Posted on: April 29th, 2022

It is well known in the tech industry that having the best talent means having a competitive advantage over your competitors. That’s why tech companies are constantly poaching talent among themselves: They are looking to get the best minds in the industry. 

For small, medium and even large companies, hiring talent is no easy task. I've found this to be especially true in tech, where new technologies and frameworks are constantly being developed and released. Companies often wonder whether they should hire all the talent they need with their internal human resources capabilities and teams or look for outside help with a recruiting or hiring agency.

Because my company helps organizations find talent, I’ve helped companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500s over the past six years to source and hire qualified tech employees for their teams. I’ve seen that every company can use an outside agency, but it’s not always smart to do so. 

Every company, situation and need is different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when deciding to use a recruiting agency.

Based on my experience, there are a few common scenarios when hiring through an agency might make sense for a company.

You might consider hiring an agency when:

1. You've hit a hiring ceiling. This happens when your company is unable to find the type of worker they need because it falls beyond their area of expertise or because it’s too complex. In other words, you've hit a ceiling. A company can identify this type of situation when they start receiving poor candidates for a new position or the HR department openly warns about their lack of expertise with the mentioned position. 

When this happens, tapping into a hiring agency can help both accelerate the process and find better-suited candidates for your needs. There are several ways to incorporate them into your current workflow for optimal results, including:

• Having the agency completely own a position. They source, qualify and submit candidates directly to you for interviewing. 

• Having them own the sourcing process. They source and prequalify, but they arrive at your pool for an extra round of vetting before the interview process. 

It’s important to understand that this does not replace your current recruiting team; it enhances it with a partner that has access to a talent pool of specialists. Your existing recruiting team will eliminate the time they have to spend sourcing and identifying talent that matches a position’s need.

2. Your demand far outweighs your supply of internal recruiters. This happens a lot when companies are in growth spurts or when new investment comes in and the company needs to hire. HR teams often have a certain bandwidth of positions they can handle on a recurring basis, so when this situation comes around, the demand far outweighs the number of positions they can process. As a result, your whole process can begin to atrophy and slow down. 

Tapping into a recruiting agency or partner in an on-demand capacity helps HR teams meet the company's hiring needs without having to hire new internal resources and without having to compromise their process. They act as an escape valve and provide additional recruiting power to the current team, resulting in shorter hiring cycles. 

3. You’re looking for highly specialized talent. Internal HR teams often struggle when looking for very specific and technical engineers or developers. The constant evolution of technologies and specialization of talent has made it increasingly difficult to identify them. 

Tapping into a specialized agency that focuses on an industry or certain positions can help you find those difficult-to-find skill sets. They often already have talent pools they can tap into and use technical recruiters who are aware of the new trends and technologies that you can put to use. 

4. You’re building a team in another country. With the rise of remote work, small and medium businesses can now mimic what big corporations have done for so long: Build nearshore and offshore teams to support their headquarters.

Whether you run a small, medium or large company, I know through my company's specialization in hiring Latin American talent that venturing into hiring people in another country is challenging. Tapping into the right talent pools, the right tech hubs and the right structure is paramount. 

Talking to a recruiting partner that has experience building teams for other companies can help you shorten the time it takes to build and establish a team in another country. They can help source candidates, provide HR-managed solutions, find office space, and comply with tax and country laws, among others. Some partners have specific programs that help companies land and expand, such as the build-operate-transfer model. 

Hire internally in all other situations.

Hiring internally should be your first choice whenever you're looking at your hiring plans. Whenever possible, use your internal team to cover the highest number of positions.

Companies often prefer to use their internal recruiters when culture matters more than qualifications. I’ve seen situations where hiring managers are more focused on the soft skills a candidate brings to the table and can make compromises on some missing technical skills based on that. 

I recommend using internal resources when hiring entry-level and midlevel engineers or developers because their skill set is usually very flexible, and the needs are not as specific as when they start specializing in more advanced technologies. 

If you’re unsure how long they should take to fill an engineering or technical position, a good rule of thumb is that an average process can take between four and six weeks from the moment the position is created. As a manager, you should start seeing prospective candidates within five business days. 

Knowing how to use recruiting agencies to supplement your existing HR strategies can help you close positions faster, increase retention with the right candidates and ensure your tech milestones are met.

Original Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/12/28/four-reasons-to-hire-a-recruiting-agency--and-when-to-use-internal-teams-instead/?sh=1156b5d94409