The Value of a Recruiter Beyond Finding Candidates

The most common reason companies partner with recruiters is to find quality candidates faster while managing the cost of the hiring process. But there are a variety of other services a recruiter can offer, and they apply before you even write up a job description.

Recruiters can help you update your role description

Recruiters have their ear to the ground when it comes to knowing which skills you should be looking for to fill a particular role. They have likely filled similar roles before — especially if you are working with a recruiter who specializes in a certain niche. They can help you and other members on the hiring team understand what is reasonable to expect for entry-level, mid, and senior roles, and aid you in creating a job posting that balances the skills and experience you need in a candidate with the appeal of the position itself.

Recruiters can advise you on diversity challenges

Many companies are looking to diversify their workforce. This comes as no surprise because diverse teams are known to be more innovative and creative, sustain higher employee engagement, and increase company profits, among other benefits. But where do you start? Recruiters understand the unique challenges in your market and have talent acquisition strategies that are designed to attract diverse candidates. They can also help you tailor your job posting so it is inclusive and inviting to the candidates you are looking to hire.

Recruiters have access to robust industry data

External market information can help you develop a better understanding of what the talent pool looks like in your area if other companies like yours are filling similar roles at the same time. All of this information will help you create your job posting and set expectations for internal stakeholders. For internal benchmarks, a recruiter can help you look at your past hires and how long it took for you to hire them. This will give you a better idea of the expectations for hiring in your company, specifically at that time, as opposed to a market average.

Recruiters can sharpen your interview skills

If you haven’t interviewed a candidate in a while, or if you are new as a hiring manager, it is a good idea to work with a recruiter to develop your interview skills. Recruiters will be able to provide suggestions about how long interviews should last, how many rounds you should have, and what questions you should be sure to ask. Just as importantly, recruiters can make sure that your interviews will be compliant with hiring laws if you don’t have an internal HR Business Partner to guide you.

Recruiters can help you structure your interview

There are pros and cons to conducting structured and unstructured interviews, but when it comes to the workplace, structured interviews allow for easy comparison of candidates, reduce bias, and generally promote a faster process. For structured interviews, your recruiter can walk you through the different types of questions to ask including, situational judgment questions, past behavior questions, and scenario-based questions.

If you are planning to work with a recruiter to fill your open position, don’t wait until the job description is done to reach out. There are many ways recruiters can help before this point, and many of them make the whole process better and easier and lead to the hiring of better candidates as well.