Outsourcing your staff recruitment

By Jacob Catt

Wise recruitment plays a pivotal role in business. Hiring the correct candidate can boost your income and expand your company, while hiring the wrong candidate can have similar detrimental effects. Finding the right candidate can be a long and difficult decision – sure in the current economical climate you are unlikely to struggle to find applicants, but choosing which candidate is right for you is a difficult decision and with all the time and money involved in both the search and training, it is not a decision you can afford to get wrong. As you know there are thousands of recruitment specialists who would be happy to find the correct candidate for you, if you’re wondering whether or not this is right for you then read on for a little more perspective.

Time: finding the right candidate can be a long and at times dull process. The initial step is to find a cost effective way to advertise the position so that the right candidates apply. The following step is to sift through potentially thousands of candidate CV, some of which will likely be frustratingly wrong for the position. Once you are done sifting; you will likely have a list of likely candidates, so you must begin a screening process. Getting in touch, debriefing and arranging interviews with these candidates can be equally time-consuming and frustrating – people often apply to jobs that they have only a small interest in. Outsourcing your recruitment can shorten this painful process into several short conversations with a professional followed by a small number of interviews with suitable candidates.

The candidate: During your contact with your chosen recruitment agency you will detail your specifications for your ideal candidate and they will come back to you with the best possible candidates. This may save time but it also mean the rejection a candidate who, although didn’t match your specification, may have actually been perfect. It also means you have much less time to build a relationship with your potential candidates; this could lead to you hiring the wrong candidate – as a major factor in the suitability of a candidate is your personal affinity to them and how well he would fit into the company.

The price: The price of a recruitment agency varies with experience and sector, charges may be upfront, on hiring, after a certain period of employment or taken from your new employees wage. It should be noted that there is an undeniable link between wage and work satisfaction, so money taken out of an employee’s wage may be converted into a reduced productivity.

Conclusion: In the end the decision is yours, all you have to do is ask yourself that simple question “is the time saved worth the cost involved”.

Jacob Catt is writing on behalf of Ashley Associates - Providers of recruitment of recruitment specialists in UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.