Is it time to wave the white flag? Know When to Surrender and Ask for Hiring Help

Your time is valuable. When you have a missing team member, you must pick up the wo​rkload, handle your own responsibilities and try to fill the vacancy. It can spread you so thin that nothing gets your full attention.

The fact is attracting, procuring and retaining top talent is difficult in any market, but especially right now. When employees leave for another position, go off on their own or retire, the process to fill their vacancy can be daunting, especially if they held a vital role or were a key player in your company.

Then, of course, the added stress and workload don't help much either.
 
In many cases, Human Resources is often your best ally, but they can also be overwhelmed with benefits issues, employee relations, and all of the other projects and roles HR fulfills. Some companies don't have a HR professional on staff, let alone a whole department. It’s times like this when partnering with a recruiter may be your best bet.
 
I want you to think of recruiters as the designated hitter on your team. Since we live and breathe talent acquisition, we can deliver only the best candidates to the companies we work with. But that’s not all.
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Recruiters add value to hiring managers and HR

While headhunters may not seem like the best friends of hiring managers and human resource professionals, we should be! Here’s why:

• We make the hiring process more human by performing the initial assessment, pre-interview prep and post-interview debriefing
• As an outsider in your company, we provide unbiased advice and guidance, especially in terms of strategies to attract the difficult, hard-to-find and passive candidates that can make the difference in your company’s future
• We help companies perfect their hiring process through feedback from candidates who interviewed with them and by adopting best practices across the industry

To get the best experience, make sure you vet recruiters as to what EXACTLY, SPECIFICALLY and PRECISELY they do to attract talent on your behalf. Some firms only send resumes off databases or LinkedIn, while others of us take a more aggressive approach to uncover talent that’s not actively looking.

So ask your potential talent agent what their people acquisition strategy is. If a great process is important to you (and it should be), don't just hire a recruiter because they agree to a low fee. You should be comfortable that their process, along with their experience, will yield you a portfolio of outstanding talent.
 
Opting for a talent procurer is a great step in winning the war for talent, especially as the job market changes. When the decision is made to partner with a recruiter, it’s necessary to make certain it’s a firm that understands the needs, goals and culture of your company. This should almost feel like courting a new employee, testing the waters to see if it’s the right fit. And, in the end, if you can find the right person to help with talent acquisition, it takes some pressure off of you and benefits the company, as well.
 
So if attracting, hiring and procuring top talent is proving to be more difficult than you anticipated, it’s time to wave the white flag and bring in reinforcements by hiring a highly capable headhunter to do the searching for you.
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