There is so much value in building a strong recruiting relationship between your company and a recruiting agency. In a true partnership arrangement, an agency will become an extension of your internal recruiting function and help to make recruiting process and results more seamless and efficient.
Too often, companies feel that it is necessary to utilize multiple agencies to source the same positions. The companies’ rationale is that the more recruiting agencies involved in the searches, the better. In actuality, it creates worse service because it becomes a race for those agencies to submit candidates first.
Many of the candidates will not be properly screened, and the recruiting results are probably going to be disappointing.
In addition, your company will have to spend extra time at the front end of each search to explain to each agency about the duties of each role. From a candidate standpoint, this arrangement also probably means the same candidates will be contacted multiple times by different agencies for the same role. This process will not represent your company’s recruiting brand in the best light.
Establishing a strong partnership with one recruiting agency is the best arrangement for sourcing top talent for your company. The best recruiting firms will have their finger on the pulse in their specialty markets and can give your hiring team insight into what is happening in these markets.
Your recruiting partner will know the best available talent, where this talent is located, how to reach out to that talent, salary rates, available skill-sets, and current hiring challenges. If other businesses are struggling to find the same people as you, your recruiting partner should be able to advise your company on alternative recruiting solutions.
Your recruiting partner can specifically target “passive” candidates for all roles. This frees your internal recruiting team to focused on “active” candidates which are being generated through applications via your company’s job postings or your internal employee referrals.
Your recruiting partner should have good access to your hiring managers as well as your internal recruiting team. This access will permit the recruiting partner to develop a strong understanding of your company’s culture and organization as well as benefits and career progressions.
From a cost standpoint, it is most likely cheaper for your company to set up a partner relationship with an agency. Most agencies will reduce their overall fees or even go to a flat fee arrangement if they knew that they had a strong recruiting partnership arrangement.
In short, there is real value in setting up a partner relationship with a recruiting agency. Don’t hesitate to try it out!