Job seekers who have worked with a recruiter don’t always have great things to say about the experience. And sometimes, that’s the recruiter’s fault. We’ve all encountered some not-so-great recruiters out there during our careers. But in other cases, the job seeker is the one to blame. So what’s going on in this dynamic? How do you work a successful recruiting relationship the right way?

Why Job Seekers Should Work with a Recruiter

First, should job seekers even work with a recruiter? The short answer is “yes.” If you’re a strategic job seeker, you’re not just submitting a resume or 10 online via Indeed or LinkedIn and then kicking back to binge-watch Netflix. Savvy job seekers are connectworking — taking local power connectors out for a coffee or a lunch, working their referral networks and asking friends and former colleagues for a connection to job opening decision-makers, and they’re out there hunting thoughtfully online and in-person for not just “any” job, but “the” job. 

Working with an internal or external recruiter has a lot of benefits for job seekers. 

• Recruiters offer another avenue to pursue — and it’s free! If you’re job hunting, why not put multiple irons in the fire by leveraging a recruiter’s vast network of connections? A Talent Acquisition professional always has his or her ears to the ground for job opportunities and should have access to super valuable/helpful people and intel. 
• External recruiters (agencies) frequently hear about jobs far before the general public. Oftentimes, these are jobs that will never get posted on job boards. If you want to have access to these “quiet job market” opportunities, connect with one or more external recruiters in your area. 
• Internal recruiters — those directly employed by a company — almost always have the ear of internal influencers/hiring managers. If you apply for a job via the company website, you have a chance. But if you can find a way to access the appropriate internal recruiter directly through your network, your job search will likely be positively influenced by aligning with this internal champion. 

The Big Recruiting Flaw 

If working with recruiters is such a good idea, why do some people report dissatisfaction? The answer: they’re doing it wrong — but it’s not necessarily their fault. 

The thing about working with recruiters is that there’s a flaw in the relationship as it relates to candidates. External recruiters are engaged and paid by companies. Internal recruiters are compensated by their employers. Neither is paid by candidates. If you’re a candidate, and you fit the bill for the role a recruiter’s client/hiring manager is seeking, you’ll hear from your recruiter often and with great eagerness. But if/when you fall out of favor for that particular search, you’re going to stop hearing from your formerly very aggressive recruiter friend. 

Maybe you weren’t the top option for the job. Maybe the client found someone internally. Maybe the client decided not to make the hire at all. No matter what happened, if you don’t get the job, you’re probably going to stop hearing from your recruiter because he or she had to move on to either another candidate or to another search. Employment livelihood for both external and internal recruiters depends on filling jobs — either for clients or for internal stakeholders. As a result, communication on their side of things is driven by forces other than the needs of their candidates.

How to Work with a Recruiter 

Many job candidates assume that when a recruiter goes quiet, he or she is either a poor communicator or is just “ghosting.” But if the recruiter you’re communicating with doesn’t have anything else immediate that fits your needs/skill set, you should expect him/her to go quiet. Why?

Here’s the deal: communication is a two-way street. Let’s say you have a friend, and the only time you interact with them is when that person calls you. Do you then have the right to get mad at them when you haven’t spoken for a while? No! You can reach out too, right? Two-way street… it’s the same situation when working with a recruiter. Pick up the phone. Shoot over an email or a LinkedIn message. Own your half of the communication relationship. Let all of your recruiter connections know what you’re looking for, what you’re seeing out there, and what you’re open to. Help them help you. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, right? 

Ping a recruiter, and you rise to their recent memory. These people talk to dozens of candidates in any given week, and it’s virtually impossible for them to keep a running, accurate mental inventory of all of their connections and precisely what all of those folks are seeking career-wise. But, if you hit them up at just the right moment, they might say, “Oh yeah, I’ve got something coming in about 30 days that would be an ideal fit. Put a note on your calendar to follow up with me in two weeks.”

Help recruiters help you. Stay in touch on occasion and bring value. Build a mutually-beneficial, two-way relationship. You might just reach out at the perfect time for both sides!

Check out 2019’s recruiting and hiring statistics here.

If you’re looking for a new job, don’t give up on recruiters… Leverage them! And contact us if you’re ready to chat about a new job. We welcome your outreach!

Sign up for our newsletter

Outsourcing some or all aspects of recruiting makes excellent sense in certain situations — and in others, it does not. We get asked quite frequently, “Why should I pay a fee to a recruiter instead of handling the hiring myself?” Fair question. Honestly, what it most often comes down to is the monetary value of time.

