In a word, yes! There are times when seeking an external recruiting firm to partner with your internal team makes perfect sense. They can help bring in more candidates when hiring is urgent, expand the candidate set by using different sources and expertise in recruiting passive candidates, and add efficiency to the process during the search process by bringing in fresh ideas, to name a few. As Kathleen Duffy of Forbes points out, “The secret ingredient in making this work is relationships.”

If you’re considering bringing in additional recruiting resources by partnering with a recruiting firm, or, adding contract recruiters to your team, here are some things to think about:

1. Terms – If your need is for one key position, the fee likely will be a search-based fee. If it’s a larger effort, terms may be by milestone, hours or a project-based fee.
2. Project Kickoff – Having key people together to set expectations will help all parties understand who is doing what and the overall goals and timelines.
3. Success Metrics – Your talent brand is a valuable asset. There are key talent metrics that should be measured regularly to show your talent brand’s health. Measuring the success of your hiring project is also important and can include things such as time-to-hire, interview to offer rate, offer acceptance, candidate experience score and these days when ghosting has become common, in addition to measuring accepted offers, actual starts should also be measured.
4. Communication – Scheduled meetings can be helpful to assess progress and answer questions and discuss next steps. Of course, open communication with the entire recruiting team and hiring managers is ideal as well.
5. Turnover – Define end of project deliverables from the start.

A few ways you might also consider partnering with an external recruiting resource, include:

Talent Pipelines – Grow your potential applicant pool for existing and future opportunities by having your recruiting partner source ideal candidates for the position profiles and your company culture. If you’re working with an external recruiting agency exclusively, they will know your culture and can understand what’s most important based on the position profiles.

Courting Candidates – Recruiters are often experts at accessing passive candidates and gaining interest in their client’s opportunities. It can be touchy reaching out to candidates who work at another company that is both a competitor and at times a partner organization. Having someone external to the company gauge interest with these candidates is a common process.

Assessment – There is a lot of expertise that goes into an interview and selection process. Even with the best process and interviewers, it can still be wise to use a valid assessment as part of the interview process.

We use the Trimetrix Assessment because it has the highest level of validity against bias and it was developed for sales talent and leaders.

Onboarding – Selecting and hiring the right people is only a piece of the talent equation. These days, your onboarding process is a valuable asset during the hiring process, and it is key in getting your new hires off to a great start where they feel included, supported and motivated to learn and grow with your organization!

One great hire will continue to pay dividends. Other ways your investment can be maximized is by scheduling a turnover meeting to ensure your internal team maintains any new information, tools and processes that were developed during the hiring project.

At JESSI Search, some of our strongest placements have been with clients who treat us as an extension to their business. We have worked on many sales hiring projects where we have played a role in helping companies achieve their revenue goals for the upcoming year and beyond. We value our internal recruiting partners and the ability to jointly help business leaders accelerate growth. Making our internal customer team shine is always one of our top goals!