Why Good HR Departments Are Using Direct Hire Agencies

As companies compete to fill vacant positions, skilled candidates will become more and more in demand and, as a result, will be more difficult to recruit and retain. In fact, CareerBuilder found that 1 in 5 workers plan to change jobs in 2015 – up from 17% in 2014. In today’s candidate-driven market, HR departments are seeing the value in using direct hire agencies.

Though your organization likely has an internal recruiting function, direct hire agencies are often able to find skilled workers faster. That’s because:

• Agency recruiters spend 39% of their time finding candidates, and 16% of their time building relationships with those candidates, so that they can begin sending you qualified candidates soon after they begin working on your job order. This is especially helpful if you have a really in-demand position where top candidates won’t be on the market for long.
• Agency recruiters understand their candidates’ key motivators and goals, so they can advocate on behalf of your company and find candidates that may not have considered your company otherwise. This is particularly useful for small and medium sized businesses that are less well-known and desired than their more established competitors.
• Niche direct hire agency recruiters, in particular, will have a solid network of skilled workers who are ready and willing to make a move – or can help them identify others who are. This gives you access to a network of skilled, passive talent that would have been much more difficult for you to find on your own.

Working with agency recruiters to source and vet candidates also gives your internal HR and recruitment teams the opportunity to focus on more strategic initiatives, like candidate experience and employee retention. By allowing agencies to do what they do best, your company can find, hire and retain talent while every other company is struggling to keep up.

With all these benefits to working with direct hire agencies, it’s no surprise that it’s a $16 billion market. And, as the war for talent heats up, the demand for agency recruiters is expected to increase. However, the increased demand for both talent and agency recruiters also means that companies will likely pay higher agency fees, making it more important than ever to start effectively managing your direct hire agency spend.

A vendor management system like BountyJobs can help you manage agency relationships, evaluate headhunter performance, and track candidate progress so you can make strategic hiring decisions.