Cost: Money vs. Time 

What is the best use of your workplace time, and what is the financial impact of your time on your business/company? These are critical questions to answer when it comes to any decision related to outsourcing. If your role directly impacts company revenue, or if you are a high-level company executive — is your time best spent working on tasks that take you away from the thing(s) that the business truly needs you to be doing daily? Should you use work time — or even worse, precious personal time — doing something you could outsource? What is the cost of your lost time on the company’s business development and growth goals?

When it comes to recruiting, the role of hiring often falls to a manager/leader who has plenty of urgent and business-critical things to do — things that help the company generate more revenue, operate more effectively, etc. Hiring is going to cost you, no matter what. Time is money, regardless of how you slice it. So is it a better use of time and money to keep everything in house, or does it make more sense to outsource recruiting support, either occasionally or entirely?

Let’s think about: 

• What is your company spending to post ads online? Have you studied the cost per hire of using online tools?
• What is the value of your time as an hourly breakdown? How many hours are you investing in recruiting, and what is that cost to the business?  
• Hiring a contingent recruiter means there is zero financial impact until a hire is made and someone begins work. 
• Honestly examine the definition of “best.” Recruiting professionals should be the “best” at what they do. They focus all day every day on delivering top talent quickly and effectively. That level of expertise should free up their clients to use their time to focus on the things that they do “best.” “Best” use of time is critical.

Impacts of Company Size

When it comes to the decision to outsource recruiting, needs and utilization certainly differ depending on company size.

Large Companies — 500+

Companies with 500 plus employees certainly have an internal Human Resources team and often a Talent Acquisition team as well. When it comes to companies and hiring-related staff headcounts of this size, the decision to outsource recruiting remains a cost vs. time analysis. On the cost side of things, an HR and TA team of five or more people might have close to a $500,000 payroll impact on a company per year. So why would an organization then agree to take on additional recruiting expenses? 

• First, large companies often outsource hiring in situations where they are seeking temporary or contract staff. An organization may only need additional team members for a specific project or a set period. Outsourcing to an agency and having those temporary employees on someone else’s payroll is a smart business decision.
• Additionally, a large company may reach out to external recruiters when they have a very challenging hire, which is often referred to in the industry as a “unicorn” or a “purple squirrel.” The person they seek is very niche and specialized and may not be scanning job boards or be found within a company’s network of connections. If a company’s internal recruiting load is already substantial and there is one particular job — or more — proving extremely difficult, it often makes sense to outsource. Use internal recruiting’s time on those positions that are most fillable.
• Also, if a large company is expanding rapidly and needs to hire a significant number of people by a predetermined deadline (end of year, end of quarter, etc.), they will often turn to outside recruiting resources for support. The priority in these situations is to meet the hiring goals successfully — and on time.

Mid-sized Companies — 50-500

Companies more in the medium size range, especially those on the smaller end of the scale, may only have one or a few HR professionals on staff, and little to no dedicated talent acquisition personnel. Generally, these mid-sized company recruiting teams do not have enough bandwidth to manage all components of HR while also overseeing recruiting effectively. There is only so much time in a day. 

• In these cases, it, of course, makes sense to outsource for “unicorn” roles as well as during times of compressed, bulk hiring, and/or when project-related temporary staff is required. No difference here as compared to large companies.
• A lot of companies in this middle range often have small, overburdened HR crews, and many of those teams might not count Recruiting among their list of “best” skills. When that is the case and recruiting pops up as a top, painful priority, it’s time to outsource.  

Small Companies — <50

Small companies typically don’t have any internal HR or TA, leaving hiring on the plates of managers who very definitely have other essential, “best” use of time responsibilities.

• A Sales Manager, for example, should be focused on developing revenue-producing staff members and closing deals as opposed to reading dozens of applications and potentially off-target resumes. In that case, this hiring manager’s time is better spent on business development activities that directly impact the company’s bottom line. 

Pain Drives Change

Regardless of time or cost, pain is what ultimately drives change. This is very true when it comes to the dynamic of outsourced recruiting.

A critical open position remaining unfilled causes pain. An unmet hiring deadline causes pain. An internal recruiting staff that is not equipped to satisfy company talent acquisition requirements causes pain. Wasting money causes pain. That’s when external recruiting can step in, save time, end pain, and make sure that everyone involved is spending money effectively and focusing on what they do “best.”

If you are having recruiting-related pain, contact us to quickly and effectively connect with your next incredible hire. 

Recruiters don’t have a stellar reputation, and some of that is deserved. Will has been a recruiter around Raleigh and the Triangle for nearly 15 years, and he’s learned and experienced a lot about the industry during that time — some of it good, and some of it not so good. In this episode, Will talks about the positives and negatives of hiring a recruiter, whether you’re a company or someone searching for your next job. He also offers tips on selecting someone that’s a good fit and going to be a great partner.