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As a small business owner, each of your hires matter, and you want every new person you hire to have as large an impact on your business as possible. And while you’re worried about finding funding, keeping your business afloat, or the rigors of advertising, recruiting can get lost in the shuffle. You shouldn’t ignore recruiting, either: talent acquisition is the single most important driver of growth for many businesses.
But recruiting, too, can be a daunting task. Sourcing, posting, screening, interviewing, offering, managing vendors, agencies, advertising and job boards is a lot to take on. Here are the pros and cons of hiring an agency to handle all of it, or managing the process in-house:
Familiarity and Cost Efficiency
Often, the question of whether you should hire multiple agencies can come down to cost. You may be able to keep up with swapping out teams for each step of the process, but the combined costs of all these measures can be daunting. This is why putting them all together under one roof is appealing. Speaking to Chicago Tribune, Miriam Berger, President of A Hire Authority, advocates for using contractors for the full hiring lifecycle because they’re generally more affordable. Why? Because they charge hourly and can hire multiple candidates at no additional costs, depending on the number of hours the contractor is working.
Better yet, having someone be familiar with candidates at every step of the process can be helpful in making the right decision. A lack of familiarity with what the company may want or need could lead to lower-performing hires, as is the case in executive hires among large corporations. These positions are the ones requiring around a 20% performance boost in order to meet company objectives, yet 40% of executive positions are filled by external hires who may not know the company inside and out. In the world of small business, you should think of every hire as an executive-level hire, and if you want the best hires, it’s better to have someone familiar with your company.
40% of executive positions are filled by external hires who may not know the company inside and out.
Consistency, Scaling, and Loyalty
Another important aspect of keeping all your recruiting needs under one roof is that the process scales better. Demand for recruiting can change with the tides (or once you’re chock-full of great employees), and having one company means only making one call about how you’re changing your recruiting needs. If your process scales, that means it’s more likely to save you money. In fact, a good, scalable recruitment process can save your organization anywhere from 20 to 50% on recruiting costs.
And, if your recruiter specializes in a particular area, chances are they’ll get the job done better, and provide better opportunities in the future. Rose O’Connell (@Recruiter_Rose), Talent Specialist at OpenView Venture tells us more:
"When a contract recruiter specializes in a particular skill set, she often has several contacts and a network in that space that she can leverage on your behalf to speed up the hiring process.”
Networking is important in any industry, and recruiting is no exception. You can cast a wider net by hiring multiple companies, but sticking to one company for a good period of time could mean fostering a sense of loyalty, which could lead a wider set of opportunities down the line. And when you’re a small business, you need any network contacts you can get.
Small businesses need a dedicated recruiting process just as much as larger companies do. But that doesn’t mean hiring the same way. Sticking to one company for the recruitment lifecycle can save time, money and provide a host of other incentives for your business, so go out there and make a friend!
ClearCompany is the only talent Management system you’ll ever need. From Applicant Tracking to On-the-job Performance Management, we have all the tools for keeping your recruiting under a single roof. Sign up for a demo today and see how we can make your hiring clean and simple.
