Outsourcing recruiting actually means transferring all or just a part of your recruiting and hiring activities to an external service provider who 
will manage specific tasks for you. Although most business owners prefer to have their own HR departments to handle certain recruiting-related tasks, outsourcing recruiting is one of the best decisions you can make. The following information explains why you may want or not want to outsource your recruiting.
Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Recruiting Generally, recruiting, hiring and training staff takes a lot of time and can come at a significant cost. Furthermore, the entire process requires you to spend resources without knowing whether you’ll find what you’re looking for or not. To avoid wasting time and money, check what an experienced HR professional specializing in recruiting can do for you.
Reduce Costs
Pros: A recruiting campaign can cost you a lot especially when you have a high employee turnover rate or when positions remain open for a very long time. In this case, outsourcing your recruiting to an experienced service provider who can find the right staff for certain positions in a timely manner will help you lower the employment-related costs drastically without reducing staff.
Cons: If you have an experienced HR specialist on staff with a keen eye for talented and dedicated individuals hold on tight to this employee! An HR expert capable of employee retention may render outsourcing unnecessary, and save your company the need to invest in a service.
Check Recruiting Functions
Pros: If you already have an experienced HR department full of people with experience and high level education backgrounds such as a human resource degree that handles the recruiting and hiring process, you may consider finding a professional who can check whether your current recruiting functions are working properly or not. if necessary, this specialist can help you streamline the entire recruiting process and set goals for improvement by simply developing metrics regarding speed of hire, the average number of candidates per position and turnover rates.
Cons: If you already have a fine tuned HR machine, why hire someone else to grade you on your functions? Develop your own internal set of checks and balances that can give you the requisite information to know if your processes need tweaking.
Get the Best Employees
Pros: Finding the right employees for certain jobs is one of the most important things for your company. Just as outsourcing particular marketing tasks to an outside marketing company can help you improve the image of your business, outsourcing recruiting activities to a service provider who knows everything about the recruiting process can help you speed up the hiring process by bringing you the best employees for particular jobs.
Cons: If your company doesn’t have a lot of turnover, the need to outsource may not be necessary. Another reason a recruiting service may not be able to define how to “get the best employees” is in cases where culture and “fit” are a big part of a company’s success. In these instances, it may be better to bring people in house for the recruiting and interview process where the team can make a proper determination.
Create a Scalable Recruiting Strategy
Pros: Your HR department may face significant issues, especially if your business is growing rapidly. In this situation, opting for an external recruiting agency that can keep up with your expansion pace is imperative if you want to get the staff you need in good time.
Cons: Many times companies will take on more than they need in times of growth. Like any investment, make sure retaining an external recruiting service is providing the value you need.
Track EEOC Compliance
Pros: All HR professionals must comply with EEO guidelines. This means that they need to fill out reports and organize data regularly. Choosing to outsource your recruiting functions almost guarantees that you'll have all reports filled and filed accurately and punctually.
Cons: It is hard to argue against outsourcing this type of work, but if margins are thin, taking care of this in house may be the difference between a profitable or unprofitable quarter.
How Does It Work?
If you decide to outsource recruiting, the external recruiter will help your HR staff by completing specific operations such as searching for the right candidates, employing effective measures to attract manpower, interviewing applicants, analyzing their skill sets, evaluating philosophy and culture to determine whether they are the best fit for particular jobs. This gives your HR staff the opportunity to focus on other essential aspects, such as recruiting internal candidates, building employment brand, and addressing the needs of your current employees. Given the aforementioned points, you can easily understand that outsourcing recruiting brings along a series of significant benefits to your company.
Latest posts by Jack Zeller (see all)
- Should Your Business Outsource Recruiting? - August 8, 2013
