Staffing agencies' primary job is to find great candidates for their clients to fill a company's employment needs. Recruiters are experts in their field and can streamline this process to meet your company's needs. Professional recruiters can help identify your staffing needs, take control of a search for the right candidate, evaluate different candidates, and reduce the overall stress that hiring creates.
What do recruiters do?
A recruiter is someone who identifies high-quality candidates to fill a job vacancy at a company, working toward both the demands of an employer and future employees. Recruiters screen candidates to assess whether they meet the requirements outlined in the job description and whether they will be a good fit for the company. Recruiters act as the job seeker's advocate in the market and are often aware of opportunities that aren’t publicly advertised. It is crucial to clarify what services they provide to understand how using a recruiter could benefit your organization and how to hire a recruiter to find an employee. There are several ways in which a company can work with recruiters; here are a few common types:
Temp agency
Temp agencies hire individuals and send them to work for various companies temporarily. Temp hires are an excellent way for employers to “test drive” their employees; it’s a great way to check if they mesh with the culture and work ethic within the company.
Outplacement recruiters
Organizations can hire outplacement recruiters (AKA offboarding support) to seek work for laid-off employees. These services provide employees with many critical services, including:
- Career coaching within their industry
- Resume workshopping
- Job interview practice
Corporate recruiters/Internal recruiters
These professionals work for and represent a single organization; they are responsible for sourcing, salary negotiation, onboarding, and recommendations to the hiring manager and candidate. Large companies, such as Google and Amazon, utilize a large team of internal recruiters that know the ins and outs of their respective companies. Many corporate recruiters get bogged down with the organization's high demands and can fail to please others.
Retained recruiters/Third-party recruiters
Many companies do not need or capital to hire an internal recruiter full-time. Taking on an internal recruiter generally initiates a relationship for future hiring needs. For the countless companies that fit this criterion, working with a third-party recruiter such as J2T is a great option to secure outstanding candidates.
Benefits of working with a recruiter
Some benefits to working alongside a third-party recruiter include:
They give time back to managers
Managers can find it challenging to manage and recruit for a company simultaneously. Recruiters perform many activities behind the scenes to create a seamless process for candidates and clients alike, as their sole focus is to help your organization find the ideal candidate. Managers have a list of other responsibilities, and adding recruiting can steer them away from these areas of focus.
Third-party recruiters keep candidates engaged through the hiring process
A considerable portion of a recruiter's job is to keep clients engaged as they put them before companies. Offers often come in from various angles, and recruiters keep candidates informed while the process unfolds.
They are wholly dedicated to filling your company's role
Recruiters work around the clock to meet your company's needs. Employing a third-party recruiter often means you will work closely with a singular recruiter. However, you are taking on a team in close communication about your company's needs and putting forth viable candidates to fill your desired role.
They act as an intermediary between you and the candidates
Negotiation is an integral part of the hiring process; it is beneficial to use a third-party recruiter who can take in both client and candidate needs and lead toward a mutually beneficial agreement.
How to hire a recruiter to find an employee
There are several strategies concerning hiring a recruiter to find an employee; here are the top 3:
- Look for an established recruiting agency: Your business can hire a recruiting agency to look for candidates for any position you are seeking to fill.
- Search online: Experienced recruitment firms will likely advertise their company online, making it simple to reach out to utilize their services.
- Ask other businesses in the area: Hiring an external agency to recruit for a position is common among many organizations. Therefore, it is likely that other companies in the area will have recommendations on quality recruiters they have worked with in the past.
Why work with a recruitment agency?
Lower costs
A recruitment agency can save your company time and money by identifying better-qualified candidates. Your company will not have to filter through an influx of underqualified applicants or waste time interviewing poor matches. 59% of businesses use outsourcing to reduce expenses and therefore have access to agencies' networks to identify candidates, possibly cutting the candidate search from weeks to days. Companies often save money in areas such as
- Job posting advertisements
- Turnover
- Training costs: some recruitment agencies offer candidates the chance to participate in industry-specific training while searching for a job.
Recruiter specialization
Recruiter specialization is an integral part of finding the right hire for your team because the recruiter you partner with is an expert in your industry. Some recruitment agencies specialize in industry-specific hires; for example, J2T specializes in recruiting for the finance and accounting industries. This specialization will help your team in finding the right candidate as the recruiter will understand the nuances of your specific employment market. Recruitment agencies provide companies with access to years of market knowledge and use this experience to accurately present your company's offer to prospective candidates.
Success with previous clients
When hiring a recruiter to find an employee, ask to see a list of prior clients the company has worked with and customer testimonials. These will give you insight into whom the company has worked with and their success in making an informed decision on your company's needs.
Faster hiring
Recruitment agencies can shorten the timeline it takes your company to fill positions by using established databases, connections within their network, and access to systems that assist in locating people with specialized skills.
High-quality candidates
Using a recruitment agency increases the likelihood of securing a high-quality candidate. Agencies often have talent pools of referenced and screened candidates, meaning candidates will only be suggested after being carefully interviewed and assessed.
