28 Mar Owning Your Recruiting Process: What You Need to Know
Now it’s time for the fourth and final installment in our blog series about recruiting. We’ve discussed what a recruiter does and if you need one, as well as the difference between managing and owning the recruiting process. In our last blog, we went into even more detail about what it means to manage the recruiting process covering what to expect regarding operations, types, and even fees. Now it’s time to take a look at the flip side of that coin, what it looks like when you want to own your recruiting efforts. We’ll look at both recruitment process outsourcing and contract recruiting and explore what it all means.
We’d be lying if we didn’t say we’re thrilled to reach this point in our series because this is what TalentFront does! This is how we fit into the whole recruiting equation and we’re delighted to shed a little more light on how we can best help with your recruiting needs. But before we get into that, let’s take a look at what owning the recruiting process looks like.
Let’s Review
Let’s go over owning vs. managing the process one more time. If you’re already well-versed in the difference, feel free to skip to the next heading. Now that you’ve determined that adding a recruiter to your efforts is the way to go, it’s time to look at how much control you want over the process. Managing the recruiting process means you want to know what’s going on and play an active role in the end process, but you don’t want to be involved in all the nuts and bolts to get there. On the other hand, owning the recruiting process means you want to be involved from soup to nuts, even calling a lot of the shots. You want to know how the sausage is made!
In owning the process of recruiting, you will either hire internal people to take on recruiting or you’ll work with outside resources like a recruitment process outsourcing firm or a team of contract recruiters. Once you’ve made the decision to outsource some part of your talent acquisition infrastructure, how do you decide who to hire to help? If you’re owning the process, you’re probably wondering how you maintain control if an external party is managing some parts of the hiring effort, right?
Recruitment Process Outsourcing
Companies like TalentFront provide a turnkey recruiting service that allows clients to consolidate their recruiting operations under one roof, deliver a consistent, high-quality process, and often drive down costs. In addition to designing, providing, and maintaining talent acquisition support such as strategy, sourcing, screening, and closing, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) vendors often provide an applicant tracking system (ATS) or mandate access to one. The ATS allows the RPO to track candidates. Some RPOs provide access to job databases like LinkedIn as a part of the contract.
Costs for this level of support are generally driven by the number of people being hired as well as the additional services you might seek as a part of the contract. Fees can include a start-up fee and then a monthly retainer typical of a consulting firm. Like all contracts, the devil is in the details, and the relationship can be made or broken based on the rapport you will establish with the overall program manager.
Contract Recruiter
Another good option is hiring one or a team of contract recruiters. Contract recruiters work on an hourly basis. Typically, the recruiter serves as an extension of your staff like any other contractor. Rates range anywhere from $35-$200, with rates dependent on the services provided.
Sometimes these individuals will come with access to an ATS, but more often, they will use yours or may even manage recruiting in a spreadsheet or via mail folders. Rarely will these individuals have access to job databases like LinkedIn, which means that the recruiter will be sourcing from their/your network and database and using organic search techniques to find individuals for you. Sometimes, you may need to pay for access to specialized databases.
RPO vs. Contract Recruiter
With both RPO and contract recruiting, companies can have a greater degree of control over their recruitment strategies. The main distinction lies in that an RPO provides tools, technology, policies, and procedures for successful recruitment processes; whereas a contract recruiter may offer their time alone to carry out the recruiting tasks assigned. The organization still needs to provide their own recruiting tools like access to specialized databases like LinkedIn.
No matter which method you choose, you must have an internal ringleader – either a human resources professional or talent acquisition leader who oversees the activities of these options. Someone must be a designated point of contact in order to ensure that information about recruiting is collected/reviewed and that candidates are assessed in a timely fashion.
Is That Really All?
Not even close, but we hope you enjoyed our recruiting series. While we touched on some of the more significant aspects of recruiting, there’s still so much more. Be sure to stay plugged in for future blogs as we’ll tackle some of your biggest recruiting and hiring challenges and questions.
In the meantime, if you have questions about the recruiting process or are unsure where to start, contact TalentFront today!
