6 Questions You Must Ask Before Hiring Your Next SAP Recruiter

(My niche is SAP, however, this blog can be applied to any specialized area).

Okay, so you are tasked with hiring a 3^rd party SAP Recruiter to assist with SAP staffing at your company, and frankly, you don’t know where to begin.  Here is a list of questions that I think will help you get the information you need in making an informed decision. These questions are not in any particular order, and I wouldn’t say that one is more important than the other. They should be looked at as a whole.

1.  Are you specialized in SAP?

Many recruiters will say they are specialized, but it is important to further qualify this. There is a difference between being specialized in SAP and being specialized in IT, so be sure you dig deeper and ask if they recruit in any other IT areas. General IT recruiters that recruit in SAP and other technologies are not specialized. If a recruiter says they are niched in SAP that means all their focus should be spent recruiting SAP talent. I suggest asking the recruiter to provide the job titles of their last 5 placements (or more if you choose). You can also check the company’s open positions on their website.  Seeing a list of their current openings will help you quickly determine if they are specialized and also what they specialize in.

2. Tell me about your firm.

Ask the recruiter to tell you about their firm. How long have they been in business? How long have they specialized in SAP?  I would also ask the size of the team. The more recruiters on the team means more recruiters working for you. Essentially, if you hire that one recruiter, you are actually hiring the entire team.  Many firms with 5 or more recruiters on each specialized team are successful due to the team approach.  It goes without saying that working with an established company with a successful track record is always desirable; however, that is not to say that you shouldn’t choose a younger firm that hasn’t been around for 20 years.  Everyone has to start somewhere of course.

3. Do you have a proven process?

Recruiting has two parts: finding the candidate and delivering the candidate. Ask the recruiter to outline their specific process in how they find their talent.  Then ask how they deliver the talent to you. This means what process that candidate goes through before they are presented to you for consideration. Ideally, the recruiter should have a very specific process for finding and delivering candidates, and they should be able to articulate that concisely.

When you hire an SAP recruiter and pay their fee for successfully placing talent in your organization, you are not just paying the fee for the candidate—you are largely paying for the recruiting process.

4.  What is your average time to fill?

Ask the recruiter what their time to fill is and ask them to specify for both contract and permanent.  Once the search is initiated, you’ll want to know how many days it will take to begin seeing qualified candidates.

Time to fill from the date the candidate is presented until offer acceptance can be skewed because that time to fill can largely be dependent upon how quickly hiring managers can interview candidates and get them through the process.  In addition, there may also be delays that occur for reasons like scheduling issues or holidays.

5. Do you provide references?

Ask for references! It’s that simple.  You can also do your own homework by checking the recruiter’s LinkedIn for recommendations and checking the company’s website for testimonials, for example.

Ultimately, if you want to speak to someone directly that can speak to the recruiter’s quality of work, they should have no problem providing that. If they do, I would be concerned.

6. Does your firm work on a contingent or retained basis?

You want to ask the firm what search options they offer.  All searches are not the same so all searches are not meant for contingent or retained.  The best case scenario is for the recruiter to learn as much about your company, projects and position as they can and then make a recommendation on how to approach the search. Some firms even offer a semi-retained option which can offer many of the benefits of retained but with less up front commitment. Ideally, you should work with a firm that takes a consultative approach.

I hope that you found this information helpful. My goal was to provide you with information you could apply immediately. I welcome your feedback and if you have any questions please feel free to email me at mbaskin@mageeresource.com or you can call me directly at 318-683-1108.

6 Questions You Must Ask Before Hiring Your Next SAP Recruiter