Recruiting is something that every company has to do, but very few do well. Considering the impact of the wrong hire on your business, the pain of losing good staff, and the ability to pick the right people, recruiting should be much more strategic. Yet, in most organisations, recruiting can be a drain on time, a routine chore, or something that somebody, at the end of the day, needs to get to.
In the face of these challenges, many companies – especially smaller ones – don’t have access to the networks that can lead them to the kind of people who add significant value to their company. At least not on an ongoing basis. It is certainly possible to recruit opportunistically by contacting staff agents once you have an opening to fill, pinning hopefuls on your company Facebook page, or sifting through job-listing databases, but this is not the most effective method. Why not outsource recruitment to specialist recruitment firms that know where to find the right colleagues? For many companies, there are distinct benefits to outsourcing recruiting.
The Efficiency Factor
First is efficiency. Writing job descriptions, reviewing resumés or CVs, conducting multiple interviews and training the hired candidate will cost you a lot of time and money. Getting your recruitment outsourced means that your HR department or HR function is free to do other things without focusing on recruitment. Instead, they can focus on other activities, such as employee development, retention strategies, and overall HR management.
With their optimised processes and technology, third-party recruitment specialists often deliver candidates faster than a potential internal team could, using some of the deepest databases and AI-powered tools around. Managed service providers, meanwhile, also have access to a passive candidate pool—applicants who aren’t necessarily job-hunting but are nevertheless open to exploring other opportunities.
Access to Top Talent
Access to a wider and deeper talent pool is arguably one of the best reasons to outsource your recruitment. Recruitment agencies make it their mission to find the very best talent. They are experts in their fields and have the tools to reach the best local and foreign candidates. As a business expanding overseas and with overseas staffing needs, the recruiting process will be significantly easier with the help of a staffing agency, especially if you are looking for specialist engineering roles in niche industries where there is often a shortage of skilled candidates.
What’s more, agencies often have established networks of contacts with senior industry professionals, and these contacts can be made available to work on your behalf. This is especially important at executive and senior levels, where a good ‘fit’ is important to business success.
Cost Savings
At first glance, outsourcing recruitment might seem like an extra expense. However, if you look at the total cost of hire, including advertising, time spent by internal staff, and the potential costs of a bad hire – outsourcing is often more economical. A recruitment agency operates on a fee basis, which can provide a more predictable and manageable expenditure compared with the hidden costs of putting the burden on internal staff. Outsourcing can have a large impact on the cost of turnover as well. Poor hires can be very expensive – not just in terms of the salary you pay them but also in terms of the interrupted workflow that can affect the rest of the team and productivity. Employing professional recruiters who can better assess candidates for their fit within your organisation is an excellent way to improve this result.
Scalability and Flexibility
Companies can have fluctuating hiring demands in times of exponential growth or seasonal peaks. The ability to scale your recruitment activity quickly can be the difference between staying ahead of the curve and keeping projects on schedule or getting your business left behind. This can be particularly important in engineering disciplines, where timely access to skilled professionals such as mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and project managers is crucial. Ongoing contingent recruitment allows flexibility to upscale or downscale to reflect your hiring needs without increasing the fixed costs of an internal HR team.
The scalability extends well beyond the number of hires. Let’s say your company needs to scale up its recruiting activity in a new geographical area or industry. The expertise and resources are readily available from a well-equipped recruitment firm that does not require a steep learning curve. Your staffing partner may also provide Employer of Record (EOR) services, making hiring internationally much simpler. This will fine-tune your business activities to match economic conditions and allow you to capture unforeseen opportunities as they kick in.
Focus on Core Competencies
Each company has its own set of competencies – those things that you’re exceptionally good at or are important to the firm’s overall success. The chances are that recruitment isn’t one of those things. By outsourcing the function, your team can focus on other business needs, taking the pressure off finding the right talent.
Enhanced Candidate Experience
With the current competitive hiring market, a bad candidate experience can negatively impact your brand, something we are now seeing more of in the marketplace with sites such as Glassdoor. This is part of what recruitment agencies do, ensuring that you’re responding in a timely fashion, delivering the right information to the right people and that the messages sent will not damage the brand.
A positive candidate experience can also attract better candidates and help build a reputation as the kind of employer people would love to work for. This can be a great competitive advantage in battling for headhunts from graduates and the best in the market.
A Strategic Move for Growth
Utilising a recruitment firm's experience, networks, and specialist technologies can really increase the efficiency of your recruitment process, attracting the best candidates, reducing costs, and generally improving the process.
If you’re thinking of outsourcing your recruitment, look for a partner with experience in your sector, good client testimonials, and a nuanced understanding of your business's needs.
At NES Advantage, we have award-winning teams across the globe that specialise in hiring talent across multiple engineering and technical markets, including the Oil and Gas, Chemical, Power, Renewables and Life Sciences industries. To find out how we can help your business, get in touch with us today with your recruitment needs.
