What is the difference between in-house and agency recruiting?

When a company needs to find and hire candidates, ti basically has two options: Handling recruitment in-house or outsourcing it to a recruitment agency.

Recruitment agencies are companies who will help you find and shortlist top candidates for a certain fee.

If you handle recruitment in-house, it would be best to hire a dedicated recruiter or even develop a recruiting team. If you can’t afford that, then one of your existing employees should take on the recruitment tasks.

Advantages and disadvantages of in-house and agency recruiting

Main advantages of in-house recruiting is that

If you use a recruitment agency, you should be able to find more qualified candidates in a shorter amount of time. However, it will cost you more.

On the other hand, in-house recruiting will probably cost you less, but you will have to invest more time and effort into finding the right candidate.

There are many pros and cons of using recruitment agencies, as well as of using an in-house recruitment model.

In-house vs agency recruiting: Which is better?

Both recruiting models have certain advantages and disadvantages. Which one will suit your better depends on your current and future hiring needs and available resources.

If you need to fill a few hard to fill positions in a really short amount of time, using a specialized recruitment agency might be a better choice. Recruitment agencies are also a good choice when you need to hire a lot of temporary employees (for example, seasonal hiring).

On the other hand, if you’re company will grow an keep hiring, you might be better off by investing into building your own, in-house recruiting team. That way, you will have a greater control over your employer brand. You will also be able to build your own talent pool of qualified candidates, which can significantly improve your time, cost and quality of hire.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be an either or choice. Some of the best companies I know successfully combine both recruiting models. Their in-house recruiting teams occasionally collaborate with a dedicated recruitment agency. That way, they are able to make the most out of both worlds.