There’s no need to choose between relying on just your in-house human resources (HR) team or an outsourced professional staffing agency or headhunter to handle your hiring — they can work together as effective partners!
Whether your organization needs to hire talent quickly or wants to keep tabs on top industry professionals for future openings, professional recruiting firms can offer you valuable resources. How, exactly, do recruitment and staffing agencies work? Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, how can a recruiting agency or headhunter work with you and complement your role as a human resource professional?
First, we’ll talk about some of the benefits of combining a third-party staffing firm with your internal HR resources. Then, we’ll share our best tips for getting the most out of such a partnership.
What Can a Staffing Firm Do For Me?
A professional recruiting firm can help meet your needs by offering direct hire or contract-to-hire staffing services.
Direct hire staffing is when a third-party professional recruiter sources, screens, and places a qualified candidate on the end-user client’s payroll. Contract-to-hire staffing, on the other hand, offers more flexibility for the end-user client in that the selected candidate is on a contract with the option to hire the employee directly after their contract ends. The contract employee is paid via the recruiting firm’s payroll while they work for the end-user client.
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5 Benefits of Using a Recruiter For HR Professionals
Reason #1 Save your business time
As an HR professional, you have a lot of other responsibilities to take care of without reading through dozens (or even hundreds) of applications and resumes to find exceptional candidates to interview for one job — let alone multiple positions at once.
Partnering with a professional recruiting firm can help you save time and effort by sourcing and screening candidates on your behalf based on your specifications, needs, and goals. Recruiting and staffing headhunters write and develop detailed job descriptions, run reference checks and, in some cases, handle candidate contract negotiations on your behalf.
Here’s what one of our clients has to say about working with the recruiters at 4CR:
“There have been multiple instances where I’ve been given a deadline to fill multiple positions in a short amount of time, and I love how they always find and provide us with amazing quality candidates that not only meet, but exceed our expectations, which in turn, helps us achieve our organizational goals.” — Jason D., an employee in Florida’s education industry.
Reason #2 Extensive pools of candidates
Since their sole job is to source, screen, and place top candidates with organizations across many industries, professional staffing agencies or headhunters continuously strive to develop relationships with an abundance of candidates with varying skills and experience levels. This provides your company, and HR department specifically, with extended reach and an advantage over competitors who rely exclusively on in-house teams.
Furthermore, because recruiting firms and headhunters are not employees of your company, they can cross into the gray area of recruiting candidates from your competition without your business breaking the unspoken “gentlemen’s agreement” that prohibits most companies from poaching employees from one another.
Here’s what one of our clients has to say about how the 4 Corner recruiting team brings them the best candidates:
“What I like most about 4 Corner Resources is that while we have a process of farming out requests to many different partners, 4 Corner Resources partners with various parts of the business to better understand the requirements for the position which is often not something that one can properly articulate with a job posting.
Other providers we’ve worked within the past tend to send resumes in mass, requiring hours of pouring through the information that yields very little potential in fulfilling the position. 4 Corner Resources receives the information, partners with us to find out what is most important, and sends us only the candidates that fit not just the positions posted, but also matches candidates to our company culture.” — Joe S., an employee in the New York healthcare industry.
Reason #3 Greater access to resources
In addition to being well-versed in recruitment laws and processes, experienced professional recruiters tend to be highly informed of current hiring trends and the needs of employers in different industries. One of the most significant benefits of using a recruiter is that they have access to extensive recruiting databases, candidate networks, and other resources. All of these things, in addition to the knowledge and expertise they have honed through years of experience in the industry, help to attract a broader and deeper pool of applicants.
Here’s what one of our clients has to say about how the headhunters at 4 Corner help them with their recruiting and staffing needs:
“The personalized attention that is given to us as clients and the willingness to work with us to find excellent candidates, even when we are looking for people with unconventional skill sets.” — Rafael M., an employee at a Florida government agency.
Reason #4 Recruiting knowledge and strategies that work
Companies that have years of experience recruiting and staffing for other businesses can apply the knowledge they have gained to benefit your organization. Veteran recruiting firms will implement proven recruiting strategies to source, screen, and place more qualified candidates with your company. An effective recruiting strategy can help your organization stand out from competitors; enabling you to recruit the talent you need to meet growing business goals.
Reason #5 Increase company efficiency
Partnering with professional staffing agencies or headhunters tends to be more cost-effective in the long run than hiring an extensive team of in-house recruiters to handle your recruiting and staffing needs. Whether your company hires frequently or infrequently, using a professional recruiting firm can save money and relieve stress. By using a staffing firm as needed, companies that hire new personnel only a few times a year don’t have to waste resources and budget to employ someone for such a limited task. Additionally, working with a professional staffing agency helps to lessen the workload for understaffed and overworked in-house recruiting teams.
How HR Staff and Headhunters Can Work Together Effectively
There’s no need to choose between relying on just your in-house human resources (HR) team or an outsourced professional staffing agency or headhunter to handle your hiring — they can work together as effective partners.
