When to Keep Recruiting In-House Vs. Recruitment Process Outsourcing

An Internal Recruiter Vs. Recruitment Process Outsourcing

One of the most consistent themes I hear when I speak with executives of growing companies is not having skilled recruiting resources in place and facing challenges with their recruitment process. Is this something you are experiencing too? If so, you may be wondering what the available options are.

Did you know according to SHRM, nearly two-thirds of companies outsource at least some of their recruitment efforts simply because they either need to hire quickly or they wanted access to a vendor’s talent and expertise. If you are feeling conflicted about what's the right solution for your recruiting function, ask yourself these simple questions below.

Who is Currently Doing your Recruiting Process?

Some organizations will try to cut costs by tasking an administrative assistant with recruitment efforts - is this you? We see clients who have asked team members to take on recruiting without applicable expertise and unfortunately, it doesn't go quite as they may have hoped. Often, the appointed employee ends up frustrated, overworked and sometimes even disgruntled. On the flip side, leadership is equally frustrated by the poor results. Do yourself a favor and let your employee do his/her job that they were hired for, and defer your recruiting to experienced recruiters.

With recruiting, businesses typically go one of two routes or a combination of both: either hiring an internal recruiter(s) or outsourcing the function to a consultant(s).

As a Recruiting Consultant myself, I work with growing businesses to help manage their constant hiring needs on an ongoing basis and I also work with clients that need high volume recruitment through peak hiring season. In both of these scenarios, I act as an extension of my client's team and interact with the candidates on their behalf and work directly with the hiring managers. An added advantage for our clients is our ability to review current challenges of their recruiting process and make recommendations to improve both efficiency and effectiveness. When clients outsource their recruiting to a firm like ours at Helios, they gain access to tools and resources that they don’t already have.

Will Outsourced Recruitment Reduce Costs?

We all know the sayings "time is money" and "you get what you pay for". Rapidly growing organizations need quality hires and they need them quickly. By outsourcing the recruitment process, think about how easily you can reduce the cost per hire dramatically; with other recruiting models, you could be paying a fee of 20% - 25% of one candidate’s salary. While this is pretty standard search pricing for one position, if you have multiple job openings, this can really add up! By choosing to outsource, consultants can act as an internal recruitment system handling anything and everything related to recruitment functions.

In summary, I have worked with clients needing assistance with recruiting for a quick ramp-up period and I have also worked with clients on a much larger scale where they have outsourced the entire recruitment function to us in efforts to streamline their process and provide quality hires. In doing so, we were able to effectively research their current recruitment model, implement and make effective changes/suggestions as needed. We also have worked with clients who felt like hiring an internal Recruiter made the most sense for their organization, and helped them find and hire the right Recruiters for their teams. If you still feel unsure about the right decision for your business and want to explore your options, give Helios HR a call and we can conduct a recruitment assessment to help you make that decision!