Using a recruiter – why and when?

March 1st, 2024 | Industry News

For any business, there comes a point when the decision has to be made about outsourcing recruitment – and in today’s more volatile times, the decision sometimes has to be made and remade as circumstances change. So what’s the point of using a recruitment consultancy and how does an organisation know when the time is right to make the move?

Cost savings

It’s paradoxical that while using a recruiter can increase a company’s initial financial outlay, working with recruiters can be cost-effective overall, when the resources and personnel hours of in-house recruitment are calculated. Not only that, but using a recruiter can reduce the risk of bad hires, which tend to happen because in-house resources just aren’t as skilled at screening and recruiting good candidates. This can reduce financial risk and operational costs as well as removing the risk of reputation damage that can happen when an organisation fails to fill vacancies or fails to retain the candidates it chooses. For many companies, this means working with a recruiter who has access to world class recruitment CRM software is an economic benefit, not a cost.

Specialist Focus

Recruitment management software allows experienced recruiters to find the right candidates for hard to fill roles. This is for three reasons:

1. Access to passive candidates – a good recruitment agency has access to people who are not actively seeking to change jobs but can be headhunted
2. Resources – recruiters are specialists and have specialist knowledge of the industry that helps them recognise good candidates or places in which good candidates may be found
3. Industry specific knowledge – a smart recruitment consultant, calling on recruitment database software can help shape recruitment processes such as advertisements, that will appeal to potential candidates already in the system in ways that may not occur to the client company.

Screening and Due Diligence

As companies move through the recruitment process there can be many blocks in the recruitment pipeline – one of the is the time that can be needed to screen and assess candidates. It’s a given that recruitment consultancies, using web based recruitment software, can undertake this work much faster than employers, for several reasons:

Their own network and experience allows them to assess a CV much more quickly and effectively – not only can agencies spot gaps or ‘fudges’ in a resumé, they can also call on their network to  confirm the roles, experience and background of a candidate both rapidly and thoroughly.

Discretion

Whether replacing a key executive, hiring a specialist to take a start-up in a new direction, or facing the need for potential layoffs, a recruitment firm can serve as a sounding board to the executive team and as a buffer between them and the rest of the organisation, allowing thinking time, clarity of approach and careful handling of sensitive information to ensure operational security and efficiency.