Google searches for "freelancing" have increased by around 300% over the past five years. This change is no surprise, with more people investigating freelance opportunities than ever. At the same time, more businesses now see contract work as a viable way to fill positions.
Thus, the market is now saturated, so if you want to jump in, are you sure you can find and claim the best applicants with minimal waste?
Read on to learn the advantages of working with a contract recruiter to maximize your efforts. Get the best results from your hiring process and discover new strategies for boosting your recruitment. Finally, learn how Hire Velocity can drive your next talent search toward success.
Understanding the Role of a Contract Recruiter
Contract recruiting services work with those who wish to expand their workforce but not hire permanent staff. They tend to assist companies who want to offload their hiring and onboarding onto a third party to focus on their business instead.
Hiring a contract recruiter means passing along some or all of the recruiting process to them. This transfer can mean anything from simply working on job applications to one or more of the following:
- Sourcing new potential hires
- Screening applicants to discover the best options to move forward with
- Conducting initial interviews
- Communicating with candidates during the recruitment process
- Providing feedback to candidates
- Conducting reference or background checks
- Extending job offers and negotiating contract details
- Onboarding new hires
Performing all these tasks ensures the HR department's workload does not suddenly peak during times of focused hiring. The department can then ensure it completes other areas of its role. This benefit can be especially important if several other issues occur at the same time, distracting HR from hiring.
The Process of Contract Recruiting Compared to Other Options
Besides traditional recruiting, there are several other methods of looking for new contract hires. Each has its benefits and can offer varying results.
Traditional Hiring
This process tends to involve only internal HR teams in recruiting tasks. It allows a company to avoid paying for external workers but is often much less flexible in how it approaches the task.
Due to HR needing to handle several tasks, not only recruitment, hiring this way is often much slower and more resource-intensive. The constant task-switching from a complex role means that HR is often distracted from recruitment, so it takes longer to complete.
Traditional hiring can work well for permanent staff because it is part of an internal role and can express a stronger company culture. However, a skilled contract recruiter should be able to pick up on said culture and communicate it clearly.
Thus, HR-driven staffing is much more suited to handling permanent staffing needs. It can bring onboard people who are closer to the company from the start and can often answer questions related to the business.
As such, a contract recruiter is instead the perfect pick for bringing in people for singular, focused roles or similar short-term work.
Contingent Search Experts
Due to their strong output, these " headhunters" are usually seen as one of the more efficient recruitment solutions. They specialize in sourcing new hires who might have specialized knowledge or industry expertise. Companies tend to prefer this form of recruitment when they need people to complete single tasks or fill sudden vacancies.
The speed and focus of the contingent search role mean such recruiters are often a premium service. This is because they usually work on a commission structure, which pays for the unique focus on recruiting they perform.
Another challenge that headhunters face is aligning with the company's culture or long-term goals. They focus on getting people in the door who might be a good fit for the specific job. Despite this, a high-quality contingent search expert will do the leg work to ensure they can communicate culture clearly.
Gig Platforms
These hiring platforms often have a reputation for being much less professional than other options. Despite this, they offer a direct line to hand-picked freelancers. Several platforms exist that can connect companies with freelancers in this way for specific projects or tasks.
They are often flexible and cost-effective, meaning companies can hire ad hoc. Despite this, they require a lot of work to find the best options in the large pool. Due to this lack of direct contact, there is also more risk of the individual not following through with the work as needed.
In many cases, this is much less effective than getting a contract recruiter to find the perfect hire. Their database of potential hires will be much more robust than the marketing-focused listings on a gig platform.
Key Advantages of Hiring a Contract Recruiter
The benefits of a contract recruiter primarily relate to the fact that they are rarely distracted by your internal processes. They can focus on recruiting, meaning the hiring process will not face interruption like with an internal role. They also tend to have expertise that aligns with the specific needs of your industry, giving them a leg up in the hiring process.
Flexibility and Scalability
Working with a contract recruiter does not mean "locking in" to a set amount of work at any time. You can instead choose to scale your hiring up and down, seeking out efficient recruitment solutions only when necessary.
There are no long-term commitments to either the hiring solution or the contractor. As such, you can scale up and down recruitment on an ad-hoc basis. This flexibility is helpful if your business:
- Often engages in short-term special projects
- Needs to tighten its budget after a market downturn
- Undergoes a dramatic shift in viability
Contract recruiters have immediate access to a large pool of qualified candidates. This fact means they can often skip sourcing and go straight to the vetting process.
Due to the level of detail they already have on each candidate before vetting, they can also choose the most suitable for a specific task. When the client company hires for one project, it can give the business a temporary hire with strong skills that match their needs.
