Recruiting companies are becoming more and more prevalent as our culture progresses into the digital age. But some people still question whether or not they’re actually worth it, despite their continued success. After all, you already have a human resources department, so why should you trust your hiring procedures to an outsider?

Simply put: they’re better at it, and it saves you money.

How they do it better

Your own human resources representatives have a lot on their plate. They manage your company’s insurance and benefits packages, payroll, interpersonal conflicts between employees…they’re consummate professionals and deserve far more credit than they get, and in addition to all of the above, they’re also tasked with assisting in the hiring process. That means discussing the position with the appropriate department heads, advertising the position, sifting through countless cover letters and resumes, arranging interviews with qualified applicants, following up on those interviews, then finally fielding the job offer and on-boarding the new recruit.

A recruiting company does all of that, and only that, allowing your human resources department to focus on your current employees and their needs.

In addition to that, recruiting companies are specialists who focus on specific jobs and skill sets. When you need a construction professional, a construction recruiting company is going to know what educational qualifications to look for, as well as what the latest technology is, and who has the proper skills to suit your needs. The same can be said for any department; marketing, manufacturing, industrial, management—these are individualized fields that have very different requirements for success, and a recruiting company’s job is to keep up to date on all of them, so you won’t have to.

How they save you money
Starting with your human resources rep, productivity is going to drop during the recruiting process because every minute they spend finding the right candidate is time spent away from their other tasks. That cost is then multiplied throughout your entire company and all of the individuals that are being neglected during the search for one new employee.

Estimates range anywhere from 30 percent to 400 percent of an employee’s salary as the cost to replace them; which includes the hiring costs (and loss of productivity from HR), and the loss of productivity while the new employee is on-boarded and brought up to speed on their position.

However, by working with a recruiting company for that position, you can dramatically cut that cost by having a trained specialist do the work for you, and bring on an employee who is ready to work and can hit the ground running.

At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself how much of your time and money is worth to you. Some companies do have the luxury to spend weeks, or even months, on recruiting, and have enough capital and overhead to absorb the losses inherent to the process. But smart companies would rather invest that time, money, and energy into their work. And when they need a new team member, they call a recruiting company, to help build their team.