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Going Beyond the Traditional Recruitment Methods
Are you a hiring manager or team leader who needs to find the best candidates for an upcoming role? Then investing in recruiting research can be a great way to find job seekers that meet your desired candidate profile.
While traditional sources for finding candidates include posting a job online and waiting for candidates or outsourcing the task to a recruiting agency, there is an advantageous, convenient option that also delivers results: recruiting research. What does a recruiting research firm do, and how is it different from traditional paths? Here are six things you didn’t know about it.
6 Things You Didn’t Know about Recruiting Research
1. Recruiting research can do a lot of what RPO can do!
Recruiting research and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) both play significant roles in enhancing the hiring process, but they do so in different ways. While RPO handles the full cycle of recruitment, Recruiting research can provide the foundational knowledge and insights needed for effective hiring through core services usually associated with RPO or traditional recruitment firms. These services include:
Data-Driven Insights/Competitive Intelligence: Recruiting research offers valuable data about labor market trends, competitor salaries and benefits, candidate preferences, and industry benchmarks. With this information, companies can create compelling job offers that align with market standards and maximize their chances at onboarding their preferred candidates.
In addition, organizations can use this information to refine their hiring strategies and improve candidate sourcing. Research into diversity trends can also help organizations build diverse candidate pipelines and develop inclusive hiring practices.
Identifying & Developing Qualified Candidates: Recruiting research can identify which candidates are a right match with your qualifications so your hiring process runs more smoothly. Moreover, recruiting research firms can call prospective new hires to screen them for their interest and qualification, saving hiring clients a lot of time by avoiding most dead ends.
Org Chart Generation: This entails the process of creating visual representations of an organization’s structure. Org charts are handy tools that display the hierarchy, roles, responsibilities, and relationships between different positions within the organization. Also, at Corporate Navigators, we can go outside the box of a standard Org Chart and provide this data in alternate formats, such as presenting a series of candidate profiles in a powerpoint presentation.
2. Recruiting Research is Customizable
You can also get a custom experience with recruiting research. For example, at Corporate Navigators, you can mix and match core services to get just what you need to meet your recruitment goals. There is no need to get into a large contract that includes services you just don’t need. Consider it like a buffet where you can get exactly what you want to eat– but without a mandated cover charge. You can pay as you go!
3. Recruiting Research can save you money compared to outsourcing the full cycle of recruitment.
If you have the capacity (or preference) to call candidates and conduct interviews in house, then having a recruiting research firm jumpstart the foundational part of your candidate search can save you a fair deal of money compared to outsourcing the whole process. It’s also a great option if you want to dive deeper to find more on-target job candidates but then have more control over the screening, interview questions, onboarding process, and offers.
However, if you need all hands on deck, RPO or Recruitment Firms are also great choices that can help you get through a season in which you may be drowning under a large number of applications. The cost is higher but you can be more hands off. They are also able to help with other recruitment tasks not associated with Recruiting Research like branding and managing recruitment technology.
4. With Recruiting Research, you can get hourly services and pay as you go.
Are you wary of getting locked into a contract or don’t really know how much recruitment services you’ll need? Then the hourly recruiting research option is a logical option for you. Not only can you try out core services to see what meets your needs the most, but you can mix and match services and buy hours at your own pace. There are no contracts (unless you know you need more hours and want to buy in bulk) and you can order what you want, as needed, without spending extra on hours you don’t need.
5. Recruiting Research gives you the knowledge to provide a great candidate experience.
Potential candidates who are qualified for a new role are often “shopping around” and interviewing at multiple companies. When you obtain a qualified talent pool, providing a great candidate experience can help you fill the open position with the right person and not lose them.
Part of an excellent candidate experience includes making an on-target offer based on your industry. You can find out what types of salaries and benefits your competitors are offering through Competitive intelligence, a service offered by Recruiting Research firms. When you have information on what your ideal candidates are expecting, you can make a desirable offer when you encounter a promising job applicant.
Other factors like swift communication and providing a positive interview experience are also part of the candidate experience. By following through in this stage of recruitment, you can better secure top talent, and recruitment research helps with making a stellar offer.
6. Recruiting Research can build you an ongoing candidate pipeline.
With skilled labor becoming harder to find as Baby Boomers retire (see KornFerry’s Report on that), having more candidates in your back pocket can help you make better hiring decisions. A Recruiting Research Firm can develop a list of candidates on your behalf through “Candidate Development” so you know who to contact in your time of need. Having already built a relationship and familiarity with potential candidates, reaching out to them won’t be like cold calls, maximizing your chances of securing a replacement for an open role.
Recruiting Research: 6 Things You May Not Know
Recruiting research is a powerful tool that can enhance your hiring strategy. By uncovering insights about candidate preferences, industry trends, and identifying qualified candidates, organizations can make informed decisions that attract top talent.
The lesser-known aspects of recruiting research like hourly payment options, assisting with diversity initiatives, and mixing and matching services into a custom experience make recruiting research even more appealing to employers who need a recruiting option that isn’t full-cycle. As the job market continues to evolve, leveraging recruiting research can be crucial for organizations aiming to stay competitive amid a looming talent shortage.
