Recruiting
Should You Hire a Recruiter or Do It Yourself?
Do you really need to hire a recruiter to do a full service executive search, or do you just need a little support for the parts that you’re not willing or able to do yourself?
This is a big—not to mention costly—decision, so we need to debunk a couple of industry myths and give you the unvarnished truth about recruiting.
Myth #1: You can’t do as good a job as a recruiter.
The truth is that you can not only do just as good a job, but you can even do it better if you have both the time and interest, because no one understands your business and company’s culture better than you.
Like any profession, recruiting does require some specialized knowledge, but whatever it is that you either can’t or won’t do, you can always outsource it.
What you mostly need is the desire, patience, and a basic understanding of what a proper executive search plan entails so you can determine what you’re willing and able to do.
Myth #2: Recruiters have big databases so they can find the best candidate faster than you.
Every “key” position has its own unique combination of critical success factors, so it would be a truly amazing coincidence if any recruiter had the perfect candidate ready and waiting to simply step right into your particular job. It’s possible of course, but so is winning a lottery.
Databases schmatabases
Any recruiter worth his or her salt will “scope out” the entire marketplace anyway to ensure that they’ve found you the absolute best available candidate. So the truth is, a recruiter can only find a candidate faster than you if you can’t dedicate the same amount of time to conduct a proper executive search.
There are really only 3 reasons why you should hire a recruiter:
- You don’t have the time
- You don’t have the interest
- You need to keep your executive search a secret.
“I don’t know how” isn’t a valid reason to abdicate responsibility for your executive search to us or any other recruiter because if you really want to do it yourself, you can.
If you don’t have an HR background, you’ll likely need some guidance with one or two parts of your executive search plan, but expert help is readily available today, and freely available on the Internet. Again, you just need to know what a proper executive search plan entails so you can determine where you need help and how much of it you require given your time constraints.
It might interest you to know…
…that the vast majority of recruiters aren’t HR professionals either, so before you commit to one, it would behoove you to ask them to actually demonstrate, not just describe precisely how they actually match the right person the right job, and then compare this to what today’s best managed companies are doing .
Be forewarned
If “secrecy” isn’t an issue and if you have both the time and interest, then you may not need a recruiter. But hold on to your horses before you charge full speed ahead because you also need to be fully aware of some of the harsh realities of conducting an executive search.
An executive search is typically very time-consuming, especially if the job skills are unique or in great demand. Could you afford to dedicate yourself to this endeavor full time for two or more months if necessary?
Moreover, an executive search is tedious work that can test the limits of even the most patient person. Pouring over countless resumes, conducting telephone prescreens, doing face-to-face interviews and reference checks—not to mention making detailed notes and asking the same questions repeatedly—can be totally mind numbing for some people. It’s easy to zone out and miss a critical detail if you don’t stay completely focused.
So if patience, attention to detail, and tenacity aren’t your strong points, then as stunt men typically say, “Don’t attempt this yourself”.
But if you gather all the facts on what a proper executive search plan actually entails and still feel that you’re up for the challenge, or if you’re on a tight budget and willing to learn the ins and outs, then you can definitely save yourself a pile of dough and achieve your goal—no doubt about it.
Don’t despair though if you have the interest but can’t afford the time, because you can still save yourself a significant amount of money if you’re willing to do even a few of the tasks. To learn how we can help you with your executive search, check out our three T.E.A.M. strategies.
