Staff Recruiters VS Recruiting Agency — Who Will Win?

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Every company faces the need of hiring more personnel when expanding. Managers who tried searching and recruiting candidates themselves know how time-consuming this activity is. So, it’s truly necessary to delegate this task to a professional in-house recruiter or an agency. In this article, we’ll take a deep look at the benefits of each option and share tips for small and medium companies that need to decide how to recruit and hire new employees.

A hint: companies with a team of staff recruiters may address agencies to double or even triple the results. That really works! ?

Read this piece to the end to discover more benefits.

What Is the Main Difference Between These Two Options?

If a company grows and needs to find more than one or two new specialists per month, having an in-house recruiter in the HR team makes sense. A recruiter handles all the tasks from posting a vacancy to offer acceptance. Commonly, mid-sized and large companies employ one or more recruiters, however, small organizations find it excess and may address agencies. Recruiting organizations employ many experienced professionals who can close vacancies faster. This may be even cheaper for companies.

On the one hand, each approach has its positive sides:

Pros of In-House Recruiting

1. People who work for a company know all the inner processes there. They are well-acquainted with the corporate culture and people who are already working there. They find new experts who are likely to fit the company.
2. They interact with the company leadership and managers, which helps them be more precise when looking for candidates.
3. They can respond faster to new requests or changes, because everything happens within one team.

Pros of Outsourced Recruiting

1. The expertise of agency staff is always high. They know what to pay attention to and what to beware of.
2. Every vacancy may be handled by a team, not just one recruiter. Every team member knows the methodology of candidate searching, which drives better results.
3. They have access to databases with great candidates, which means that the process of recruiting is usually faster and more efficient. Also, there are candidates for almost any role, even if you need a professional in a rare area.
4. The price of finding a suitable candidate might be lower than the salary of an in-house recruiter. Also, you pay to the agency only once — either when a candidate accepts an offer or when they end the probation period.

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On the other hand, both have their weaknesses:

Cons of In-House Recruiting

1. If staff recruiters lack experience or knowledge, the process might take too long, which means financial losses for the business. There are many cases when the development is postponed due to not hired specialists.
2. If a company employs only one recruiter, finding relevant candidates may take more time than if a team tackled the same task. However, not every company can hire several recruiters.
3. Having a large recruitment department for rapid scaling is excess and can be reasonable if a company is constantly growing. There’s no need to employ the entire team if you have only 2-3 vacancies per month. Better address an agency.

Cons of Outsourced Recruiting

1. Without a detailed description and deep knowledge of the company specifics, agency recruiters might find not relevant candidates. However, this won’t be a drawback, if you share as many details as you can.
2. Outsource recruiters don’t work for a company itself and are not aware of the corporate culture in it. So, they can’t predict whether a candidate will fit this culture for sure.

As you can see, each option has its upsides and downsides, that’s why most modern companies of medium and large size prefer to use both. Having a staff recruiting for non-urgent vacancies and a proven agency for closing hot ones is a perfect choice.

Why and When to Address an Agency?

Companies might seek help from recruiting agencies when:

1. Their staff recruiters can’t handle that many vacancies. It often happens when you need to hire a whole department or several experts to various teams.
2. They need to hire an employee as soon as possible. Complementing efforts of in-house recruiters with outsourcing is always more effective.
3. They are looking for specialists with rare expertise and unique experience. Thanks to rich databases, agencies offer more candidates faster.
4. They have a limited budget. Agencies have fees for their work, however, the work of an in-house employee, access to specific tools, posting vacancies, and so on might cost business even more.

Tips for Choosing a Suitable Recruiting Agency

Unfortunately, not every recruiter is professional, and not every agency delivers guaranteed results. So, you can ensure your cooperation by following these tips:

1. Ask your acquaintances for recommendations. You can use their experience to decide what approach and prices suit you. 
2. Search for available agencies in your region and find reviews about them. If you know nothing about the company, see how they are doing on socials and what others think of them.
3. Ask for success cases. Before you start cooperation with an agency, take a look at their previous searches and closed vacancies that are similar to yours. Pay attention to the number of vacancies they have closed. 
4. Look for guarantees. Ask them if they sign contracts that ensure results and a ‘Plan B’ if something goes wrong. Decent recruiting agencies ensure the replacement of a candidate if the person has not passed the trial period.
5. Discover more details about the experience of both the agency and their in-house recruiters who will handle your candidate search. If you need to find a candidate with a unique experience, better delegate this task to professionals with at least several years of background.