In house recruitment vs recruitment companies: how to choose what’s right for you
In the last ten years it has become much simpler to find great candidates online. There has been a huge shift in the ability for a companies to recruit through your web presence.
With the development of social media you can even put a tweet out and get candidates coming in (albeit of questionable quality).
Another major factor which cannot be ignored is the emergence of the job board giant, Indeed, which offers every hiring business a “free” platform for their vacancy.
These all mean that the reliance upon recruitment companies alone has significantly diminished. We often hear the question raised: “Should I do my recruitment in house, or should I use a recruitment company?”.
The answer to that question really lies in what your company needs – each has its own advantages and disadvantages. You simply have to match the method to the results you need.
Before we tackle that let us get clear on what the two options available to you really are.
What in house recruitment?
This is where you manage your vacancy yourself whether that be you, within your Operations or HR team, a specialist talent acquisition/internal recruitment colleague or anyone else available to assist! Someone takes ownership on putting the ads together and controls the process from start to finish.
What is a recruitment company?
These businesses specialise in sourcing candidates for businesses who have vacancies and whilst there are variations of these theme, essentially get you the person you want to fill a role in return for a fee! There are thousands of recruiters throughout the UK with varying specialisms, fee structures and approaches and as with anything – some are better than others!
What are the options available?
Simply put if you have a role that you are looking to fill in your company there are two ways you can go about it.
You can go in house: put a job advert together and place it yourself on whatever means you have available to you and carry out the full process (or a colleague can!). That means job boards, social media, your own website and so on.
The cost implications are relatively low, providing you don’t pay too much for adverts but there is obviously an impact on your time:
You’ll need to go through all the candidates, sort out the ones you think are promising from all of those that have applied, and start the invitation to interview process
The other alternative would be to instruct a recruitment agency who will do all of this for you and present you with a shortlist of suitable candidates. You then choose from that short list and invite them in.
But let’s explore that a little deeper because there are pros and cons to each method.
What are the benefits of in house recruitment?
If you are a business that has a continual recruitment need (i.e. you always have posts to fill at any given time) you may find it more cost effective to bring someone in as an internal recruiter.
An internal recruiter’s job is to source for your roles all the time. This means you won’t pay an agency fee every time.
You will of course need to pay that person a salary, but this may balance out for you if the need is constant and you can keep them busy.
Equally you may have someone in your team who has the capacity in their schedule and could perform this task to a high level without it interfering with their existing role.
What are the pros of managing the process yourself through in house recruitment?
- Save money on external recruitment fees
- Full control over how your role is communicated ensuring everything is on brand
- Full control over the candidate selection so you see every single person applying rather than a shortlist
- Ability to build up a database of interested applicants for future positions
- Set up your own performance tests which are company specific
What are the cons of managing the process yourself through in house recruitment?
- Can be a heavily time-consuming process
- Candidate quality can be questionable
- You may not have all of the tools available to you in terms of job boards, skills testing etc
- No ability to recoup the time and cost should it go wrong
What are the benefits of using a recruitment company?
If you are already busy, or are drowning in work and struggling to cope, managing a piece of recruitment will be no easy task.
If you pass you brief to a trusted recruiter you only need to take the time to review the shortlisted applicants and perform interviews which takes a significant amount of hassle away. They will post to the best platforms, speak to industry contacts and be able to flush candidates out from various sources.
A good recruitment company will also ensure that you only get good candidates on your shortlist, so the quality of who you are interviewing should be much better.
You may also have a technical need which you want to fill within a short period of time. If that’s the case, recruitment company should help you get to a solution much faster.
Many agencies will have a pool of specialist candidates on their books or at their fingertips for this very reason.
What are the pros of outsourcing to a recruitment company?
- Access to a wider pool of candidates through various advertising platforms
- Saves time in going through all the applications
- The agent should have a good grasp on the recruitment market
- Advice and support on the recruitment and onboarding process
- The fee may be repaid if the person doesn’t work out
- Most agencies have access to skills testing that you can use
- Access to temporary staff if your need is short term or uncertain
What are the cons of outsourcing to a recruitment company?
- Fee to pay which can be significant dependent on agency charges
- So many to choose from; you have to decide who to use
- Relinquishing control of how your vacancy is positioned and who gets shortlisted
- There are many negative reports about agencies so difficult to know who to trust initially
There are definite advantages and disadvantages to both options. The best advice we can give you is the dual approach: consider using both as and when the circumstances dictate.
If you’re still note certain and are stuck in a quandary, not sure which way to approach your next hire, give the Elite team a call and we will chat through the options available.
We’ll be happy to ensure you choose the best option possible for you. To your recruiting success!
