Knowing where to find candidates is essential to businesses filling their staffing needs. For example, companies can publish vacant positions on their website. However, will they attract enough visitors to their job listing?
Therefore, it is essential that businesses know where to find candidates and attract them.
There are a few factors to consider from the various methods of sourcing candidates.
Speed
How fast can any of these platforms provide employment solutions?
Quality
What is the quality of candidates that apply?
Cost
How much would it cost to hire someone through this channel?
So where do successful businesses find candidates? Here are a few places:
Job Boards
Speed: ★★★★
Quality: ★★
Cost: $
In the past, businesses needed to work with a newspaper to post an ad for their vacant position. However, that all changed with the arrival of the Internet.
With job boards, companies can post vacant positions and instantly have candidates apply. In addition, changes can easily be made to the job description and appear instantly.
Job boards can cost anywhere from $0 to $500 per listing. Based on the position, businesses should consider if job boards are the right approach. For example, a specialized position is often challenging to fill on job boards.
On the other hand, job boards are perfect for filling common positions.
In most cases, job boards will be the first step in advertising a vacant position. This approach is what is called the post and pray method.
Social Media
Speed: ★★★
Quality: ★★
Cost: $
Today, companies have realized what an important tool social media is to their brand. With social media, organizations reach millions of consumers.
In addition, many businesses have realized that social media is also a strong tool for employment. Imagine customers who follow your brand finding vacant positions in your organization. That is the power that social media brings when filling a vacant position.
Many brands use twitter to converse with their followers and update them on products and services. Therefore, businesses have learned that by using twitter to advertise jobs, they receive a great deal of candidates.
Twitter also allows businesses to send the web link to the application page. Once a vacant position is published, businesses should tweet the opening. By doing so, many followers of the business will be aware and can apply.
Facebook is one of the largest and most influential technology companies worldwide. Businesses have learned to use the platform to connect and engage with their fans.
This platform is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote an open position.
LinkedIn is the professional and employment version of Facebook. Since 2003, LinkedIn has become a great place to post jobs and send out alerts.
LinkedIn performs very well for white collar jobs. However, blue collar professionals are not as active on this platform. This is something to keep in mind when advertising the type of vacant position.
Other Emerging Platforms
There are other emerging platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Currently, none of these platforms are created specifically for employment and job seekers. However, users were able to transform the social media platforms for their unique needs.
These channels are extremely popular with the younger audience who will be the future workforce. Time will tell how these emerging channels will be transformed by businesses to promote vacant positions.
Search Firms
The primary job of a recruiter is to take care of the sourcing, sorting, screening, and filtering hundreds of resumes. Afterwards, they pick 3 to 5 finalists that fit your needs for each open position.
The best recruiters act as human capital advisors for your firm. They provide consultation on issues like compensation and help develop job descriptions for your specific hiring needs.
Recruiters are one of the most expensive solutions. On the high end, recruiters can charge up to 50% of the new employees first total year of compensation as a direct hire fee.
However, they invest expensive time in sourcing and identifying the ideal candidate for your hiring needs.
In general, they work on a contingency basis. That means that they begin the work and find the ideal candidate for businesses without pay. They are only paid once the candidate is hired.
Once the business is ready to hire the candidate, the business pays the fee. On average, most agencies charge 20 to 25% of the annual compensation. This is known as a direct hire fee.
Our staffing agency fee is below the market average to stay competitive. Let us know how we can assist you with your recruitment needs.
The positive part of working with recruiters is that they take care of all the sourcing and screening. They save companies tremendous time and resources.
If a company is looking for a specialized position to hire, they should strongly consider a recruitment agency that may already have prescreened candidates ready to go.
Alternatively, if the company is hiring a high volume of staff, it would be more efficient to outsource all or part of the recruitment process to the staffing agency.
By doing so, recruiters can greatly accelerate your search process regardless of the company size and its needs.
They have access to tools and resources that most companies do not have. Partnering with one of them is valuable to most businesses.
Direct-Hire Executive & Retainer Search Firms
Speed: ★★
Quality: ★★★★★
Cost: $$$$$
Executive and retained search agencies specialize in recruiting C-level executives. These recruitment agencies have spent numerous years specializing in specific industries.
In short, they know all the well-known executives of each industry. In addition, they have established relationships with each of these executives. The moment one of the executives are in the job market, the executive search firm connects them with large companies who are in the market.
The executive search firms often have a monopoly in this market. Therefore, enterprise organizations depend on these executive search firms to connect them with the best talent available.
Working with an executive search firm has its price. They are one of the most expensive staffing services to work with. However, the quality of candidates that the business will receive are the best in the industry.
