Recruitment is tiring business. Finding people with the expertise is one thing, but to secure the individuals who can significantly contribute to the business’s growth, is an entirely different deal.

On top of that, you have to be wary of bad hires who can be detrimental to the team, especially if they are senior hires. To add to this, it really doesn’t help that the current talent market is low in supply with the low unemployment rates, making competition even tighter.

For business leaders, a common question is whether they should rely on in-house or a recruitment agency. The concern most people have is with cost. To help you better identify your needs and whether hiring through a recruitment agency is for you, here’s four key reasons why companies choose to outsource their hiring to recruitment agencies as well as a short summary at the end of what to take note.

4 Reasons Why Companies Use Recruitment Agencies

Time Saving- Shorten Recruitment Process

Time  is really of the essence when it comes to recruitment. Depending on the seniority of the role, you may have a longer or shorter recruitment cycle. Though in general, the idea is to close the deal quickly as soon as see someone fit.

The Asia talent market is highly competitive, this is especially true at the moment for Hong Kong and Singapore. When recruiting literally means you’re competing with other companies for the best people in the market, time becomes crucial. More than that, it’s just downright frustrating to not have the people you need, which is where recruitment agencies come in.

Recruitment agencies help businesses save time in two key ways. Let’s start with the obvious one. By outsourcing your roles to a recruitment agency, you’re automatically freeing up hands to do other things. The second reason however, is arguably the more important one to note.

The key thing to remember is that recruitment consultants are professionals who recruit for a living. This means more likely than not, they have access to a bigger pool of candidates, have better channels and tools to help them close a deal, and most importantly the expertise to know very quickly who’d be right for the  role (more on this later).

 

Professional Expertise- Specialised Candidate Sourcing

Unless you already have an established talent acquisition department with specialised expertise, in most cases companies who recruit in-house rely on generalist.

While there’s nothing wrong with that, it may be the case that you’re missing out on quality hires and expertise which you’d otherwise get with a professional recruitment agency. This is why when it comes to hiring for senior roles, even companies who have in-house capabilities will tend to outsource these positions to more acclaimed recruitment agencies.

Depending on the firm you partner with, you may even benefit from additional insight as they may have worked with other major corporations and have a better mapping of the talent in the market, connecting you with the some of the strongest talent in the industry.

 

Lacking Resources/ In-House Experience

While we’re comparing the benefits of using recruitment agencies versus in-house hiring, in reality, it might just be that the company doesn’t have sufficient expertise in-house to carry out the hire or that they simply don’t have a dedicated in-house recruiter.

For these companies, the need is transparent. You don’t have all day to wait for the company to establish their in-house capabilities, and to grow you need the right people, so the best way to go about it in this scenario is to outsource your roles to a recruitment agency.

 

Added Security – Making Sure Your New Hire Stays

Retention, perhaps the single most annoying problem when it comes to recruitment. There’s nothing more irritating than hiring someone who decides to work for less than a month making you go through the entire recruitment process all over again.

Luckily, you wouldn’t have to worry about this as a customer, as all the best recruitment agencies in the market will offer a guarantee period. This will generally cover the candidates’ 3 month probation period, meaning even if your new hire decides to leave, you’re covered with a replacement candidate.

Since recruiters themselves are also better off looking for people who can satisfy your needs and are willing to stay for the long run, they are more motivated to provide you with quality hires.

Knowing the reasons for using recruitment agencies as opposed to hiring in-house is the first step to finding out which solution is best for you. With that, here’s a summary of the 3 things to consider before using a recruitment agency.