Handling Recruitment In-House vs. Outsourcing to an Agency

If you are running a business, you need to recruit people from time to time due to expansion or attrition. Hiring is not an easy job and requires a lot of time, effort, energy and resources. Many small and medium sized companies are, at times, in confusion whether to keep the recruitment process in-house or outsource it to an agency.

If you are in such a fix, the following points will help you in taking the right call.

Shortage of Time

There are only 24 hours in a day and you can either devote this time to your core areas or spend them on other business-related activities like hiring. Spending more time on your core activities will be more beneficial for expanding the business and increasing revenue. When there is a time constraint, it makes more sense to outsource the non-core activities like recruiting and hiring.

Access to the Right Candidates

The right candidates are not present in the market openly. It requires the right know-how and relationship to lure this passive workforce who can be an ideal candidate but is not available openly. You might not have access to them, but the hiring agencies know exactly where to find them, how to approach and what will lure them to change job. They have the entire catalogue of talent and as soon as any right position opens up for a particular talent pool they know exactly whom to call.

Nature of Business

There are some businesses that are seasonal and hence need extra manpower during particular months. Again, there are some that are on a very high growth trajectory and thus their hiring requirements are very high. In both these cases, hiring in-house is difficult. If you find that you fall into one of these categories, it is better to go with a recruitment agency.

Stretched on Budget

Small and medium sized companies often work on shoestring budgets. In such a scenario, hiring a fulltime HR staff can be detrimental to the financial health of the company. It is better to outsource the process to a recruitment agency, which will prove to be more cost-effective besides getting you the right talent pool.

Hiring your own recruitment team has its own benefits, but they come for a cost in terms of time and effort. If you feel that devoting that much time and effort to areas that require your expertise would be more beneficial to the business rather than spending it on hiring, opt for outsourcing the process.