Cost-Effectiveness
Compared to traditional hires, hiring a worker through a contract recruiter means you do not need to pay:
- Severance packages
- Long-term benefits
- Pensions
Instead, you only need to pay for the specific services requested. This benefit reduces the financial risk you will face. It also means you do not need to ensure you have funds available to remove the individual from the workforce as with full-time workers.
You can even prepare for the reduction in your workforce at the end of their contract. While you can continue working with a specific hire, you are not required to do so. If the individual is a good match, you can negotiate with them to discover if a long-term contract suits them better.
Contract recruiters also track potential recruits who have clashed with previous businesses. They will offer you candidates who best match your needs, so you will not need to worry as much about the potential of unfit hires.
You may also be able to save money on recruitment advertising and marketing. A contract recruiter tracks online networks and collects data on potential hires through them. As such, there is much less need to engage in outreach to fill each role, saving both time and money in the long run.
Expertise and Industry Knowledge
One of the most significant contract recruiter advantages is their focus on specific niches and areas of knowledge. They have an in-depth understanding of the challenges different industries face. Using these, they can ensure that every facet of hiring matches expectations, including:
- Job adverts
- Contract terms
- Pay structure and compensation
- Benefits
- Cultural expectations
This is true of both your expectations and the recruit's. Thus, both parties can ensure that they are in sync at all times, reducing the amount of learning the contract recruiter needs to do.
At the same time, they will be aware of the latest recruitment trends and tools available in your industry. They will ensure that they understand the market's direction. In doing so, they will have all the information they need to offer potential hires appropriate compensation to match.
Many such recruiters also have a wide network related to their industry. Even in situations where they may not have a perfect match for your needs in their books, they often know where to look to find one.
Working with a contract recruiter who understands your industry also means they can offer you new insights into hiring. They can provide honest feedback about your legacy processes that will help you optimize your hiring strategies.
Speed and Efficiency in Recruitment
For many of the above reasons, an external contract recruiter can enable fast candidate sourcing and onboarding. They have many methods available to help with this, including:
- Streamlined hiring processes
- Modern recruiting tools
- ATS software
- Vast networks of existing freelancers
Using each of these in unison significantly lowers time-to-hire. Thus, they can reduce the productivity loss that comes with downtime or the unavailability of your team members.
If you have a critical issue to resolve or a task to perform within a specific time frame, this can be a huge weight off your shoulders.
Targeted Talent Acquisition and Data-Driven Processes
One of the first things a contract recruitment specialist will do is have an in-depth discussion about your needs. After this, they will know how to focus their candidate search on those who best match your requirements.
This tailored process helps them find the perfect match not only for a specific project but also for any other niche details about the position.
Leveraging recruitment software, they can use data-driven methods to identify top talent. They can then feed said data into reports they can use to keep you apprised of their progress. You can then offer feedback on their methods, allowing them to iterate on their approach over your collaboration.
Leveraging Advanced Recruitment Technologies
In recent years, contract recruiters have started to use advanced recruitment tools. These allow them to handle the candidate application process in a more streamlined manner.
Not only do they make heavier use of data, as described above, but they are more proficient than ever at tracking a candidate's viability. This skill is partly due to the emergence of technologies such as machine learning.
By analyzing large numbers of applicants, they can determine which ones are more likely to offer more success in any specific project. Thus, they can focus their efforts on the ones that give you the highest ROI.
At the same time, many contract recruiters are now using online interviewing and hiring systems to handle other areas, too. The first round of interviews can now be completed by automated tools that reduce the amount of time your own team needs to be involved.
These automated systems mean several candidates can undergo the interviewing process faster. Doing this quickens the pace of finding the highest-quality potential hires. It also ensures you only become involved once the pool is much smaller.
Engaging with Contract Recruiting Services
When you first consider working with a contract recruiting service, you will want to ensure your handover is as smooth as possible. As such, make sure that you fully understand your specific needs and then communicate these criteria clearly to the recruiter. By discussing them in detail, you can both set clear expectations as to how the process will progress.
Ask them if there are any common challenges or issues you can help resolve. Understanding your role when pairing with a contract recruiter will ensure you get the results you need.
Unlock Your Business Potential with Hire Velocity
Partnering with a contract recruiter can transform your business' productivity for the better. Companies like Hire Velocity can remove a lot of the workload from HR, boosting the output of other areas. They do this by working with you to develop efficient recruitment solutions tailored to your specific needs at that time.
Contact Hire Velocity and discover the right talent for your business. Boost your hiring success by achieving your workforce goals faster and more efficiently than ever.
