We all know that the primary purpose of a recruitment partner is to help companies find people to fill open positions. Unfortunately, many companies decide not to work with external recruiters because they’re too focused on the purpose and not enough on the benefit.
“Why should we pay more for someone to do what we can do in-house?”
It’s important to understand why partnering with a specialist recruiter can be highly beneficial to not only your hiring managers but to your company as a whole. Let us explain some of the key benefits:
Reduces time-to-hire.
You may have heard that the average time to fill a position is 42 days. In reality, time-to-hire varies depending on the industry and job type, usually from 14 up to 63 days. Some might even be lucky enough to secure someone the same day a role opens. Only you know how long it takes from posting a job advert to onboarding a new employee, and if you don’t, it’s time to find out.
While internal processes play a significant role in this metric, it largely comes down to your talent pool and pipeline. With high level IT & Tech roles, the requirements can often be highly specific, which means you’re starting out with a small talent pool from which to recruit.
Reputable specialist recruiters will already have:
- A vast database of available talent
- Established networks of connections that can be leveraged
- Access to the best technology tools and systems to headhunt people with the right skills.
Instead of waiting for decent applicants to land in your inbox, sifting through, rejecting unsuitable candidates and shortlisting from whoever you’ve got left, a specialist recruiter will rapidly shortlist from an extensive talent pool and only submit those who match your precise criteria.
The benefits:
- The right person in the job faster
- Increased hiring manager productivity due to less time reviewing and interviewing unsuitable candidates
- Increased overall business productivity - open roles filled quickly means the wider business can operate at top capacity
- Reduced cost-to-fill - recruiters spend less time on each role and already have the tools and advertising budgets in place.
Let’s talk about money.
As we mentioned reduced cost-to-fill, it’s time to discuss the truth behind the statement: “Recruitment partners save you money.” When you’re looking at recruiter fees, such claims can be hard to believe. There’s a lot of talk about saving you time, and, of course, time is money but let’s look at it a different way…
According to research by Oxford Economics and Unum, the average cost of turnover of an employee earning £25,000 a year or more is £30,614. So, if you replace three employees on this wage in one year, employee turnover will cost your business £92,000. The research splits these costs into two main components:
- Lost output while a new worker gets up to the standard expected of them
- The logistical costs of finding and absorbing a new worker.
The report estimates that employee turnover costs IT & Tech firms in the region of £1873m a year. There are also hidden costs to a bad hire, including the effect it can have on productivity and staff morale - all of which stack up to cost businesses thousands.
Full disclosure, these valuable, in-depth reports don’t come around very often, and this one was released in 2014. However, with skills shortages worsening and salaries increasing, it’s doubtful these figures will have improved over time.
Now, let’s go back to recruitment partners. Yes, you pay a fee, but a specialist recruiter will spend the extra time and effort to ensure a hire is suitable for a role, has the right attitude and personality, and genuinely wants a long-term career at your company. Remember, a recruiter wants to develop a partnership with you that lasts. In an ideal world, they want to be your exclusive talent partner, so placing the right people who stay with you is in their best interest.
Improve candidate experience.
Here’s a story that illustrates the value of candidate experience: In 2014, Virgin Media conducted a “Rejected Candidate Survey” of people turned down for jobs. It revealed that 18% of them were customers and, as a direct result of a poor recruitment experience, 6% (7,500) switched to a Virgin competitor. Such a loss of business cost the company roughly £4.4 million in lost revenue - almost as much as it spent on hiring that year.
The importance of applicant experience before, during and after the recruitment process cannot be underestimated. Not only will it affect whether they proceed with their application, but it will also influence how they view your brand going forward. And it’s not information they’re likely to keep to themselves...
A specialist recruitment partner works with candidates every day and knows the level of service and frequency of communication they expect. Such insights enable them to help you improve your talent process to ensure a positive experience for both successful and unsuccessful candidates.
Here are just some of the areas in which a recruitment partner will help you:
- Crafting engaging job descriptions that stand out.
- Ensuring a rapid and transparent process is in place, so no one is left hanging.
- Handling all candidate communication, from initial scoping through to salary negotiations, ensuring continuity throughout.
- Collecting and communicating candidate feedback on how things can be improved in the future.
Ready to unlock the value of a specialist recruiter?