Cost – RPOs are more cost effective but many have hidden costs. Outsourcing admin activity from staffing process is wise. Depending on level of experience, outsourcing screening activity makes sense also. But I’ve seen RPO’s whose sourcing models are post and pray – nothing elegant or strategic about it and many of the talent within are either kids or inexperienced in being consultative with hiring managers. For high volume transactional positions that don’t require targeted sourcing, RPO’s can seriously benefit a company

Quality – oooh, holy grail stuff here. I like to review turnover compared to source – ie, company, college, etc to view trends as well as performance scores. Corporate Leadership Council has a post-hire survey that goes to hiring manager that is interesting and am using but it’s still too early to evaluate

This aligns to culture fit as well.

I look at comparing external vs internal dependent on level and type of process for the positions. Cost is a factor but industry plays a role in this

I’d also say, that how well does the staffing department (recruiters) impact bottom line in way of:

candidate experience
candidate and employee engagement
competitive intelligence gathering for future talent management planning

2 cents

I agree with the commments that agency recruiters and corporate recruiters are on the same team with the same goals – that is to find quality talent (as defined by the client) to fill positions. I disagree with Neil’s comment that it is ‘apples and oranges’, both are recruiters with the same goal, whether corporate recruiters are ‘doing other things’ – which, they shouldn’t be. If a recruiter is doing too many other things like sourcing, compliance, etc – then a separate position needs to be created to handle that.

Because Agency recruiters are on steeper commmission basis, they have a greater motivation to find and ‘close’ candidates. And, they likely do have a greater focus. Agencies tend to invest more in training and skill development, technology, and look at ways to improve their recruiting/sourcing capability. Not every agency just ‘throws out candidates’, many have processes and do a lot of due diligence.

In fact, given Neil’s comments, one wonders if corporate recruiting departments are as effective as they should be. I know from other discussions corporate recruiting departments are very reluctant to invest in training, usually believing their team is ‘the best’ or ‘the most seasoned’. I have heard that directly from multiple companies – meaning, they are nowhere near the best and the most seasoned. Everyone can’t be so advanced!

My two cents.

You are correct that on the surface these two ‘recruiters’ are separate however; any agency recruiter worth their salt to their corporate counterpart is also part of the internal hiring process.

My organization works to assist its clients with all of the issues that our internal bretheren face, that’s why its a partnership rather than transactional.

Agency recruiters have a very focused and specific job: find people. Doesn’t matter how or why, just find people to fill the positions that are open. A quality agency recruiter is probably on the phone talking with potential candidates 90% of the day.

A Corporate recruiter’s job has many parts: manage the hiring process but also find candidate, deal with compliance issues, handle ER issues, handle new hire orientation, etc.

As an external recruiter, spending nearly 2 years as a contract recruiter in a mid-sized consulting firm was one of the most valuable things I have done in my business life. I appreciate the knife edge that corporate recruiters walk on all the time. And, in most cases, they do it well. Let them do what they are good at and let us do what we are good at, which is focusing on those positions which need to be filled and which cannot be filled by ‘the process’.

To my fellow external recruiters… if you don’t think you are part of your clients’ teams, find some new clients. We are all here to succeed, and for us that means helping our clients succeed. If we give them the respect they deserve, they will give us the respect we deserve. And if they don’t, move on to another one who will.

Best case? Use both! Just make sure you’ve got a good work flow process in place.

While I can only speak for myself and the people I work with I must take exception to your comment ‘For example, if external recruiters don’t respond to candidates, or not quickly enough, people will forever tie that response to your brand, leaving a negative image in their minds about your company.’ Contingency recruiters are paid for performance and our candidates are our resource. When my client company shows an interest in my candidate I do everything I can to move heaven and earth to faciliate bringing them together. We have an expression in our industry that says it all ‘Time kills deals’. Personally I hate this phrase as I consider my candidates people, not ‘deals’. On the contrary, one of my biggest frustrations is my client company not getting back to me on candidates I have presented, good or bad, so I can give my candidates closure. I always tell my candidates the name of the company I’m recruiting for and go over the position in detail with them. When I don’t hear back from the hiring manager or his/her representative it only reflects poorly on the client.

This philosophy only works if the external or Internal sourcing team is treated at true partnership level. This is the Missing link.

Most of hiring practice limits at sending an email or a Note telling the sourcing team what they need. This is not enough to qualify a candidate. Business Manager must give a detail walk through the functional aspects of the unit and explain the nature of candidate they would like to hire. This will give a 360-degree perspective of the need to the sourcing team. As long as this process is not improved to bring in the efficiency there is no plain field to judge whether internal or external recruiting is effective.

Rich Goldberg
SR Recruiter Thomson Scientific
(prior to that 15+ years agency and contractor)

And I agree with Mike, in almost all organizations, there is a need and room for both. Recruiting is not black and white and what is better today may not be tomorrow, or in your next search. Know what you’re looking for and how you will measure and you will likely make the ‘better’ choice of how to proceed.

Thanks for your article,

Thanks for letting me give my .02.

Best,

John DePolo
(919) 595-0700
john.depolo@gmail.com