2. You say you are a former agency recruiter, so why would you advocate outside recruiters dealing with HR, or even worse, the internal corporate recruiting staff? Do your hiring managers really need you to interpret who is a good candidate for them? When I do agency side placements, I don’t waste time with companies that make me go through HR. I’ve had too many internal HR people try and pull something like ‘this guy applied to us back in 1997, so we can’t pay you a fee’ after we’ve made the effort to search out the candidate, interveiw them and work them through the offer process. If he was in your database, why didn’t you find him on your own?

3. If you are a corporate recruiter, especially a contract recruiter, and you need an agency to fill your jobs, how does your conscience allow you to cash your paycheck? Ok, there are a couple scenarios where you might need help. Maybe you have 20 open reqs for senior sales people, or your company doesn’t give you any tools or resources to work with, or you need to fill a position in less than 10 days, but it amazes me how many well funded internal recruiters sit back and watch outside agencies take money from their company because they aren’t aggressive enough to fill jobs on their own. When I work contracts, I’d sooner fall on my sword than let a position be filled by an agency. I guess it’s a matter of pride.

4. Lastly, putting internal HR or recruiting staff in charge of managing outside agencies sets up a situation that encourages bribes and kickbacks. Agencies make a lot of money on a per placement basis and there are people want some of that action. Requests are usually small like asking for dinner or ballgame tickets. These we don’t mind if they fit within normal policies and practice, but sometimes we get blatant requests for cash like ‘I’ll make sure your company gets X number of fills a month if you’ll pay me $xxx per fill.’ We just tell them to piss off. If we can’t do business without bribes, we write that company off until the offender moves somewhere else.

Funny thing – I have never had a hiring manager ask for anything other than for us to get them the best possible candidate as quickly as possible.

I am an internal recruiter, but I started my career as an external with a staffing firm. I am a huge advocate of using firms for those tough to fill positions. Having been on both sides, I see the need for both options. Relying solely on external firms however, is not always the best way to go for several reasons. Internal recruiters not only need to make the placement and please managers, but they have to consider key factors like career development/growth opps vs the candidates needs, and of course succession planning comes into play. External firms have only a rep to protect and need to retain the client, however they are not concerned for the long-term. They also have access to the candidate for the remainder of their career, and beleive me from experience – they will place that candidate somewhere else when a better opportnuity arises. I also feel strongly that an external recruiter need only work thru the HR dept or with internal recruiters. I see too many head-hunters cut corners and go directly to Hiring Mgrs. This will not fly in a big corp., all it does is cause confusion, and damage relationships between HR and Hiring Mgrs. The best way for an external recruiter to retain a client is to make initial contacts with Hiring Managers, and then follow through with HR.

There may be some minimum committment period – should be similar to hiring a contract recruiter here

Caveat: This is a new area so most of the offshore companies would not be very established names. Look for companies that promise quality and not just cost advantage. Understand their SLAs. Managing offshore recruiters is a headache so make sure you don’t get burdened with that. Talk to a few of their recruiters. Comm skills may be a big problem when considering offshore recruiters

I have been in this business for 15 years and have found that a combination of the 2 is what will work in today’s environment. HR partnering is crucial, so is the interaction with hiring managers. Setting standards and procedures is the #1 priority for a Recruiter, after performing a needs assessment and educating the client. Strict compliance and adherence is only possible if the Recruiter takes the responsiblity of initiating decision making.

45 days to hire is a long time, almost as long as it takes to sell a home. 3 weeks should be the maximum time to hire. Nothing should allow the ideal candidate to slip through the cracks because finding a replacement is a frustrating process whereby the Recruiter loses credibility.

I advocate taking control and only working with clients who comply with your process. Sending resumes to companies that do not comply with your method of doing business does not make sense.