Why Hire Recruiters?

Recruiters can be a good option, in certain circumstances, but there are pitfalls to the process. When should you use a recruitment consultant and why? The services of a recruiter are expensive and you want value. The main goal of this article? To ensure value is exactly what you get.

So, why use a recruiter at all? Why not just do the leg work yourself?

There are a number of different occasions when using a recruiter is the optimal decision to make. In fact, there are six different instances when this is the best move:

1. You are too busy and don’t have time to recruit.
2. You had a poor response from adverts that you placed and you want to stop “flogging a dead horse” and try a new approach.
3. You are inexperienced / there is no HR department, or they are too busy to help.
4. The role you’re hiring for is rather unique or a one-off for your company and you are not sure how to approach the recruitment task.
5. The position you’re hiring for is a role you recruit for often, e.g. call centre staff, junior sales staff. In this instance, a consultant could help you develop a framework for hiring, to save yourself time and money the next time around.
6. The recruiter can give you competitive information as they are talking with people in your marketplace every single day.

Reasons four, five and six detailed above all provide you the opportunity to transfer skills from the recruiter to you, so that you have more knowledge and understanding for the next time around.

When you’re using a recruiter, you shouldn’t simply be expecting them to present you with resumes. Recruiters should help you to reduce your risk. This is where recruiters should really add value. If they’re doing their job right they should be assessing whether a person would be a good fit for your organisation or not, both in terms of skills and culture.

How can recruiters REALLY help you fill your staffing needs?

A recruiter who is doing their job correctly will be doing two things for you:

1. Helping you to define your needs effectively
2. Providing an objective assessment of applicants (this is only really possible though if they are not on commission, but unfortunately most are).

To get the rest of this free article and other free resources on this topic, visit http://www.abacusrecruit.com.au/library-of-articles/39-testimonial-article/94-hiring-a-recruiter.