Finding and hiring the right employees is a critical process for any growing business. That’s why more businesses are turning to recruiting partnerships to streamline and improve their recruiting efforts.
According to a survey by the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), nearly two-thirds of companies outsource all or some of their recruiting. While larger companies are more likely to turn to recruitment partners, small and medium-sized businesses also benefit greatly from these relationships. Below we’ll break down exactly what these relationships are and why they’re an increasingly popular option for employers.
What Is A Recruiting Partnership?
The simplest way to define a recruiting partnership is when a company works with outside human resources professionals to find, attract, and hire talented candidates. The recruiting process takes a lot of time and effort for employers, especially when they don’t have any internal HR team. A recruiting partner can fill that recruiting department gap and create a customized approach for each client.
Recruitment partners come in different forms. Some agencies specialize solely in finding and hiring employees, while professional employer organizations (PEOs) provide employee recruitment in addition to other services. Either way, entering into a recruitment partnership agreement can help you outsource time-consuming tasks like:
- Creating and updating job descriptions
- Drafting ideal candidate attributes, skills, and other qualities
- Post openings to various job boards
- Writing standardized interview questions
- Application screening and shortlisting
- Scheduling calls and interviewing candidates
A recruiting partnership can also extend to another valuable relationship as well. Some PEOs and other companies maintain relationships with job posting platforms, such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and others. Recruiting companies with these relationships give businesses looking to outsource the recruitment process even more access to potential candidates than they would on their own.
How Businesses Benefit From Recruitment Partnership Agreements
A true partnership needs to be beneficial for employers. Fortunately, there are a variety of reasons why small and medium-sized businesses outsource their recruiting efforts to a trusted partner.
They save time
A good recruiting partner helps businesses save time in multiple ways. To start, outsourcing some or all the recruitment process saves employers from having to manage these tasks on their own. Between posting job ads, reviewing resumes, and finding interview times that work for everyone, the hiring process can take up hours of valuable work time. Having a recruiting partner allows employers to focus on other duties while experts handle important yet time-consuming recruiting tasks.
Another way that recruitment partners save businesses time is by shortening how long it takes to fill a position. SHRM reports that the average time to fill for U.S. businesses is 36 days. However, recruiting partners can speed up this process by attracting more candidates and streamlining your recruitment process.
They improve your ads
Not all job ads are created equal. Working with a recruitment team allows you to maximize the effectiveness of each posting. Recruitment experts can work with employers to narrow down exactly which type of candidates would make for high-level, long-term employees. Recruiters tailor job ads around those ideal qualities to make qualified candidates more likely to see the posting. These experts can even send the opening to passive candidates who may be a great fit but aren’t actively looking for a new job.
Another recruitment strategy is to enhance your business’ presence on a job posting platform. Recruiting partners can help businesses build and claim company profile pages and showcase exactly why candidates should work for them. Those features include putting together company values, employee testimonials, and other qualifiers that can make your company more appealing.
Greater ad buying power
In addition to improving your ads, recruiting partners can help your ads show up more frequently for qualified candidates. The more ads a company posts on a job site, the more likely that site will favor those ads.
Recruiting partners can post enough that their clients essentially enjoy greater buying power for their positions. For example, GMS posts a multitude of ads on behalf of different companies that platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed consider as higher-level corporate partners. Dollar for dollar, our ads will be higher on the page compared to a non-partner, which makes it more likely that job seekers will see your open positions.
More marketplace insight
When your ads have to compete with other businesses, it’s good to know what the competition is doing to attract your ideal candidates. Recruiting partners can conduct marketplace research to identify both industry trends and specific hiring tactics used by local rivals.
This research can give you plenty of insight into where you lie in the marketplace. Once you know where you stand in terms of compensation, benefits, and other selling points, you and your recruiting partner can determine the best plan of action to maximize your recruiting efforts.
Access to recruiting technology
Most small businesses aren’t going to have special software to streamline their recruiting efforts, but recruiting partners will. By entering a recruitment partnership agreement, your company can gain access to online recruiting technology such as an applicant tracking system (ATS) that automates time-consuming tasks and enhances your recruiting efforts.
Find The Right Recruiting Partnership For Your Business
It’s not easy finding and hiring the right employees. The recruiting process is a big commitment for any business owner, which is why GMS partners with employers to lessen their workload and improve their hiring efforts.
GMS works closely with companies to create a customized recruiting approach for their needs. We can scale with your needs, whether you want us to oversee seasonal hiring needs or the entire recruitment process for your business. Contact GMS today to learn more about our recruiting services and our unique partnerships.