Why Employers Use Recruiters
Written By: Chris Akins Posted On: March 25. 2009 | Comments: (3)
Let’s face it, third party recruiters are paid very well for their work. And in an economy of high unemployment and ready availability of qualified candidates, some believe recruiter fees are not justified. This argument appears to be sound on the surface, but there are still some very good reasons for employers to use recruiters. Here are a few…
Flooding
The abundance of candidates in the market during periods of high employment is both a benefit and a detriment to corporate human resources. The common logic is that HR should be able to simply post a job ad and get plenty of candidates.
This is true. However, I have found that many company HR organizations actually get flooded and overwhelmed by the sheer volumes of resumes they receive. And the sad fact is that most of the resumes received for any given job ad do not show the required qualifications or experience for that job.
Many (most even) corporate HR and internal recruiters turn to third party recruiters to seal the flood gates.
A good third party recruiter doesn’t simply send resumes to his or her clients. The best recruiters have embedded processes within their organizations, like Trident’s TalentMatch™ process, which ensures that all candidates are properly screened to ensure they are appropriate for the position and company in terms of functional skills, education, experience, personality and “soft” skills.
The work of a recruiter does not stop once the resumes are submitted. Experienced recruiters understand the need to manage the complete hiring process, which includes not only finding, screening and submitting qualified candidates, organizing interviews, getting feedback from all parties, negotiating offers, and conducting reference checks and background investigations. And throughout the entire process, the recruiter must manage expectations of both the candidate and the client to maximize the probability that once an offer is made to a candidate, he or she will accept.
By developing relationships with skilled third party recruiters, corporate HR can dramatically decrease their workloads, enabling them to focus on other key HR roles such as managing unions, benefits, grievances, workman’s compensation claims, etc.
Likewise, hiring managers can focus on their jobs instead of screening countless resumes for their open positions, most of which will not have the required skills and experience present.
While partnering with corporate HR to ensure the smooth operating of the hiring process is the bread and butter of the third party recruiter, he or she can add value to the client in a number of other ways.
Functional expertise
The most successful recruiters specialize in a particular industry or functional skill set. Take the Trident Consulting model as an example. In the Trident model we employ both Candidate Recruiters and Account Executives.
In Trident, our Candidate Recruiters specialize in specific functional skills sets, such as engineering, supply chain management, executive leadership, transitioning military officers and technicians, and many others. This gives each CR in depth knowledge of the functions, experiences and skills sets of our candidates, which enables them to better screen each candidate and match them with the most appropriate positions.
Likewise, each Trident Account Executive works with clients in specific industries, such as Energy, Aerospace, Defense, Construction and others. By specializing in specific industries, our AE’s learn the language of the industries, how their industries operate, the cultures, etc. This promotes better understanding of our clients needs, which makes for stronger relationships.
Most often, the HR function will not have the depth of knowledge of the skills sets required by their hiring managers for open positions. This is not a knock on HR. HR managers are busy people, who specialize in human resources. They are HR professionals, not engineers, project managers, financial officers, IT managers, etc.
By capitalizing on a recruiter’s industry and functional skills expertise, corporate HR managers are able to ensure that the hiring managers they are supporting have access to the most relevant and skilled candidates available.
Connections
Another valuable tool a third party recruiter brings to the table is connections. The nature of the job requires recruiters to make hundreds (or even thousands) of connections with professionals within their specializations. The best recruiters form relationships that may span many years with people they have assisted in finding jobs, or hiring managers who they have helped. This generally provides recruiters with a wider network of potential employees for their clients.
That being said, professional recruiters do not steal from their clients. Put another way, ethical recruiters do not actively recruit from their clients. When a talented individual decides its time to leave his or her organization, they often contact their recruiter for assistance. This enables the recruiter to bring a pool of talent to the search beyond those candidates that have registered on the major job boards.
So are you convinced?
Recruiting is a tough industry, and good recruiters are not easy to find. This post has attempted to show some of the value that third party recruiters bring to the table, even in economies with high unemployment and a large pool of available candidates.
As a parting shot, I would only say that there are many other functions recruiters perform. Managing the hiring process is a large part of what recruiters do, but not the only part. There is no doubt that the fees are substantial, but so is the value that a good recruiter brings to the organization, and that value can be measured in real terms.
If you would like to learn more about Trident’s Talent Acquisition services please contact us at 805-624-6509, or email us at cakins@trident-consulting.net.
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Dear Chris,
I’m almost 50, and as you might know facing lots of new experiences. There is one “old” habit remaining unchanged and that has to do with wisdom. I’m not saying I am!
I’ve had small contact with Walter in a discussion about SCM, who advised me to visit the consulting website. So this is that.
I see simmilar trends in SCM and HRM. Volume, selection, negotiating, dealing, availability, connections, competences, judgement, processes, fear, discision taking actions etc.
The essence for me is that what we do, should at least is not haave the effect as what we do not want to happen to our selve(s). By awareness.
Further we should consider the effect on others. With awareness.
Having said this, brings me to the point in above article where you state HRM overloaded with resumés not fitting to the requirements.
1. To be honest. Not so many HRM people know how to make the requirements specification. If its clip and clear, others in the company can/will do the job or you will find no one to do that, since no one in the company wants to do it. How come?
So brings me to the outcome of a 1991 investigation in the Netherlands about: ” the horse with 5 legs found!”, and the position of that horse over the next 2 years.
