4 Reasons to Use an HR Search Firm

Over the past few years, Landrum Talent Solutions’ clients have noted growing pressure to balance day-to-day HR management responsibilities with the tasks of finding, vetting, and onboarding new team members. Busy HR professionals often struggle to find the right fit, especially if the role is complicated or high-level. That makes the time-consuming and ever-challenging tasks involved in hiring new HR team members doubly difficult.

A Society for Human Resource Management study found that in addition to the hard costs of recruiting, vetting, and hiring candidates, the loss of team productivity adds up for businesses, and can cost up to three times the salary of a new hire. Finding great candidates is only getting harder as competition for the best HR workers stiffens.

Enter professional, HR Search Firms.

HR recruiting experts spend every day, all day speaking with candidates and clients, and they know exactly how to make a good match. They keep detailed records about the skills, experience, and special traits of the people in their databases. They pre-qualify their candidates and check on their salary and benefit requirements and interests. They know their candidates’ availability.

HR-focused recruiters also take the time to get to know their clients’ business goals and cultures. They can take an objective view of the role and tease out crucial elements that will entice prime candidates. External recruiters learn the nuances of HR roles at different organizations so they can offer unique perspectives and search for candidates who line up with the company’s strategy. They read job descriptions with a critical eye. So, when an opening arises, expert recruiters can often identify the ideal talent for the role, fill openings faster, and save clients the hard and soft costs of recruiting.

Why would I use an HR search firm?

“We need a confidential search.”

When hiring members of an HR department, the need for discretion can make posting a role complicated. Businesses may need to hire a couple of positions after a downsizing, have delicate timing requirements, or need a candidate with an extensive background check—there are many different reasons clients want to keep a search under wraps. This is an ideal time to use an expert recruiting agency.

“Our search is taking too long.”

External recruiters are focused on one mission. In fact, their livelihoods depend on it: finding the candidate that best fits their client’s business needs. External recruiters have a database of qualified candidates always ready, so they can approach prospective employees directly rather than waiting for applicants to come to them. This saves their clients time and effort.

“We need to create an entirely new team.”

It can be extremely difficult to hire just one role, much less build out an entire team and meet company goals under a deadline. An HR search firm can do a national search for the right people and present their clients with different levels of candidates—much more quickly than it would take an internal HR team to write and post all the roles, comb through resumes, interview candidates, and vet backgrounds for multiple roles at once.

“We’re seeking a unique mix of skills.” or “We have an unusual role to fill.”

HR-focused recruiters can search their databases by candidate skill and background. The best recruiters have built a relationship with both their clients and their candidates and can often read beyond the job description and find that special person for the role.

Get a helping hand.

Working with an HR search firm can lead to long-lasting, more effective teams in the long run. Given the cost and time it takes to conduct searches and identify candidates while trying to manage daily work like planning, creating, and monitoring employee programs and benefits, it often is less expensive and more efficient to use an external recruiter who specializes in HR.

Need help finding that great HR hire to help your team grow? Get started with a national search today. Contact us at 866-363-5496.