Suppose you’ve been in business for any amount of time. In that case, you’re likely familiar with direct hiring, i.e., the process in which you offer candidates permanent or long-term positions with salaries, paid time off, and benefits. More times than not, direct hires tie into your long-term needs as a business, and therefore, you anticipate these individuals spending years with you. Due to the long-term impact these hires can have on your bottom line and culture, it’s common for the direct-hire process to take more time—sometimes significantly more—than short-term- or project-based hiring. Because direct hires will report directly to you once a candidate accepts your offer, many companies operate under the assumption that staffing agencies can’t (and won’t) impact this process. Well, they can. Here are three ways:
How Staffing Agencies Can Help Achieve Your Direct-Hire Goals
Like other initiatives in the staffing and recruiting process, staffing agencies offer various benefits you shouldn’t ignore.
Proven Talent Networks Built on Existing Relationships
LinkedIn and other popular hiring platforms are the go-to for many. As powerful as they are, however, they lack one thing: existing relationships. Said another way, you likely don’t have an existing relationship with candidates applying for positioned live on LinkedIn or Indeed. While this isn’t a bad thing and can provide you an excellent way to build your talent pipeline, it’s not the best way to hire long-term candidates. What if, after a few interviews, you realize the candidate isn’t a good fit? Even worse, what if you realize it after they’re on the payroll?
Working with a staffing agency can negate these challenges because you’ll be pulling from a vast network of proven talent. How is this possible? Active recruiting. By constantly engaging top candidates, they ensure that only vetted and right-fit candidates walk through your doors.
Net-New Time Savings
Want to save time? Want to dedicate more resources to other high-impact projects? Want to do this without sacrificing the performance and efficiency of your direct-hire process? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you should consider working with a staffing agency.
According to a report from Glassdoor Economic Research, the average hiring process takes 23 days. It can take even longer if you’re looking to add someone to the leadership role. Of course, your due diligence is worth it; however, teaming up with a staffing agency delegates some or all of this process to them. And the best part? You end up with the perfect candidate without burying your team for weeks.
Cost Savings and ROI
The direct-hire process can be a double-edged sword. If it works out, you get to add a high performer to your team who’ll make a difference for years to come. If it doesn’t, however, you cost your company a ton of money. This results from two things: According to the US Department of Labor, the cost of a bad hire is around 30% of that employee’s first-year earnings. Another study found that the average replacement cost of a salaried employee to be six to nine months’ salary. This doesn’t even consider the revenue loss incurred from vacant positions.
How can you avoid these costs? You guessed it. Working with a staffing agency with access to a proven talent network and the industry expertise necessary to fill positions with right-fit candidates—fast.
Direct-Hire Recruiting: The Key to Your Long-Term Success
There’s nothing more critical to your success and sustainability than your direct hires. Full stop. This has always been true, but it’s even more critical now, given the shifting sands of the labor market and the intense competition for talent. Today, you can’t afford to dedicate significant resources only to wind up with a bad hire that costs your company money. So you need to get this right the first time. Staffing agencies make that happen.