It seems that less then 2% still is in position after 2 years! That’s a pitty after having investigated so many, given so many energy, trained, developed, fired, moved others, expectations met/unmet etc.
SCM and HRM, to my oppinion, have a lot of the same characteristic elements. It’s people’s business so all human behaviour will sooner or later come forward.
2. Why do you think German law was still active in the ninthees avoiding temporarely employment agencies to be active? It was seen as slavery?
3. How many people do you think are daily active as an employee of a temporarely employment agency in the Netherlands? Differs probably not muchg from your’s. What about the earnings, and the most important one, how is it possible to make that earnings if in parallel agreements A,B and C where set up with the people who have to do the work!?
It for sure has brought a lot of overhead jobs!, but do they ad value?
4.How qualified can you be as a consultant for various markets, companies, technologies with each its various cultures, customers and world wide suppliers?
For sure it adds a lot of costs. It’s questionable if the investments result in economic pay back periods. Ofcourse that’s for your customer to decide but if I were you I would like to know myself also.
I’m very interested in your measuring results of the added value’s you mentioned.
So the smaller the world becomes, the more clear that we exploit people, colleages, companies, suppliers, each other. The long run is that someone will step on your door. I’m bach at the beginning of my comment statement, : awareness of our actions on others”. Is that what you want?
Peter
Peter,
You make some interesting observations. Ill try and address each in turn.
1. If I understand correctly you are asking about the value of staffing and/or temp employees. In your response you cite a Netherlands study showing that only 2% of temp/staff employees remain in position after 2 years. This is not surprising to me as most companies, at least in the US, use temporary or contract employees for very specific, time defined roles. Many employees also use staffing firms to fill positions that are considered non-professional, or use staffing arrangements as a “temp-to-hire” method to “try out” new employees before they bring them on full time.
The staffing, temp and contract recruitment model is very different from the direct placement, permanent hire model, and serves different purposes.
You do make an excellent point about having clear job requirements. I absolutely agree that the better the job description, the better the odds of finding a suitable employee.
However, I do not believe it falls to HR to define the jobs they are advertising. In all of the companies I have worked for and with, HR is simply an advocate for the hiring manager during the job search. The hiring manager retains the responsibility for clearly defining the job parameters and the candidate requirements.
As recruiters, we work closely with both the hiring manager and HR during the search, often spending a great deal of time trying to understand what “soft” skills are required, what cultural factors are involved, etc. in finding the “right” candidate.
Trident has been very successful in finding the “right” candidates as measured by the fact that in 5 years of operation, we have not had a single fall off for candidates we have placed. This is partially due to our formalized TalentMatch(TM) process, and partially because of the close ties we form with our clients.
The most important factor in this success, however, is likely the fact that our clients take great care in interviewing and selecting the “right” candidates. While we go to great lengths to deliver quality candidates to our clients, we do not take part in the hiring decisions. This is typically managed by the hiring managers, with HR involvement. We of course advise clients, but at the end of the day it is the client’s decision on who gets hired.
2. I am not familiar with employment law in the Netherlands. However, I find it counter-intuitive to classify staffing in the same category as slavery. By definition slaves are forced to do some kind of activity or work against their will, and usually without pay. Contractors, or those on temporary assignments, typically apply for the positions they are employed in and receive renumeration.
In the US, many people actually prefer to be on contracts as there may be significant tax benefits associated with 1099 work. Others accept temporary positions as a means of gaining experience and opening doors to longer term employment.
3. Im not certain I really understand the question, but I do sense that there is some concern over staffing agencies taking a portion of the salaries of those they send on assignment. To be clear, Trident does not take any portion of the salaries of our direct placement, staffing placement, or contract placement candidates. We get paid for our services by employers, not the candidates.
Candidates in all categories define their needs, and we seek to find them jobs that meet those needs, including salary, location, duration of employment, benefits, etc. Once a candidate is placed in a firm we bill the firm, not the candidate.
The value that recruiters such as Trident brings to our clients typically results in a reduction of overhead costs (recruiting) through the streamlining of the recruitment process. We also typically bear 100% of the risk in the recruitment process in that we conduct the searches, pre-screen the candidates, conduct reference checks, etc. prior to receiving our fees. We generally only receive fees if our referral is hired. If the referral is not hired we eat the operational costs expended on the search and qualification of our candidates.
If a hiring manager, or HR manager, at our clients were to conduct the search, the client would bear the costs of that search even for candidates that were not hired.
Recruiters add value in other ways as well, which are discussed in the blog post itself.
4. As an individual I cannot be an expert in all the industries Trident serves. However, Trident is an organization with professionals who have expertise in their individual areas.
All of the recruiters, trainers, and consultants employed by Trident are experts in their fields, many with years or even decades of operational experience.
As a company we target markets that we anticipate will improve profitability and long term growth. Like all companies, we then staff to address those markets. We do not take job assignments for which we are not qualified. When we identify a market we would like to enter, and do not have the expertise on hand, we recruit for that expertise.
Our client satisfaction rate of nearly 100% (with no major complaints) really speaks for our ability to deliver what we promise. In the rare instance a client is dissatisfied with what has been delivered, we work to quickly resolve the issues.
I hope this post has been helpful and answers some of your questions and concerns.
Warm regards,
Chris