The Challenges of In-House Recruiting

Recruiting the right talent is exceptionally important and will, ultimately, determine how successful a business is. But how to get recruitment right?

There are two options available to organisations; use external recruiters, or keep it in-house. While there are benefits to keeping recruitment in-house, including consistency throughout the process, there are also many challenges to choosing this form of recruitment.

Naturally, as a consultant at a recruitment agency I would favour the external model, but if you want to explore in-house recruiting here are some important considerations to factor into your decision.

Is In-House Recruiting Really Cheaper?

Perhaps the prime motivating factor for recruiting in-house is a desire to keep costs down. This can certainly be cost effective when recruiting for occasional roles, particularly non-specialist ones. But, although many agencies feel that the cost of external recruitment is too high, it can sometimes end up costing substantially more to keep the process in-house.

If you choose to employ full time in-house recruiters and you find that there are times when recruitment is quiet, you will still have the overhead of paying a full time salary. With external recruitment however, you are only paying the agency, as and when you need them, and only if a candidate is successfully placed.

Time and Resources

Many companies don’t hire full time in-house recruiters, but instead, use their current staff to deal with the process. As you would expect, this can take up a lot of time and resources which could be used for other aspects of the business. If you are using key members of staff to undertake the advertising, shortlisting and interviewing process, you are taking them away from their actual role and this will have a knock on effect on their productivity, and profitability.

The other challenge in terms of time and resources is that if the new hire doesn’t work out, you will never get that time back! Alternatively a recruitment agency will be able to dedicate their time to the process, which means your own staff can get on with other work. You also have the safety net of knowing that if the new person doesn’t work out or leaves within a certain time-frame (usually 12 weeks), you will get the money back.

Expertise

Another challenge of in-house recruitment is that identifying the best talent for your role requires experience. Short of employing an in-house recruiter, do staff members know what they are looking for in a CV? Is there a danger that they might miss a strong candidate and shortlist others that are not such a good fit? Interviewing is also a skill that develops with experience and therefore if you do recruit in-house, make sure you have your most experienced interviewer on the panel.

Employer Brand

Your whole recruitment process is a reflection on your employer brand. If you want to install confidence in a prospective employee that your agency can offer them the opportunities they desire, first impressions count. A smooth running, professional recruitment process, where a candidate’s time is valued and feedback is delivered in a timely manner, will do this.

If your in-house recruitment process, particularly if it is not being undertaken by a dedicated recruitment team, is a little ad hoc and homespun it can be damaging for your employer brand, and sow the seeds of doubt in a candidate’s mind.

While none of the issues outlined above are insurmountable, they do need to be addressed for your recruitment process to be effective. Weighing up the pros and cons of different recruitment models is a good first step.

Going to exceptional lengths to recruit the best people does not necessarily mean choosing one recruitment model over another, but it does mean doing whatever you choose well.

In your experience, what do you find to be most effective, or do you use a combination of both? We would love to hear all about your experiences and challenges with the recruitment process.