This may seem like a self serving blog. It is. But facts and logic about in-house vs. outsourced recruiting make it real.
Here’s the answer, if you don’t want to read the whole blog: Use a Recruiter In A Candidate’s Market
Recently (TODAY, August 7, 2018) we did a search of typical online sites for recruiters. Usually, when we do this, the local competitor search and placement firms pop up first in the list. They too are always looking for quality recruiting staff. It’s the nature of our business.
Oddly, this time competitors weren’t there at the top of the list. Instead, an alarming number of companies close-in to our zip code, some we’ve even completed successful searches had job postings for internal recruiters, talent search specialists, talent acquisition managers, and so on.
It’s understandable that HR leaders are under pressure to solve the talent shortage and hiring a recruiter in-house may seem like a solution. It’s hard to find candidates in this market. Posting a job on the company career page is drawing fewer qualified applicants. And, sources like Indeed, and Zip Recruiter are producing volumes of low-quality and often high-risk candidates that require significant effort to sort through and qualify. Hiring a recruiter in-house is the wrong strategy that will delay results, and risks making more hiring mistakes.
Meanwhile, company’s job openings remain unfilled, and necessary productivity falls behind.
There’s a real flaw in the in-house strategy – especially in a Candidate’s Market. Search And Placement firms have expertise to deal with the affects of a candidate’s market. they have tools, technologies and other necessary recruiting resources.
Logic suggests it is unrealistic to expect a lone in-house “talent acquisition specialist” inside your company to do better than outsourced recruiting.
In a Candidate’s Market, now more than ever it’s time to recognize and rely on the creative methods that professional search and placement firms have developed, refined, and innovated to find the hidden market of candidates, the passive candidates, and to sort the good from the bad. That is efficient, fills jobs in less time and increases expected productivity sooner.
Other Observations
The best outsourced recruiting firms are doing what it takes to retain their recruiting talent. The average tenure of our recruiters is over 4.1 years.
The best recruiters are employed by search and placement firms, already. Search and placement firms have been staffing up in this market to meet the demand.
In this candidate’s market the applicants applying for in house recruiter jobs are those that are not hire-able by a search and placement firm likely because they can’t meet real recruiting performance standards. While it may say on the resume that the recruiter can recruit, recruiters interview recruiters differently to determine what performance level they really achieved.
Anyone capable recruiter hired in-house to do recruiting is always going to be a target for turnover. They will be seeking, or be recruited by, a search and placement firm that will pay commissions, have more open searches which creates potential for unlimited opportunity to earn income.
Leverage Search & Placement Firm Expertise
It’s easy to realize that building in-house recruitment requires more investment than the return. Simple math you can do is to add these costs:
- Cost of a fully loaded FTE on your staff. Estimate a minimum of $150,000 if the recruiter is qualified since you need to compete with commission-pay at market for the role.
- Tools, technology, licenses subscriptions to online resources, etc. These are not cheap. Many require IT support to setup. Estimate $25,000 per year.
- Cost of a bad hire, if your recruiter brings on an employee that does not work out. Consider unemployment costs, or workers compensation costs if the termination involved an accident. and then the cost to search again for a new hire.
Then subtract the fees you would normally pay to a reputable search and placement firm for the number of hires you will recruit.
Also consider the warranty that a search and placement form provide should the hire not work out even with your team’s best efforts to interview, select and hire the best candidate. Search and placement firms do their best to advise clients away from bad hires.
A Better Strategy
An outsourced recruiting firm like Barton Professional Placement Group is expert at what we do. Our full-time job is identifying quality candidates for client’s to be successful. The depth and breadth of our experience far exceeds any lone in-house recruiter inside your company. Consider a discussion with Barton Professional Placement Group to learn how your hiring priorities can become high priorities for us to achieve for you. Call us today.