Direct Hire Contingency Search Firms
Speed: ★★★
Quality: ★★★★
Cost: $$$$
Contingency search firms charge a direct hire fee when a candidate is hired. When businesses need assistance from experienced staffing agencies, they work with the contingency model.
In summary, when the business hires the candidate from the staffing agency, they pay the temp agency a commission for their work. Fees for contingent search firms typically fall in the range of 20 to 30% of the first-year salary.
The best part of this approach is the fact that businesses only pay if they hire the candidate. If they do not hire, there is no obligation for the business to pay the staffing agency.
A word of caution here about getting the lowest rates from a temp agency, some companies feel proud about negotiating a staffing agency down to a low percentage. Although these percentages are dropping with the advent of multiple staffing agencies, it can hurt businesses that go with the lowest rates.
For example, if a business negotiates a direct-hire contingency rate of 10%, they may think they got a great deal. However, the direct-hire contingency search firm will end up presenting their B-level candidates and save A-level candidates for companies that are willing to pay a higher percentage.
It is the harsh reality and businesses should be cautious of negotiating too low. Most staffing agencies will agree to a lower rate and will not disclose the fact that they are sending B-level candidates.
Tier2Tek staffing works with a different model. Regardless of the percentage, we make sure we send the most current, qualified candidate to our clients. In short, we treat every client the same regardless of our percentage. If the business is requesting a percentage that is too low, we simply decline.
In summary, our direct-hire percentages are lower than the industry average and we are committed to providing the highest quality candidates to all our clients.
Outsourcing Recruitment Process Outsourcing Firms (RPOs)
Speed: ★★★
Quality: ★★★
Cost: $$$
The outsourcing of recruitment is one where the vendor seeks to leverage infrastructure costs across a variety of clients to deliver lower per-hire costs.
In most cases, businesses pay a monthly fee for the service and may also pay a fee for every person that is successfully placed.
In addition, the RPOs only provide candidates. They do not conduct detailed screening and interviewing. Therefore, most businesses find Recruitment Process Outsourcing Firms (RPOs) helpful for initial sourcing.
Offshore Sourcing Firms
Speed: ★★★★
Quality: ★★
Cost: $$
Regarding offshore recruitment, companies have a tradeoff between price and quality. The costs will be lower, but you will get mostly raw, unfiltered screened resumes that have been picked up from major job boards.
The benefit of offshore sourcing is that you will get a lot of candidates to apply. The offshore sourcing agencies will fill your inbox with a lot of resumes.
In some cases, when you contact the resumes, the candidates are surprised and not sure how you got a hold of the resume.
Another challenge with offshore staffing agencies is the fact that there will be a time zone difference. Moreover, any language differences and communication gaps can add to some of these challenges.
In summary, if a company needs many candidates to apply for a position, this may be a cost-effective option. However, all the screening and filtering will have to be conducted in-house.
Contract Recruiters
Speed: ★★★★
Quality: ★★★★
Cost: $$$$
A contracted recruiter is someone you hire on 1099 or Corp to Corp basis. In short, they are fulltime recruiters hired on contract to help organizations during a hiring spike.
Businesses can expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $90 an hour for an experienced contract recruiter.
The best part of this option is the fact that they will come to work in your company. If they have experience in the local market, they most likely will have local candidates already available.
The caution about contract recruiters is the fact that the recruiters can be very expensive.
Staffing Agencies – Where to Find Candidates
Speed: ★★★★★
Quality: ★★★★
Cost: $$$$
A staffing agency does the initial sourcing and screening of candidates. Based on the employment type, the employees can be direct hire, temp-to-hire, or outsourced.
For temp staffing and outsourced staffing, the employee will be on the payroll of the staffing agency.
With direct-hire staffing, the candidate will be on the company payroll from day one. After the hire, the company pays the staffing agency a sourcing fee.
One of the benefits of working with the temp to hire option is the fact that businesses get to evaluate employees before hiring them. As a result, businesses can see if the employee will be a good fit before hiring them.
On the other hand, if things do not work out, businesses work with a staffing agency to request a replacement.
The best part of working with a staffing agency is the fact that it is a low risk for businesses. By working with a temp agency, businesses can dismiss employees and have the agency handle the paperwork.
In summary, staffing agencies will provide quality candidates at amazing speed. Most importantly, they interview and prescreen candidates before sending the finalists.
As a result, temp agencies save businesses valuable time and resources.
Referral Programs
Speed: ★★
Quality: ★★★★★
Cost: $
Having a referral program is one of the best and cost-effective ways to recruit new talent. Businesses should always have an employee referral program in place.
For instance, businesses spend a great deal of time and money in attracting and hiring a new employee. With an internal referral program, employees who already like working for the company can refer friends and family.
As a result, businesses gain high-quality candidates who are referred by current employees. Although it is not the most reliable way of attracting employees, it certainly is the most cost-effective solution.