Six Signs You Need a Search Firm Partner

Building a top-notch team that will take your company to the next level and achieve lofty goals can be a daunting challenge. With many companies growing aggressively and offering numerous perks and attractive offer packages, hiring your all-star leaders and supporting cast has become extremely competitive. Factoring in labor specialization, the role of automation, and the global work environment, you may not have the bandwidth on your current team to manage all the candidate sourcing, recruiting, hiring, and on-boarding that comes with high-paced growth.

How can you tell if partnering with a specialized search firm is right for your company? Finding the right recruiting partner can give you extra resources and support to reach your hiring goals. We’ve put together signs your company needs to outsource some specialized support sooner rather than later.

1. You are looking for a Liam Neeson: Somebody with a very specific set of skills.

If your firm is in a position where the person you need on your team is not your average Joe or Jill, it’s time to solicit outside help. It could be because your company uses a unique set of tools or technology to achieve your goals. Maybe you need help because you work for a trendsetter or a startup, working in a market or on a product that is brand new and has never been seen before.

Using a top-notch search firm specialized in research and identification of specific candidates will help you find the diamonds in the rough. By adding a business partner like this who that has the tools, resources and know-how to identify the talent that you need on your team to accomplish your goals, you will be able to avoid the hassles that come along with these hard-to-fill roles: applicants that don’t meet qualifications, recruiting agencies who are not able to bring you the specialized talent you need or long time-to-fill for the position because you aren’t able to build a robust candidate pipeline.

2. Your Company is in a Very Unique Position in the Market.

For many reasons, you may find yourself on the outside of your industry in terms of what is typical. You may be a smaller company that has acquired significant funding, and you need to add a robust workforce to hit lofty expectations rapidly. Or you may be looking for a Jack-of-all-trades candidate if your new product is not at the point where you can add specialized talent. Conversely, you may need help because your firm is well established and offers compensation well above market averages for important positions, so you need to ensure the highest quality candidates for the role. On the other hand, your employer brand might be almost non-existent, so you need a search firm who can find those diamonds in the rough who know your industry but need an engaging pitch for the opportunity so that they will consider the unknown.

If you feel like you are a bit of an outsider for any reason and that the average recruiting team, either internal or external, does not have the resources or experience to accomplish your specific hiring needs promptly, using a specialized search firm is the right choice for you.

3. You are Filling Multiple Positions of the Same Role.

You are building a distributed team, whether sales, engineering, HR, or others, that will be in different locations nationally or globally. That is, you need similar people, just in different locations. Many outsourced recruiters are limited by geography. These recruiters have a substantial local network but do not have the tools or contacts to go outside their regional limits.

By partnering with a search firm with national or even global reach, you will be working directly with a company specializing in the ability to identify and engage with talent across the world. Not only will they possess the knowledge and process to identify and engage the right candidates, but they will also have the tools and resources to find top talent in multiple locations. A recruiting partner can calibrate and identify the right talent for your team and then scale those efforts across multiple locations. Why build a relationship with a new business partner in each market if you can partner with one specialized national firm that can engage the talent without geographical restrictions? This partnership strategy will eliminate the stress of constantly having to repeat recruiting efforts in each market for the same role.

4. You Know What You Want, but Not What the Market Offers.

Often HR or hiring managers do not have a firm grip on the current job market. The market constantly changes depending on industry and area and the national economy. It can be challenging to stay current. A good search firm will source great candidates and have insights into today’s competitive job market.

With dozens of tools and training at their disposal, search firms can provide you the data you need or did not know you need but may be vital. For example, a search firm can consult on salary, candidate mapping (how many qualified candidates are in a certain geographical location), candidate skill sets, competitors in your market, and alternate options for candidate sourcing and recruiting.

Having a partner who can provide this support will not only help you make sure you are aligned with how the industry performs (both in terms of salary and interview process), but it can also help you see things you may not be aware of. Often, particularly for challenging roles, the right candidate is not always who the client initially pictured as an ideal candidate. By researching the market, identifying trends, reading through thousands of resumes and profiles to find trends and areas of interest, a skilled researcher will be able to provide insight for you to adjust your expectations accordingly.

5. Your Recruiting Team Does Not Have the Time or Background to Identify Passive Candidates.

You may find that an extra recruiter is not the help you need. Instead, what you may need is some assistance identifying the right candidates. Finding ideal candidates can be the most challenging part of the job, especially for a niche role - see reason #1.

A good search firm will have a team, process, and resources to generate fruitful lists of quality candidates for your team to engage. Sometimes, relying on AI or going to a list-generation recruiting company is not enough. You need someone who can really understand your needs and requirements and produce a quality selection of passive candidates together with each candidate’s relevant information (email, phone number, insights into the candidate’s background) – and who can access the tools necessary to do it quickly.

6. You Need Help Building a Remote Workforce.

CoVid has changed the way that we do business. Working with a search firm to build a remote workforce can be very similar to working with a search firm specializing in recruiting in multiple areas. However, you need a search firm that can not only recruit anywhere you need them to but has experience with remote work, both in their own professional life and with hiring practices.

Hiring for a position without an office and without a direct report or team with whom a candidate will work side-by-side brings a unique set of challenges. From structuring and executing the entirely virtual interview process, setting expectations, and being aware of what advantages and disadvantages a certain market will bring, a seasoned search firm will help you traverse these waters and manage a successful search for the right candidate.

If your company sees the signs of needing a search partner, it may be the time to have an introductory conversation with an on-demand recruiting partner like IQTalent Partners.