When it comes to finding the best candidates for your business, there are a lot of things to consider. Do you have the time and resources to conduct a thorough search yourself? Or would it make more sense to outsource your hiring process to a recruiter?

If you’re considering outsourcing your hiring process to a recruiter, you may be wondering what to expect. Will they do all the work for you? Will they find the best candidates for your job? What’s the process like? In this blog post, we will discuss what to expect when you outsource your hiring process to a recruiter.

Step 1: Getting to know your business

The first step for any recruitment agency is to get to know your company. How else would they know if a candidate is going to be the right fit for your business? They’ll want to know your company culture, values, and what you’re looking for in a candidate. This step is important because it ensures that the agency understands your needs and can find candidates that are the best match for your business.

Step 2: Defining the role and characteristics of a good candidate

The next step is to define the role that you’re looking to fill. The agency will need to know the job requirements, duties, and skills that are required for the position. They may also have questions about the department to which the role pertains. Will the successful candidate be the sole employee in that department, and therefore responsible for running all aspects of that faculty or will they be working as part of a team or assuming a leadership role within an existing team? By defining the role, the agency can start searching for candidates that meet your criteria.

They’ll also want to know what you’re looking for in a candidate. While skills and experience are important, it may be that your company is looking for a more junior person to come aboard. When this is the case, qualities and characteristics are often more important than industry knowledge.

Skills can be taught, but having a good work ethic and displaying the qualities and character traits of an upstanding person are intrinsic. Being knowledgeable and having experience doesn’t excuse laziness and having a negative attitude.

Step 3: Creating the job advert

After the agency has a good understanding of your company and the role you’re looking to fill, it’s time to write the job advert. This is an important step because it will be used to attract candidates to apply for the position.

The agency will use their knowledge of your company and the role to write an advert that accurately reflects what you’re looking for. They will also use keywords and phrases that will help to attract qualified candidates with the right skills and level of experience for your open position.

Positioning your company as a vibrant and positive place to work will be key to attracting top talent for the role.

Step 4: Sourcing candidates

The next step is sourcing candidates. The agency will use a variety of methods to find potential candidates for your open position. This may include searching their own database of candidates, using job boards, and conducting targeted searches on social media. They may also reach out to personal contacts and industry connections to find the best fit for you.

Step 5: Vetting the applicants

One of the best parts about using a recruitment agency to manage the hiring process on your behalf is that they will take the time to go through each application individually, matching up candidate skills and experience to the requirements of your position and speaking to prospective candidates to establish whether or not they are the right fit for your business.

This is a painstakingly time-consuming activity and one of the greatest reasons to outsource your recruitment process. During this stage, the agency will weed out any applicants who are not suited to your business by confirming their claims, speaking to their references, and reviewing their LinkedIn page to ensure the information that has been provided checks out. When the process is complete they will present you with a shortlist of candidates.

Step 6: The interviews.

Many agencies will conduct an initial interview with the candidates. This may form part of their vetting process and is done to ensure that candidates are being honest about their level of experience as well as sharing the same values that are important to your business. Once the candidates pass the initial interview stage, and their applications have been reviewed by yourself a second interview will be arranged between the candidate and the client.

Recruiters will work hard to accommodate the schedules of both the interviewers and interviewees to ensure everything runs smoothly. They may also assist both sides throughout the interview process and operate as a professional buffer between the company and the prospective candidates.

All rejections will be handled through the recruitment agency, which often makes it easier for companies to be direct with their feedback which is relayed to the candidates in a constructive way that will help them succeed in interviewing for similar roles in the future.

Where second or third interviews are required, the agency will be responsible for scheduling these and communicating expectations between the client and candidates.

Step 7: Extending an offer

When a successful candidate is chosen, the recruiter will often be the one to extend the offer of employment to the applicant. At this stage, many employment agencies will also offer to negotiate salary on behalf of the candidate so that they might get the best offer possible from the company. They can also manage the successful candidate’s expectations, as they already understand the needs of their client.

Step 8: Checking in

Though an offer has been accepted and the deal is done a recruiter’s work doesn’t stop there. They will typically check in with both the company and the candidate a few weeks after they’ve started their new role to ensure that everything is going smoothly and that they are settling into the position well. Critical to a recruiter’s reputation is the happiness of both clients and candidates.

Our final thoughts

This is just an overview of what you can expect when you outsource your hiring process to a recruitment agency. In most cases, agencies will be able to tailor their services to better suit your specific needs. Many agencies work within a specific niche or industry and therefore can offer greater insight to the client and candidates they work with.

Recruitment process outsourcing can save you a lot of time and money in the longterm, while also increasing the chances that you’ll find the best possible candidate for your business.