Companies hire recruiters for one reason and one reason only: they think that these recruiters can help them get the PERFECT fit for their job openings. Yes, some companies hire these recruiters for other reasons, for cost reasons. They find it cheaper to outsource recruiters, rather than to directly hire them. But the primary reason why recruiters are worth their money is that recruiters are believed to see through applicants better.

Let’s talk about how the usual recruitment process happens. The process unfolds when the job post is made and recruiters receive applications, sometimes reaching the hundreds or thousands. Next, recruiters input all the received resumes in an applicant tracking system, which then sorts out resumes according to certain keywords and phrases, such as experience, schools attended, key skills, location, and the like. Out of these sorted resumes, recruiters then spend at most 5 seconds looking at each resume and select a handful for an initial interview.

The process continues with the recruiter doing the said interviews, and further narrowing down the options to a select few. These last 3 or 4 candidates are then invited for a final interview, where the hiring manager will ultimately decide the ONE applicant that is eventually hired.

No wonder there’s a need to match the right person for the job. A lot of investments – in many shapes and forms – are involved with hiring a candidate. There’s the obvious one, which is financial. Companies will spend money onboarding and training their new hires. They have to take care of their salary and benefits. Secondly, they will spend valuable TIME and EFFORT training and mentoring these newbies. Lastly, there’s the opportunity cost. With selecting a candidate to hire, they are letting go of the others in the process. Companies have to think also about their competitors getting these other candidates, which have now become their competitors.

For recruiters to find the PERFECT candidate, they have to tweak their hiring process and make the entire process an EXPERIENCE for the candidates. They might want to:

1. Engage candidates in interactive activities and events, instead of the usual job fairs.

2. Use social media to interact with the candidates throughout the hiring process.

3. Make the process more “personal” instead of being too mechanical.

The systems are there, and the concepts are in place. Recruiters only need the attitude and motivation to look for that PERFECT hire. If this happens, in the end, everyone wins.