A Case for Dedicated Sourcing and Screening
Stop me if any of these scenarios sound familiar.
You are sitting at your desk. Your ATS is on your screen. What is staring back at you? Anywhere from 25-40 open requisitions you manage, with 7-15 hiring managers screaming at you through your computer for candidates.
You are working at a company that is heavily regulated and/or has very firm compliance and process requirements that must be met without fail. Appropriate dispositioning of candidates is mandatory and must be done quickly and consistently, regardless of their fit for the job.
You are an agency recruiter. You answer to a Recruiting Manager, a Branch Manager, and several Account Executives. All are breathing down your neck to meet your submittal quota for the week…speed, speed and more speed.
You are a TA leader managing any of these folks and under exponentially more pressure than all of these people combined.
Now, what do all of you have in common? Primarily, a lack of time! Let’s face it, in today’s world of instant gratification, doing less with more, and instant accessibility, very few of us have the time our predecessors did.
What hasn’t changed is that finding top tier candidates takes what many of us lack – time. In fact, in an employment market where candidates rule the roost and there is negative unemployment in some verticals, we have even less time to find and chase down the best candidates or spend hours vetting them on the phone only to have a handful qualify.
Unfortunately, finding top talent requires that we do just that; spend hours trolling LinkedIn, run x-ray searches on internet browsers, hit up social media sites and online user groups, and network constantly.
After years of leading Recruiting teams in agency settings, corporate settings, and now for the delivery of recruiting support programs for both, I’ve learned that having extra sourcing and screening help is the lifeblood of recruiting teams today.
The case studies and success stories are numerous for who sourcing and screening can help:
Small startups or growing companies building their TA function with immediate growth goals.
Many times, smaller companies face incredible expectations for growth, whether they are wholly owned, VC-backed or something else. Quite often, there may only be one recruiter, or no recruiters and just an HR Manager, or possibly a generalist tasked with hiring highly sought-after skillsets. Sourcing may not be something they have the time, interest, or experience for.
Newly acquired companies looking to prove their capability to hire more with less to win credibility with the business.
There are several companies I have talked with recently who have been acquired and integrated with a larger parent company. They are now tasked with integrating all of their systems and processes while also growing their business. All of this takes more hiring than they are equipped for. Yet, they have a need to demonstrate that their recruiters and TA can handle things.
TA teams facing massive req loads.
Let’s face it, a lot of TA leaders fall into this category.
Companies who have been hit with unexpected projects that result in unsustainable and/or finite hiring spikes.
Whether it is unplanned new business, regulatory requirements for security that you have to shore up new teams to head off, or new systems that you will be building and/or integrating, or any number of others, many TA teams this year will face hiring spikes – some small, some large – that their recruiters don’t have time to handle. You don’t need to hire new FTEs because the need is finite, so you have a few choices: 1) you can hire contract recruiters, but that takes time and they will have to build credibility with the managers, 2) you can rely on your dearth of contingent firms…and then weed through the sea of resumes and the countless calls from Sales Reps demanding feedback on their candidates, only for many to fall by the wayside when the times get tough for the searches, 3) you can burn your team out by working 60-80 hour weeks, or 4) you can engage a dedicated source and screening team!
What do all of these have in common?
In each of these scenarios, TA still manages the relationship with the hiring managers.
So, what are the value-adds for Sourcing and Selection augmentation in all of these?
TA still gets the credit for the successes, they still own the branding of their company for the process and candidate experience, and they own the relationship with the new hires and hiring manager. The cost is also drastically less (often only 25-35% of what you would pay in contingent search fees).
With dedicated Sourcing and Selection augmentation, each of these TA teams can double their productivity based on the time it takes for these functions, have access to more top tier passive candidates, and have much more time to dedicate to all of the other necessary functions of a successful TA organization in support of the business.
Sound like a value-add? I am a believer and many of the companies I work with are, too. Reach out today to learn how MATRIX Rapid Scale Recruiting can provide dedicated screening for your organization.