Never Say Never: 3 Reasons You NEED 3rd Party Recruiting Agencies

At BountyJobs, we are constantly helping some of the country’s largest employers better manage what they spend on 3rd party recruiting agencies.
 That’s WHAT we do, that is ALL we do, and we LOVE what we do. Most of our customers have invested in building robust recruiting and sourcing teams, and yet they still make agencies a key part of their strategy. Sometimes, however, we see blog posts and comments out there that just puzzle us.

Stuff like, “Our mission is to drive agency usage to zero!” is a common proclamation. Or, “Recruiting technology eliminates the need for using headhunters.”

Hmmmm.

What is our belief? The best companies hire the vast majority of their candidates themselves, without using headhunters – through campus programs, referrals, job boards, staffing agencies, you name it. But the most successful and efficient recruiting departments also proactively plan for gaps that agencies fill by being a fundamental instrument in their toolbox.

This gives them the ability to plan ahead, make strategic decisions, get the best results AND save the most money. Without an all-inclusive plan (including agencies), employers end up backed into a corner. They go to agencies late, choose agencies poorly, get bad results and – inevitably – spend more money than they have to for a lesser quality hire.

3 Reasons to Use 3rd Party Recruiting Agencies

So why should companies have a strategy that includes 3^rd party recruiting agencies?

Here’s our top three:

• Different Fish: Smart recruiting departments train their team to fish in talent pools they visit often: if you consistently hire sales people, it makes sense to build a recruiting team with expertise and contacts in sales.

  However, every week, month or quarter, a new role will open for which your team has absolutely no expertise. Building up the internal recruiting team for random niche roles just isn’t cost effective. It is cheaper, faster and smarter to use a 3rd party recruiting agency that specializes in that niche.

• Urgent or Senior Role: If you know in advance you need confidentiality, urgency, or a role that is of particularly strategic value to the company: use a set of specialized 3rd party recruiting agencies who will devote their full time to the role. If properly chosen and communicated with you, are sure to get high quality candidates much faster.
• Volume Flexibility: It makes little sense to have a fixed set of resources (your full time recruiting staff) as you head into volatile and fluctuating hiring landscapes.

  You can only staff up and down so fast. When over staffed per the demand you are overspending on headcount. When under staffed you are missing out on candidates. Top recruiting departments need an ability to quickly reach out to 3rd party recruiting agencies when demand picks up unexpectedly.

Feel we’ve missed something? One of those companies that thinks they have successfully sworn off agencies altogether? Violent agreement with us? No matter what – we’d love to hear! Share your opinion in the comments, on Twitter (@Bountyjobs), or on LinkedIn.

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