Prioritizing company resources: One well-placed employee can be the cause of a company's profits skyrocketing, and the fee for having hired these people pales to insignificance when compared to the contributions they make to the bottom line.
The next time you think a recruiter's fees are too high, put them in the proper perspective; savvy executives learned long ago that the fee paid to a recruiter is a shrewd strategic investment, not an extraneous expense.
Expertise: Nobody knows the employment marketplace better than a professional recruiter...nobody! In-house human resources, no matter how effective, view the marketplace through an imperfect, misrepresented prism and tunnel vision is their occupational hazard. They are vulnerable to the pressures of internal politics and cultural dimensions which do not hinder the outsider. "Street-smart" recruiters already know the neighborhood, including the unlisted addresses so often overlooked by the insiders. Because of a recruiter's expertise, we know to always be one foot ahead to ensure we have only the top candidates for the job.
Casting a wider net: The job-hunter bookshelves are filled with lore about the "hidden job market." The same holds true for professional recruiters who carry a detailed roadmap to the top talent sources which are never be accessed by newspaper ads, alumni associations, applicant databases, the Internet or any relative resource. Our pool of candidates only grows, giving our recruiters the ability to chose from a strong crowd of experienced professionals.
Cost: There is a misconception among employers that the cost of a hire equals the cost of the ads run to attract the person hired; try adding these to the true cost and you'll see just how cost-effective an outside recruiter can be:
Process: A recruiter's stock-in-trade is the integrity and their reputation for finding someone better than a company could have found for themselves. For a mid to senior-level executive, the average recruiter may develop a "long list" of possibilities. Each must be called and evaluated against the position specifications as well as the personality "fit" with the company and the people with whom they will ultimately work. Once this is winnowed down to the "short list", an even more intensive interviewing process begins to narrow the search to a panel of finalists for review by the client.
Confidentiality: Advertising or publicly proclaiming an opening often creates anxiety and apprehension among the advertiser's current employees who wonder why they aren't being considered, or worry about newcomer transition problems. This is something we work with often and take into consideration as a part of creating a flawless hiring process.
Speed: The recruiting process is always faster through a search professional who is continually tapped into the talent marketplace. For every day that an opening remains unfilled, a company's employees must grudgingly do double duty. Additionally, this is without factoring in the profit opportunities or competitive advantages that are lost to a company because a position remains on a "part-time basis" by an employee less qualified.
Negotiation: As a buffer and informed intermediary, the professional recruiter is better able to blend the needs and wants of both parties. This way, both parties are able to arrive at an arrangement without the roadblocks which too frequently materialize in face-to-face dealings. This skill carried by our recruiter is imperative to ensure a mutually beneficial agreement.
