When someone says they are going to want to hire a consultant or recruiter for a specific assignment, the initial thought is “added expense”. Unfortunately that is the way it is. Why not think “added value”.
Recruiters and Consultants should be domain experts within their field of specialty. In recruitment, it isn’t about just being a recruiter with a few years of recruitment experience but ask the question … does your recruiter have the years of experience in the field working these roles themselves and have they been shoulder to shoulder with people that do these roles for a living.?
Does your consultant have the real world expertise from past experiences to deliver value to your organization that no one within has already?
As an Executive recruiter, we see companies creating Internal Talent Acquisition teams and keep the recruitment functionality in house. This investment in people typically comes with a major ramp up period and large overhead expense. Ironically, we get lots of call from these companies because these teams typically are not from the industry and their results are minimal. Complaints we hear in the hiring process from hiring managers about their internal Talent Acquisition teams are:
- The position has been open for months
- I get a lot of resumes and the vast majority are not qualified to do this role
- I have to educate our team on what we are looking for
- Our postings are attracting the wrong people
- We really are not recruiting versus just posting
Are these internal teams really recruiting, are they picking up the phone and talking to potential candidates or are they looking at resumes they receive via postings?
This certainly isn’t across the boards but we hear this noise a lot and that is when a company decides to outsource the assignment to a recruitment firm. The hiring manager is frustrated and wants results. The challenges that a recruitment firm acquires with these new assignments are:
- Why has the role been open for so long?
- Hiring managers are now frantic and concerned over time to fill
- Hiring managers worry if the job rec will remain open as they have gone for so long without the position, will they lose it?
- Sour taste from past failures to fill
Time is of the essence when a role or position is unoccupied, especially in sales as it gives your competition the advantage of selling to your customers with no coverage from your company. If a company did an Activity Based Costing analysis of what it costs daily to have a sales position open, they would quickly recognize that the fee paid to the recruiter is a fraction of the lost sales and opportunity cost to their organization. Candidates begin to wonder why the role hasn’t been filled also. What don’t they know about the position, the hiring manger, what is the issue, why is the position open for so long.? Candidates start to wonder if this is really a quality role?
Hiring a recruiter that is from the industry and has the real world, street level experience will drive your search in a different direction and get faster results. Recruiting is engaging the candidate in quality dialogue about the company, position and industry. It is not reading back to the candidate the job description.!
GRN Coastal is an Award winning Search firm which finds you the right candidate at the right time with the right fit for your organization. When you hire GRN coastal, you acquire over 30 years of industry experience, a wealth of connections from coast to coast and a network of another 200 GRN offices that can be brought on board via one key stroke to widen our efforts and umbrella of contacts to expedite your efforts. There is no other individual firm with the industry reach that we have and now the track record of success in closing assignments in rapid order. Our experience in the industry is what makes us different from others. How can a recruiter really understand the role of a Switchgear specialist, PLC specialist, Executive VP of Sales or branch level role if they haven’t experienced that role themselves.? They can’t.!!! They too become like your internal team providing you with the same functionality found on job boards. Providing you a wish list of resumes that they “hope” hit the mark. The key here is that they “hope” it is a match, while we “know” it is a match.
The same applies in the consulting industry. Do you want to hire people that are book smart and read a lot about strategy and vision or hire someone that has truly executed upon their teachings in a real business scenario?
An Expense or Investment?
Is the price you pay for a consultant or a recruiter an expense or an investment in your companies future.?
People assets have always been a priority to most companies. A strong team enhances your company’s value to its stakeholders and customers alike.
You typically hire a consultant or recruiter because you feel your existing team doesn’t have the horsepower nor time to conduct the same action items at a high level. The “investment” is typically a short ROI because you are paying for results, not performance. Your highly compensated personnel shouldn’t be attending college job fairs, they shouldn’t be looking at piles of resumes, they should be looking at “finalists” for positions and blueprints of plans that can be executed upon.
These are just a few thoughts of how an expense is truly an investment if you select the right partner. Don’t settle for any consultant or recruiter. Don’t let a lower fee make you think that you are getting a better deal. Ask yourself if the partner you are selecting truly understands your needs and what can they point to experience wise that clearly shows they have the real world expertise to take on your assignment.
