Are your current recruiting partners best suited for your company’s needs? Recruiting firms come in all shapes & sizes, feature different processes for sourcing candidates and many specialize in certain industries. Drawing upon 45 years of staffing industry experience in Metro-NYC, we put together 4 questions to help ensure that you are working with the right partners for your unique hiring needs:
1. Are there any companies that are off-limits for you to recruit from?
One of the fundamental aspects of your company’s partnership with a recruiting agency is that they won’t recruit your employees for their other clients. Therefore, when a recruiting agency partners with you, your employees become “off-limits” for them to recruit. If your recruiting partner works with several large companies in your geographical area, that shrinks the talent pool available for your company’s open positions. With a recent survey by Indeed revealing that “86% of managers rate the IT hiring market as very challenging”, you’re going to need access to every corner of the talent market.
2. Where does your agency source candidates from?
You’re going to want your recruiting partner to have a thorough answer here. Every agency has business memberships to job boards like CareerBuilder or Monster with large yet general talent pools, but for certain skillsets the best talent will be sourced elsewhere. Leading recruiting agencies forge relationships and utilize defined strategies in order to gain access to unique talent pools. An agency featuring long tenured directors and recruiters will most likely ensure a strong referral network which is the #1 most successful method for hiring, per the SHRM.
3. How long, on average, have your recruiters been in the staffing industry?
Many recruiting and staffing firms can be very KPI & metrics driven, which frequently means that the recruiting team is largely made up of recent graduates. With lofty call numbers to hit on a daily basis, turnover can be high and your candidate’s experience leading up to joining your company can be adversely affected. On the other hand, if your recruiting partner features career recruiters and long tenures, that probably benefits you and your potential candidates.
4. Are you working with any of our competitors? Would there be any conflict of interest?
If a recruiting partner is also working with several of your direct competitors, that is potentially not an ideal situation for you. At the end of the day, a recruiting agency is still a business and will look to make a placement where it can. You want your recruiting partner’s allegiance as they navigate the talent market on your behalf, so make sure that they aren’t also serving too many of your company’s rivals.
While these are not the only questions you should ask both existing and potential recruiting partners, they will help to determine if you’re working with partners that are best situated to meet your company’s hiring needs.
Founded in 1972 by John Di Bari, a Vietnam Combat Veteran, DTG Consulting is a boutique search & staffing firm that has been placing candidates in technical positions for over four decades. Our recruitment methodology has been proven time and again in placing professionals in contract, direct hire, and contract-to-hire positions. We hope to have the opportunity to consult with you on technical hiring to help your company complete IT initiatives and achieve critical business objectives.