If your business is looking to recruit for an important senior-level position, you may be considering using recruitment or headhunting firms to assist in finding the right candidate.
Recruitment can be conducted either internally or externally, and both methods have their pros and cons, but you may be asking; what is the best method of recruitment for my business: hiring from within, or bringing in outside talent?
In this article we will take a look at some of the factors to be considered in the choice of internal vs external recruitment methods.
Benefits of Internal Recruitment
Internal recruitment is usually the first option that businesses consider when looking to hire for a role. This is understandable, as it is potentially the cheapest option available, when the process is conducted successfully. This process can save the costs of hiring an agency, as well as saving costs on job boards and advertisements etc. This is one of the main appeals to many businesses.
In addition, this method of recruitment tends to be the most quickest, as your candidates are effectively already sourced for you, being within your business. This can save a lot of time as often the search process of external recruitment agencies can be lengthy.
This is especially advantageous if you need to recruit for a senior position urgently, for example if the previous person in that role left on short notice.
Depending on the skills and experience of your HR and recruitment team, recruiting internally can also be the easiest recruitment method in terms of time and effort required from your hiring staff. This is because they should already be familiar with candidates, and therefore have an existing idea of their abilities and suitability.
In terms of candidate quality, internal recruitment has the benefit of candidates being familiar with your business and culture. This means that they can have an advantage over external candidates, through having existing experience in your business, hence a better overall understanding as well as reducing the amount of onboarding required.
An extra benefit of continuously conducting recruitment internally is that it can aid workplace engagement and motivate other workers in your business. By creating a culture in which talented workers are rewarded with new opportunities, you can inspire employees to work toward this goal by improving staff development training, therefore creating better morale and a more skilled workforce.
Downsides of Internal Recruitment
However, as good as the potential benefits of internal recruitment are, there are a number of downsides to this method to consider.
The main factor determining the success of your internal recruitment is the quality of your business’ internal talent pipeline. Your talent pipeline is the pool of potential candidates for future opportunities within your business.
If you want to conduct your recruitment internally, a healthy talent pipeline is essential. This means that you have to put consideration into staff development training and experience you give to your existing employees in order to nurture them for more senior opportunities. By neglecting to do this, you’re decreasing the likelihood of successful internal recruitment. Because of this, internal recruitment isn’t constantly reliable, and its success is completely dependent on your quality talent pipeline at that given time.
Furthermore, depending on the quality and the size of your talent pipeline at the time of recruitment, conducting recruitment internally could take a lot longer than you originally thought. Though this method can be very quick, it can also end up taking much longer than external methods of recruitment, so you need to be fully prepared.
Another issue with internal recruitment is that by recruiting for one position by hiring from your own business, you are just creating a vacancy somewhere else. This means you are going to have to conduct the recruitment process again for that role.
Recruiting for a senior role internally also runs the risk of creating conflict within your business. This may happen if other employees feel that they also deserve promotions or new roles, or if they think that the hiring decision was wrong. This can potentially lower company morale, so it’s good to be careful with who you are considering and how this will affect other workers.
Lastly, one of the major shortcomings of internal recruitment is how much smaller the potential candidate-base is compared to external methods of recruitment, and therefore how much lower the likelihood is that you’ll find and appoint the perfect candidate for the role. Sometimes by opting for the cheapest, quickest option, you are cutting yourself off from some of the best candidates available for your opportunity.
Hiring internally also leaves you more open to personal bias or favouritism, whereas hiring externally puts candidates on a more level playing field.
Benefits of External Recruitment
There are a number of benefits of external recruitment to consider. External recruitment firms are businesses that conduct the recruitment process for you, finding external talent and attracting them to your opportunity. Such businesses provide a more detailed alternative to internal recruitment, and can often find your company some of the best talent available in your industry. There are many reasons to consider using recruitment or headhunting firms, let’s take a look at some of these reasons.
First and foremost, perhaps the main advantage of using headhunting firms is the general higher quality of candidates produced. Companies such as Executive Headhunters EMA Partners conduct completely bespoke talent searches targeting the best and most relevant individuals for your opportunity, providing you with a selection of quality candidates that normally cannot be found without the assistance of an executive search firm. Remember that good quality search firms are experts at not only identifying the best talent for your role, but actively attracting talent using their expertise and skill sets.
Executive search firms also have the valuable ability to recruit candidates who are currently employed and not actively looking for new opportunities. Whilst much of the recruitment through internal methods and contingency firms targets candidates who are actively looking through job boards, senior headhunters understand that often the most talented individuals are valuable to their company, and are not currently looking for work. They are able to target this talent, and nurture them towards your opportunity, familiarising them with your company and your role, and in the process making them much more likely to be interested in not just your current role, but any future opportunities you may offer.
Working with headhunting firms also saves you and your business a lot of effort. By hiring an outside agency to conduct the research, talent search, screening, and shortlisting, you are saving your HR team tons of effort which can be applied elsewhere in your business.
Many businesses neglect to consider the effort required by their hiring team when recruiting, and how this can take priority away from other aspects of your business.
In addition, executive search agencies have a deep understanding of the industry they specialise in, as well as the recruitment industry in general, including how to identify top talent. This means they know exactly where to look and who to look for when finding you high-quality senior candidates.
Headhunting firms such as ourselves also allow you to have input throughout the entire search process, as well as receiving frequent updates on the progress of the search, so that you are constantly in the know. Quality headhunters can give valuable input during the initial discussion stage, including informed advice on how to structure job titles, descriptions, salaries, and areas of focus in order to attract and entice the most relevant candidates to your opportunity.
Downsides of External Recruitment
The high quality service of external recruiters comes at a price though. Of course, the more detailed and high-quality the recruiter, the more you will likely have to pay, but it’s almost always worth the cost. For example, a senior executive search service will charge more than a contingency recruiter, however the trade-off is that you will receive a much higher level of service and candidate as a result.
Depending on which agency you go through, external recruitment can vary in how long it takes. Usually you should expect to have found some candidates within a few weeks, though this can vary based on how difficult the role is to recruit for. This is always a risk when recruiting externally, especially if the headhunter is committed to providing quality candidates, finding the perfect candidate rather than any vaguely relevant individual can take time.
Lastly, one of the largest disadvantages of hiring an external candidate rather than an internal one is the onboarding process. Any individual brought in from outside of your business will need to be adjusted to your organisation culture / environment and trained in your specific business practices and proceedings. This can take some time and can also be costly depending on what training is needed. There is also the chance that the hire may not adjust to the role as well as an internal hire would. Thankfully, high-quality executive search firms can help with easing this onboarding process, as well as providing bespoke candidates who are likely to adjust well to your business.
Find out how Executive Headhunters EMA Partners can help with the onboarding process by visiting our Services page.
Which is Best for your Business?
So what’s the outcome of internal recruitment vs external recruitment agencies? Ultimately, internal recruitment is a great hiring option if you have a strong internal talent pipeline and faith in your own workers, as it can save a lot of time and money. However this method is less ideal if you aren’t prepared, and can end up creating another vacancy and potential conflict amongst workers.
In terms of candidate quality, external recruitment through executive search agencies are by far the best way of finding high-quality candidates that are perfectly matched to our business and your opportunity, whilst saving your business manpower. If you’d like to run through some of these benefits of our executive search service, or have any questions you’d like to ask us, why not contact us to book your free insights session, we’d be happy to speak to you about your business and the opportunity you’re offering.