This partnership can take the weight of many time-consuming recruitment tasks off of your HR department’s shoulders so they can focus on their day-to-day responsibilities and “big picture” initiatives. At the same time, you’ll have confidence that your open positions are being filled by the most qualified candidates thanks to the expertise and experience professional staffing agencies or headhunters can provide.
Here are a few ways your HR department can work hand-in-hand with a professional staffing agency or headhunter to enhance your recruitment and hiring processes.
Tip #1: Form a hiring strategy together
As we outlined above, a staffing firm typically offers a variety of professional staffing services, such as direct placement, contract temporary staffing, and contract-to-hire staffing. If you don’t know which type of services you should be utilizing, one of the major benefits of using a staffing agency is that they can help you figure it out.
Professional recruiters and headhunters will screen and place candidates based on a combination of their market knowledge and the criteria you provide. The more accurate and specific information you can give them about your organization and its needs, the better aligned your resulting candidates will be.
Therefore, to experience an effective partnership with a professional staffing agency, your HR department needs to help them truly understand your goals and expectations. This means giving an in-depth explanation of your company culture, values, beliefs, day-to-day processes, and both short and long-term business goals — then you can work together to form a hiring strategy that results in finding the right candidates.
Tip #2: Leverage effective recruitment strategies and practices
Reputable professional staffing agencies and headhunters have years of experience recruiting for businesses of various sizes operating across a multitude of industries. An in-house HR professional may not possess that varied level of recruiting experience, and therefore may lack knowledge with certain position types…and rightfully so. With so many other core HR functions to handle, they probably don’t have enough capacity to research the nuances associated with every possible position.
Professional staffing agencies are able to apply their depth of knowledge and market reach to benefit your organization. By implementing the most effective recruitment strategies and practices, they can place the best possible candidates with your company. A proven, successful recruiting strategy can help your organization stand out from competitors and recruit the talent you need to meet your future business goals.
Tip #3: Accelerate your hiring process
One study found that lengthy hiring practices and difficulties finding suitable talent were two of the key things keeping managers from hiring. Another found that the best job candidates are only on the market for an average of ten days before accepting an offer.
You can experience an expedited hiring process by ensuring that your HR department and its professional staffing agency partner are on the same page. This way, each can play their own role to make the hiring process more efficient without any unnecessary overlap that complicates or extends the process.
For example, staffing professionals are able to write and develop detailed, effective job descriptions — but only if they have the information they need to write one that actually aligns with the open role and will attract the right candidates. If your HR department works effectively with its professional staffing agency or headhunter to give them the direction they need in a timely manner, the posting can be shared with their network sooner.
One of the benefits of using a staffing agency is that its recruiters are continuously and proactively cultivating relationships with both active and passive job seekers. This means that once a job description is ready, they can begin sourcing and screening qualified applicants with little to no downtime. In fact, at 4 Corner Resources (4CR), our goal is to have a fully screened and qualified candidate for non-leadership roles within just 48 hours!
Tip #4: Divvy up responsibilities
There are many day-to-day duties of the HR department that don’t include reading through an endless stack of resumes to find the best candidates to interview for just one job opening — let alone multiple vacancies at once. Professional staffing agencies can help your employees save time, energy, and resources by handling the up-front and often tedious aspects of recruiting on your behalf.
This can include writing and posting job descriptions, sorting through resumes, running reference checks, and initially screening candidates. Then, they’ll pass off short-listed candidates to your internal HR department. It will then become your responsibility to handle the core HR functions of conducting any final interviews and ultimately selecting a candidate to extend an offer. This way, you aren’t wasting time looking at subpar resumes or interviewing an unqualified candidate — the best fits are delivered right to you!
Tip #5: Allow your HR department to focus on onboarding
If you can rely on a professional staffing agency to handle your front-end recruiting tasks and attract top talent, your internal team will be empowered to focus on one of its core HR functions — onboarding. When your HR department and professional recruiters join forces, it becomes simple to give each individual a seamless, pleasant experience as they move from being an applicant to your employee.
With more time freed up to focus on the onboarding process, your HR department can give each new employee an excellent first impression of your company and set them up for success in their new role. One of the major duties of the HR department is working to ensure the new hires placed by its professional staffing agency will be retained long-term — which requires time and effort. One of the key benefits of using a staffing agency is the freed-up time and resources that make it possible for HR to prioritize onboarding!
Empower Your HR Department By Partnering With a Professional Staffing Agency
Ultimately, a professional staffing agency or headhunter should act and feel like an extension of your internal team. The key to success here is working with a recruiter who is the right fit for your business — not just any business.
The more time you spend working with a job recruiter or headhunter who demonstrates extensive experience and expertise, the more they will get to know your company. The better the recruiter knows you, the more they can help sell your company and make it stand out in a competitive job market to candidates. That’s why at 4CR, we take the time and effort to truly understand your business and its needs before recruiting on your behalf.
Our client-centric approach is just one of the many reasons we’re continually ranked among the top Orlando staffing agencies. We are also a nationally renowned professional staffing agency that works with businesses of all sizes around the United States.
For more tips on how your company can get the most out of working with a recruiter or to start your partnership today, reach out to one of our staffing experts.
