Leveraging All of the Recruitment Channels
By Jeff Dahltorp
There are traditionally four channels that a company uses to recruit new employees - Internet, 3rd party recruiters, print and referrals. Using all four of these targeted approaches, in the right mix and for the right reasons, can ensure that your Internet recruiting efforts pay off with good employees at low costs.
While everyone might assume that they already know everything about each one, determining the right mix for your company is critical. Let's briefly take a look at each of these approaches separately and then talk a bit about how they all work together.
Referrals
Referrals are the least expensive way to hire new, quality employees - if the process is managed correctly. The majority of companies have some sort of employee referral program in place that pays a current employee a "finders fee" for referring someone that is hired and ultimately stays with the company for 90 days, six months or a year. These fees generally range from $200 to $5,000 depending upon the types of individuals someone is looking for and the size of the company. The smart companies structure the fee paid based on the level of the position filled - more for an executive and less for an administrator with an amount in the middle for managers.
The problem that some companies face is a rising cost where there is no tracking done on the referrals that come through the system. Employees may refer someone after they see that a position has been posted online, placed in the newspaper or turned over to a 3rd party recruiter. If you end up hiring the person that was referred by an employee, your cost is not just the finder's fee, but the cost of all the other advertisements as well. Leverage your employees first before you leverage the market.
Print
This is the most traditional method used for locating employee candidates, but has become one of the least efficient in today's technological economy. Twenty years ago, placing an ad in the classified section of your local newspaper for an open position was really the only way to reach a large pool of candidates. Usually these people lived in the community and so you didn't have to worry about relocation costs and they were more likely to stay long term with your organization. At the same time, placing that ad could run in the thousands of dollars in a highly visible or national publication and you may only received a handful of qualified candidates or you settled for the best of the bunch.
Today, the Internet has really taken a toll on the value of a print ad for recruiting. But the fact is that there still is a place for print ads depending upon the goals of your staffing organization. Certain people still prefer to look at the classifieds for new jobs - especially part time and entry-level positions. Also, for people that are very busy and may not have direct access to the Internet but they read their local paper everyday, reaching them through print can be very effective. Really evaluate your objectives for filling a position to determine if there is value in a print ad.
3rd Party Recruiters
When all else fails, most organizations look to a 3rd Party Recruiter to help them locate the perfect candidate. Depending upon the company, some may even use a recruiting agency to fill all their positions due to the speed of seeing qualified candidates. The downside of this process is similar to print in that it is very high cost if you use a traditional recruiting firm. But today, there are a number of companies that have emerged as true innovators in 3rd party recruiting. These companies utilize technology as well as the human experience to quickly generate quality candidates at a fraction of the 20% to 30% of a total compensation fee or retainer.
Also take a strong look at a resume from a recruiter before you agree to meet with them. Too many of the clients that I work with have ended up hiring candidates presented to them by a 3rd Party recruiter that they already had a resume on sitting in their applicant tracking system database.
The 3rd Party Recruiter does serve an important function in any company's recruiting effort - that of locating the VP or C-level executive and the hard to find specialist in a medical, engineering or financial field. Often the network that these companies have to generate qualified, passive candidates is very impressive. As with print, think about the type of person you are trying to hire or the position you are trying to fill and determine if you can handle it through a referral, print or the Internet. If not, then it might be best to start with a 3rd Party Recruiter.
Internet
Ten years ago, no one even knew what the Internet was. Five years ago there were a few career sites online but none of them were well recognized and besides, why would you place a job online when there were very few people that even had access to those job postings? Today, utilization of Internet recruiting solutions and the thousands of career sites that cover all job specialties and industries is the norm. For a very low cost, in comparison to print and 3rd Party Recruiters, a company can have access to thousands of candidates from all over the world in just days. But this can also be a double-edged sword.
When you have thousands of applicants you want to make sure that you are interviewing the best candidates. With new technologies that are on the market today that can prescreen, test and rank your candidates before a recruiter even sees the resume, making your way through a large quantity of resumes can be actually enjoyable. Plus, these technologies can also be used for those candidates you receive from referrals, print and 3rd Party Recruiters - very efficient use of your budget dollars.
Combining the four methods of recruiting
In reality, no company can survive by using simply one of the four approaches on its own. You really need to have a mix of two or more to be truly effective in finding and retaining the best candidates. Start with the referral process. If you don't currently have one, then get one set up - there are a number of good companies in the market that have a technology to manage the referrals and the payment of the finders fees. If you do have a referral program, make sure that your employees know about it and how it works - having them refer people through an internal system allows you to track those candidates and source that referral database before you post a job online or with a 3rd Party Recruiter.
After you have a functional referral process take a look at the types of positions you have open. Would these open positions be best filled by an Internet posting, a 3rd Party Recruiter or an ad in the newspaper? Just about any position can be filled using the Internet but you can't expect one foundational board to meet all your needs. There is a reason there are hundreds of successful career sites on the Internet - they all have a place for attracting qualified candidates. You simply need to know which ones to use for your company hires. Also, 3rd Party recruiters can be incredibly efficient, but you do pay a high cost. Make sure that you are not relying on them for all your hires no matter how easy it seems. Reallocating some of the print and 3rd Party Recruiter budget to the Internet or new generation recruiters and technology can help you reach the same results at a lower overall cost per hire. A lot of that is going to depend on your company, your technology and your budget. Creating a recruiting process that incorporates a lot of referrals, a strong Internet presence and supplementing this with 3rd Party Recruiters and print will generate hires that make you, and your management, proud.