Close-knit relationships
Your company may also hire a recruiter to work closely with managers to understand the hiring needs of a position and to best meet hiring goals. Recruiters can initiate and grow high-quality relationships with their database of qualified active and passive talent to produce candidates as positions become available. Lastly, hiring a recruiter can help your company stay active with current social networks, platforms, and job boards to create and post job announcements.
When should you seek to outsource recruiting services?
You should seek out a recruiting service if:
- Your company is experiencing high turnover
Turnover can be an immense expense for any organization, regardless of size, not to mention the disruption in productivity and decrease in overall customer service that comes with high turnover. Turnover does not always reflect solely upon recruiting staff abilities; it can involve the recruiting function itself. By outsourcing recruitment, companies can address higher turnover as these services often provide better-qualified candidates and a better process from dedicated, experienced recruiters. The decision to outsource can be a quicker and cheaper way to halt turnover and can lead to a better candidate-culture fit.
- Your company is experiencing rapid growth
Companies that experience rapid growth or seasonal spikes can have difficulty meeting recruitment needs. Outside recruiting firms can take over internal processes and bring greater experience, efficiency, and technology to meet unprecedented growth periods or seasonal changes smoothly.
- Your company struggles to coordinate recruitment and onboarding
It is not uncommon to have difficulty finding and hiring qualified candidates promptly. This is not always due to inexperience but can stem from limited company resources and the commonality of human resources staff having other essential responsibilities on their plate. By working with an experienced recruiter that understands how to source, engage, contact, hire, and onboard candidates, your company can divert time and energy into other essential responsibilities.
A key aspect to remember is that the best time to seek outsourcing recruitment is before a problem sets in that may require you to do so. Unfortunately, companies fall into recruitment disadvantages without realizing it, but by looking into outsourcing this service early, you can streamline operations to help your business thrive.
Outsourcing statistics
- In 2018, the global outsourcing market was $85.6 billion.
- 78% of respondents in a Deloitte survey feel optimistic about their outsourcing relationship with other companies.
- The United States has the highest percentage of outsourced jobs worldwide, as almost 68% of companies utilize outsourcing.
- A report by technology firm NTT showed that out of 1,250 executives worldwide, 45% would choose to outsource soon due to disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- More than 93% of organizations are considering or have already adopted cloud services to improve outsourcing.
- Nearly 300,000 jobs get outsourced out of the United States alone annually.
How do recruiters get paid?
There are three main ways in which recruitment agencies accept payment. These include retained, contingent, and contained methods.
Retained payment
Using this method, recruiters charge fees to the company, which are paid regardless of whether the hired candidate comes from them. A retained recruiter is generally paid upfront but can also be paid in installments. Due to guaranteed payment, retained recruiters often commit to providing a high level of service to both the client and candidates.
Pros of retained payment
Because of guaranteed payment, agencies that use the retained method can properly resource and work through your search. This method may also require less work from the client, as the agency takes care of the search and vetting processes.
Cons of retained payment
Clients pay the agreed-upon fee if they don’t fill the role or fill it via another agency. Also, many retained agencies only cover more senior positions, generally over $200,000 annual salary.
Contingent payment
Contingency recruiting operates under the rule that the recruiter only gets paid if the company they work with hires a candidate directly from them. It is common for contingent recruiters to spend more time sourcing candidates from their network and less contacting passive candidates. Their costs are slightly lower than those of retained recruiters.
Pros of contingent payment
Clients only need to pay if they hire the candidate proposed to them by the agency, and contingency recruiters act as an extension of your team, bringing forth a more comprehensive range of candidates to interview and select.
Cons of contingent payment
Contingent recruiters are motivated to provide resumes to clients before other agencies do, meaning a portion of resume evaluation may fall on the client. These recruiters can be non-exclusive, meaning the hiring manager and human resources personnel can bear some of the weight of managing different parties.
Contained payment
Contained recruiting combines contingent and retained recruiting. Agencies that follow this model use a pay-for-performance method where clients only pay as the engagement they desire is delivered. Generally, clients pay a portion (33%) of the projected first-year cash total for compensation during the initiation of the arrangement, and they pay the rest according to certain milestones, such as viable candidates being brought forward or successful hires.
Pros of contained payment
Clients only pay as added value, meaning they don’t pay the entire bill if the agency does not deliver qualified candidates.
Cons of contained payment
This model is uncommon; it is much harder to find than the other two options.
The verdict on recruiting
Working with a recruitment agency can help your company in many areas, such as saving money, faster hires, producing high-quality candidates, and gaining access to a professional understanding of the industry. They can save your company valuable resources and create peace of mind knowing experts are taking care of your company's most valuable asset.
Written by Lauren Kemp
Lauren Kemp, Communications and Marketing Specialist at J2T, earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with a minor in Latin American studies and a Master of Science in Innovation and Management from Montana State University. Lauren hails from Montana and enjoys reading about the history of her home state. Her bucket-list items include touring the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, and taking an immersion trip to Chile to experience Latin American culture first-hand.
