time tracking, benefits management and HR process BPO.
Executive search firms in Brazil
Hunting in Brazil means a retained, research-led search for leaders who are not looking. Ask who will actually work on your search, not just who pitches.
A Brazilian human capital and governance consultancy that its site says was founded in 2009, listing executive selection and assessment, human capital management and board solutions.
Describes itself as an executive hiring and assessment consultancy, offering search for decision-making roles, assessment of current executives and role-scope design, in sectors from agribusiness and mining to insurance and telecoms.
Serves Brazilian groups, multinationals and family-owned companies with executive and board search, CEO succession, board advisory and executive assessment, in line with the services the firm lists globally.
Lists retained executive search, executive assessment, board services, succession planning and onboarding, across industrial, agribusiness, life sciences, energy and financial services; consultants work in Portuguese, English and Spanish.
HR consultancies and HR outsourcing
Brazilian HR consulting has a compliance edge. Payroll runs through eSocial, collective agreements set floors by category, and companies with 100 or more employees publish semi-annual pay-transparency reports under Lei 14.611/2023. Salary surveys and job architecture are therefore essential before you set the pay band.
Lists executive compensation, compensation data, job and career architecture, benefits and benefits-cost management, previdência (pensions) and wellbeing.
A Brazilian compensation consultancy that says it has more than 30 years in the market, offering a twice-yearly salary database, job and salary structure design, variable-pay tools and pay-equity diagnostics linked to the pay equality law.
Lists payroll BPO (ADP runs processing and administration), time-and-attendance products and full payroll and HR management for companies operating in Brazil.
The Brazilian firms at a glance
Listings are editorial and independent; no firm paid to be included, and inclusion is not a recommendation. Check licences, terms and references directly with each firm. More providers are listed in the free kurums.com directory of recruitment agencies and executive search firms.
Choosing and briefing a firm in Brazil
Match the firm type to the hire before comparing brands. The matrix shows the usual first call; our hiring-channel decision matrix covers alternatives such as referrals and direct sourcing.
Making the relationship work after you sign
Put the terms in a short contract: fee base and percentage, instalment triggers, guarantee, exclusivity, off-limits rules and an LGPD data-processing clause. Our guide to reference checks by country explains what you can ask in Brazil. Then manage the search like a project, with weekly updates and feedback within 48 hours. For temporary and outsourced teams, appoint one person to check timesheets, payroll proof and safety compliance every month; good paperwork is what shows a labour court that you supervised the contract.
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