What if there was a way to have everything you wanted?

When HR Professionals select a recruitment partner, sometimes they have to prioritize their wish list. Each client will have different expectations for the relationship but we're pretty sure, based on our experience, that the core objectives will be universal across all businesses and sectors.

Here are some of those recruitment related objectives that HR teams are looking to achieve when engaging with a recruitment partner:

• Reduce time to hire
• Reduce recruitment spend
• Improve candidate coverage
• Improve the quality of candidates being submitted
• Improve the efficiency of the recruitment process

These objectives will be ranked in various different ways, depending on the specific needs of the business. For example, if the risk profile of a particular open role is set to critical, the objective of reducing recruitment spend may be set to the lowest priority or be removed all together.

Setting the criticality of a hard to fill role aside, it's fair to say that every CFO within every company would rank a reduction in recruitment spend as a high priority. Recruitment hasn't been cheap traditionally and the stark lack of alternatives to the percentage of annual salary fee structure has meant that saving money in this space has always been a challenge. 

Recruitment as a Service

There are other alternatives available for those HR Professionals who seek value for money. Recruitment as a Service providers are rare but there are some agencies out there that charge clients based purely on consumption of services.

Research is required though as some recruitment companies say they provide an 'as a service' model but when taking a closer look, more often than not, it turns out to be a monthly retainer model. We've put together a useful article on '5 Must Have Features to Look for in a Recruitment as a Service Pro... This will help HR Professionals ensure that they know what they're getting from their agency and also inform that alternatives to the traditional recruitment model are available.

Improving Efficiency

Recruitment is not the only task within the HR Professional's remit. The majority of our customers come to us when recruitment activity begins to dwarf all other HR tasks. Recruitment processes need to be well defined and supported with new and innovative approaches. Some recruitment as a service providers offer video screening. Feedback from our client base has been spectacular in this regard.

In the olden days, hiring teams would have a shortlist of candidates on paper. HR would spend time synchronizing busy calendars to execute a pre-screen. In some cases, paper personas turn out to be very different to the in-person personas during the pre-screens. This means precious time has been wasted and the time to hire has been needlessly increased. 

Enter the video pre-screen. Some world class recruitment agencies provide recorded pre-screens and resumes. The hiring team can watch the pre-screen on their device of choice, anytime, anywhere. Valuable calendar space is not taken up and the pre-screen's position in the recruitment process has been moved from hiring team to recruitment agency. We've put together an in-depth article about the benefits of video screening called 'Effective Candidate Screening: How Video Screening Can Save Time a...

Quality Candidates

What if every candidate search was a 'One Hit Wonder'? Carrying out one search and finding the perfect candidate is the stuff dreams are made of. It's extremely rare but if you work with the right agency, certainly not impossible.

Here are a few things to look for when selecting a recruitment partner for your business.

- Have the recruitment consultants actually worked within your industry?

You wouldn't hire a plumber to replace a window would you? This idea can be applied within recruitment too. Hiring teams that are looking for highly skilled tech resources would feel very comfortable working with a recruitment partner that has actual tech sector experience. What would that level of comfort be if the recruitment consultant had just graduated from art college and had no previous recruitment experience?

The best in class recruitment agencies will ensure that their consultants have industry specific experience. Using the tech sector as an example, this is important in terms of the technology stacks businesses use. The range and type of technology deployed across a business will be unique. Consultants that are able to understand the nuances of development platforms, programming languages and SaaS products will be far better placed to source exactly the right candidates for technical roles. This premise can also be applied across multiple different industries.

- Are there customer case studies available for review and cross check?

A good recruitment agency will have many happy customers. Transparency and integrity are extremely important factors in business. Asking to speak with a current or past client shouldn't be an issue at all. If they can do what they say they can, this will be represented within client testimonials and case studies.

- The Cultural Aspect

Everybody is different. This applies to businesses too. Great recruiters will put heavy emphasis on the cultural aspects of the role, the hiring team and the business as a whole. More and more businesses are deploying a culture first strategy. This means that finding the right personality is the top priority. Essential technical skills can be taught on the job if there is a skills gap acknowledged before hiring. 

We've put together a super article that will help HR Professionals compare the benefits of in-house recruitment against employing the services of an external recruitment partner. You can find that article here: 'In-House Recruitment versus Recruitment as a Service: Choosing the...

We sincerely hope that this post has been useful. Should you like to find out more about the options available to HR Professionals looking for a recruitment partner, visit us at www.schwarzandvogel.com

If you'd like to speak directly with the author of this article, you can mail Richard at richard.riddett@schwarzandvogel.com

Thanks and happy recruiting!