Recruitment—it’s an integral component of any organization, and a significant task for any Human Resources team. From listing up-to-date job descriptions to short-listing viable candidates for final interviews, recruiting for critical fill roles can easily become a full-time job.
Considering the substantial efforts and time commitment involved, it would be pretty amazing if the whole process could happen without the HR team having to take time off core tasks, but remaining fully engaged in the hiring process by being CC on all correspondence, receiving weekly reports on all recruiting efforts, etc.
The good news is that this is indeed possible; all you need to do is work with a trusted, experienced 3rd party executive recruiter.
Please take a moment to consider how you may be limiting efficiency by not outsourcing your recruiting needs for higher level, difficult to fill roles;
Precious Time Spent
As of now, your HR team is sorting through numerous resumes and making calls to individuals who fit the criteria. Following that is days of interviewing and testing people—all of which may not necessarily pay off. Plus, your internal HR recruiting team may be lacking the relationships needed to attract specialized candidates, specifically ones from your direct competitors.
What a professional recruiter does: They’re mandated to network, and their primary role is to work hard to make and build relationships with top performers within their industry of focus.
At this point it is extremely important to acknowledge that there are two types of candidates…Active and Passive. Active candidates, that have their resume on one of the many job boards out there and are openly either unhappy in their current role or often times unemployed, are actively looking to make a change.
On the other hand, passive candidates are excelling in their current role, are not to be found on any job boards and can only be enticed to interview for a role by cold calling them if no pre-existing relationship exists.
By working with a recruiter that has invested the time to build relationships with top performers within your industry, she has learned that for the right opportunity, the superstar from your direct competitor would be willing to make a move. And perhaps most importantly, she has learned exactly what makes a position the ‘right opportunity’ for a candidate. It is essential to know what a candidate is looking for in order to make a strong match.
When an HR manager collaborates with 3rd party recruiters, they reap the rewards of all those efforts, by having access to candidates that very likely they may not have had the opportunity to meet with without partnering with an executive recruiter with a strong industry focus.
In addition to strategically targeting specific candidate skill sets, a successful executive recruiter will also provide invaluable information when it comes to evaluating candidates, and staging offers. By doing a full intake call with a candidate prior to sharing any specific searches they are working on, skilled executive recruiters are able to quickly identify the driving motivators that will make a top producer switch teams, and will share with the hiring manages the candidates hot buttons to highlight during the interview. Often times candidates are not looking to make a change strictly due to money, but a pleathera of other factors, such as commute time, lack of perceived career path, concerns of company stability, personality issues with a direct supervisor etc.
Over the years we have found that candidates tend to be much more candid and often times share information with us that they do not feel comfortable sharing with in-house recruiters. Working with a 3rd party recruiter will give you access to that critical information, so that when you are meeting with your direct competitors top performers, you will know exactly what would motivate them to make a move, and your hiring manager can then emphasize the clear career path, stability of the company, or whatever other areas of primary concern your recruiter has shared with you on the candidates behalf.
High Expense of Recruiting Tools with No Guarantee of Finding Your Next Hire
Digital job boards and social networking sites today are a mess of new and outdated job postings, and noteworthy and irrelevant resumes. Plus, more than 80% of jobs remain unlisted on job boards, as reported by Forbes. That makes these redundant to both candidates and recruiters in various industries.
There are also substantial expenses involved when utilizing the tools that are available for executive recruiters these days. If your company is like most, you have periods of intense hiring needs, and then periods of time when you have very little need for search assistance. It does not make sense to invest the money required to purchase all of the tools available in addition to subscriptions to job boards, etc. when there is still no guarantee of finding the right candidate.
What a professional recruiter does: Because executive recruiting is our full time job and passion, we invest heavily in tools and resources that allow us to strategically target very specific candidate pools. Our recruiters are constantly working to build relationships with peak performers within their area of focus, listening to their concerns and goals, and learning about the types of opportunities that passive candidates would be open to hearing about. By outsourcing your recruiting needs to an experienced headhunter, you can minimize the time and money spent scouring job boards and other recruiting tools and reach top qualified talents.
Delays in Hiring Decision
All companies have their own set of internal dynamics, and culture. WE have found that often times, hiring managers that may very well have a truly critical role to fill, are nevertheless not comfortable pushing back against a supervisor when they are dragging their feet in giving feedback on a candidate, or in moving the interview process forward.
Losing momentum in a search is a dangerous situation, because good candidates do not have a long shelf life, and when a company goes more than a week and has not set up the next interview for a candidate or followed through with an offer after earlier interviews, there is a very real risk of losing top talent, who is being whisked through the interview process by your direct competitor.
What a professional recruiter does: Considered that the company is paying for a service, and has formally asked for our assistance in filling a role, senior management is on high alert to get the interview process moving without delays. As professional 3rd party executive recruiters, we are typically able to cut through internal politics, and focus on getting exemplary candidates through a company’s interview process, and ultimately, hired.
3 Compelling Reasons Why it Makes Sense to Outsource your Recruiting Needs
1) Ability to connect with passive candidates from your direct competitors
2) Cost Savings. Working with recruiters that have invested significant amounts of money on high -tech sourcing tools that allow us to identify very specific skill sets and target them for our client companies. It is much smarter to let your 3rd party recruiter invest in the monthly overhead on these tools and then utilize her services when you do have a critical hiring needs, rather than incurring those expenses yourself, with the likelihood that you will not be utilizing them on a monthly basis, even though you will be paying for them.
3) Candidates typically share much more information with 3rd party executive recruiters as opposed to internal recruiters for a variety of reasons. Finding out the true motivating factors in what it would take for a candidate to make a change, and to help coach the hiring manager during the interview process on what to focus on, as well as assisting in the offer stage, can make the difference between landing your opponents star performer for your own team.
If this makes sense to you, please feel free to reach out to International Search Consultants for all of your critical fill recruiting needs.
Since 1999, our team of 15 experienced executive recruiters have excelled in identifying and have delivered exceptional candidates to our Clients interview table, and are ready to dive into a search after one call with you.
Order a search today!
