In today’s tight employment market, a
company’s greatest asset is its people.
Utilizing a recruiting firm is one of the most cost-efficient ways for a company to
find people worth investing in. Let’s face it:
It is the people within an organization who
contribute most to its success or failure.
From the receptionist who creates a first
impression to the accountant who saves
the company thousands of dollars by finding an error in the books, every employee
contributes to a corporation’s bottom line.
Unfortunately, finding high-quality employees is not always easy.
Smart Business spoke with Ashley
Theriot Creel of Delta Dallas to learn more
about how a company can find a recruiting
firm to which it can entrust its recruitment
process and attract the A-level people it
needs to remain competitive.
Why is hiring A-level people important to an
organization?
I had the opportunity to listen to the CEO
of the Container Store, Kip Tindell, whose
company has been named the No. 1 place
to work by Fortune magazine eight years in
a row. He said it takes one good employee
to complete the production of three below-average employees. Furthermore, one A
player, or top performer, can produce what
three good employees can. There’s no need
for a company to hire talent that is average,
at best, when it can maximize its budget to
identify and attract the best talent in the
market.
Are companies better off using external
sources in the recruiting process?
Companies that rely exclusively on their
internal HR departments to fill positions
may find it counterproductive. HR staff
members will spend much of their time
writing job descriptions, posting them on
their companies’ Web sites, perusing hundreds of resumes and attending job fairs.
Keep in mind that they will be doing these things while attempting to manage core
competencies in their organization. Each
of these recruiting techniques draws on
valuable HR money and time. Remember
the saying, time is money and money is
time? Why not use your resources to partner with a recruiting firm that spends all of
its time and money on directly recruiting
and delivering A players to its customers?
How does a company find a recruiting firm to
partner with?
First, do your homework and be sure
they do theirs! Be sure to choose a recruiting firm that is well established in your
market. Are they affiliated with networking
partners or organizations? Are you just
another number or are you a client that
they take the time to listen to? Be sure they
take the time to do a thorough profile of
your company. It is important to partner
with a firm that takes the time to work
alongside you throughout the process.
How does such a profile benefit a client?
A recruiting firm should ‘profile’ a company in order to find the most qualified candidate for a position. The profile should
contain information such as the company’s
culture and history, the job description, the
hiring manager’s personality, team dynamics, salary, benefits and what makes a successful hire in that department. That information is then taken to the candidates, and
matches are made by recruiting experts
that are trained in recruiting and interviewing techniques. This process can help an
organization identify employees who will
fit in to its environment for years to come.
In turn, if a company is considering partnering with a recruiting firm, it will want to
profile the recruiting firm, as well. It is
always a good idea to learn as much as you
can about the firm you are partnering with,
and establish what differentiates it from
the rest.
What criteria should a client apply when
seeking a search firm that can meet its specific requirements?
It is always a good idea to learn as much
as you can about the firm’s history in the
marketplace as well as its company story.
Be sure you know as much as you can
about its operational process and its
recruiting processes. Ask about its testing,
screening and interviewing techniques and
learn about its business model. Better yet,
go and see it for yourself. I invite my customers to come and meet our leadership
team, to learn about our processes and get
to know us as a company. When you see
that the recruiters and the leadership are
truly experts in their field, you can then
begin to trust they will deliver the best of
the best to your organization.
The time that is invested in building a
partnership with a recruiting firm can save
a company more time and money than it
would have ever imagined.
ASHLEY THERIOT CREEL is vice president of sales with Delta
Dallas. Reach her at [email protected] or (972) 788-2300
x147.