When you’re growing a business and scaling your teams, hiring becomes a priority that can’t be overlooked. It is, after all, one of the most important aspects of building a company. Finding the right talent for the right positions is a crucial step in creating a sustainable organisation. The first thing you need to do is decide whether you’re going to hire an in-house recruiter or take out a contract with a recruitment agency. In this article, we’ll be outlining the difference between the two and discussing the pros and cons of each option.
The difference between an in-house recruiter and a recruitment agency
First of all, an in-house recruiter is hired by you and employed by your company. They’re a division of your organisation, just like any other team member or department. Often, in-house recruiters will sit within the HR function at the organisation, but their responsibilities are exclusively related to hiring and recruitment.
These members of staff will handle the full hiring process from sourcing candidates through various means – job boards, LinkedIn Recruiter, networking – to liaising with management during final interview stages and putting together an offer letter.
A recruitment agency, on the other hand, is an external business that takes over your recruitment function, either on a project or retainer basis. Its staff are recruitment experts in a particular field or industry and have vast networks of contacts to draw from. They know exactly how to find the talent you’re looking for, how to filter through stacks of CVs, and how to coach candidates through the various stages of the interview and hiring process.
Having a solid relationship with a recruitment agency on a retainer basis means you hand over all your recruitment needs. These agencies have a specialist understanding of the hiring process as well as the dedicated resources to ensure they’re locating top talent within your industry.
It’s important to note, at this stage, that there are two types of roles both agencies and in-honsuouse recruiters fill: contract and permanent. Contract (or temp) roles are for a set period of time and will conclude on an agreed-upon date. These roles are usually created to ensure the completion of a specific project or deadline. Permanent roles onboard full-time employees who then became fully integrated into the company without a set end date.
Benefits of bringing on an in-house recruiter
In-house recruiters are an embedded part of your organisation. They fully understand the culture and expectations of the company as they are a part of your staff. This means they’re easily able to tell whether a candidate is right for the role.
These employees will meet with the management of a specific department before hiring to fully understand the requirements of the role. Having access to this information and expectations allows them to hire with a specific set of skills and personality type in mind.
As they are part of your company, they have in-depth knowledge of the industry and the work itself. This means they’re able to take full ownership of the hiring and onboarding process within the business.
Benefits of working with a recruitment agency
Recruitment agencies have a specific understanding of the industries they serve as a whole. They also have significant experience in the recruitment process and are able to handle every aspect of the recruitment process as professionals.
Agencies may not be an embedded part of your organisation, but they do have the knowledge and know-how to meet any brief from their clients. They’re experienced in determining business needs and understand how to approach recruitment with these specific goals in mind.
If you work exclusively with one recruitment agency, you’ll quickly see that they come to know your organisation and are able to determine your needs much more accurately.
Something professional agency recruiters have that many in-house recruiters may not is an extensive network of people working at different levels within the industry. This means that when they are locating talent, they know exactly how to reach the right candidates, whether through ads or directly contacting their network and presenting the role in the best way possible.
Keep in mind, however, that the benefits of an agency aren’t limited only to their network. The true benefit lies in their use of technology, streamlined processes and the speed of delivery. This allows agencies to bring candidates forward much faster than an in-house recruiter could.
Agency recruiters are people specialists. They understand exactly what to look for when hiring for a new role, whether a contract or permanent placement. They’re also able to handle a large volume of roles at once – something that’s significantly harder with an in-house recruiter who lacks the support of an entire organisation behind them.
Benefits of working with a recruitment agency
You’ll want to look at your hiring needs before deciding whether to go with an agency or an in-house recruiter. One important factor is whether you’re going to be scaling your team rapidly or only as the need arises.
If you want to make this decision a little easier, why not contact us at Allen Recruitment? We are a multinational recruitment company with offices in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Sweden, Belgium and Poland, providing recruitment solutions like candidate sourcing, international payroll services as well as job opportunities all over Europe and more. We have a great experience in placing candidates in the right roles for some of Europe’s largest brands.
Posted in: Blog / Client
