When does it make (or not make) strategic business sense to hire an External Recruiter?  That’s the question on many of our client’s minds these days, now that hiring is heating up.  To answer that question we spoke to a number of our clients, Human Resource Executives, a Vice President at a well-known out-placement/consulting firm and finally, a nationally recognized economist and columnist for Forbes.com. This is the culmination of a three-part series based on that analysis.

I:  Who’s on Top Now: 6 Hot Hiring Trends

II:  Wooing Technology Talent’s Different: How’s Hiring Happening

III. Hiring? No Recruiter Required. (Read on…)

Newsflash!

According to the Fordyce Letter, only 8.4% of hiring is filled from Recruiting Agencies and Executive Search firms.

When not to hire a recruiter

  1. When employee turnover is virtually non-existent.
  2. When you’re hiring entry-level or unskilled talent and you’re not that picky.
  3. When there’s a hiring freeze.
  4. When your internal staff has enough friends to fill every job you’ve got open.
  5. When your open positions are filled in two weeks or less.

On the other hand,

You know you need a recruiter when…

  1. You posted a job and got or typically get less than 10 solid candidates for the position.
  2. You got 100+ candidates for the job and your selection processes not working and you’re feeling overwhelmed.
  3. Your hiring process for key contributors takes longer than 6 weeks.
  4. You are losing competitive market share, due to technical inferiority or issues around customer satisfaction, pricing, promotion or distribution.
  5. You need to rehire after a layoff or long hiring freeze.
  6. Your employee turnover is higher than average.
  7. You’re hiring a director level candidate or need a rare talent who’s most likely gainfully employed elsewhere.
  8. You’re planning on a significant competitive shift in technology, market or target customer base.
  9. You need to replace a current employee with someone more suited to the job and don’t want your current employee to leave until they are adequately replaced.
  10. None of the above but need help with your talent acquisition strategy and execution because you’re understaffed in HR or you’re having difficulty getting key consensus in the hiring process.

If any of these are true for you, chances are your company can’t afford to not hire a recruiter to stay competitive.

Smart companies will identify recruiters in their niche, and figure out which ones they know, like and trust … before they need them.  Then, when they really need them, they’ll be ready.

Hiring? No Recruiter Required

Connie Dorigan, Founder and Director of Recruiting, sees the food processing industry as the link between good living and good people. She’s the west coast’s most experienced and trusted food processing recruiter. She also provides Executive and Career Coaching and lots of free job search tools. Once you’ve connected with Connie, you’ll always be connected.

© 2018 Connie Dorigan. All rights reserved.

This is a general interest article and does not constitute specific or legal advice.

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