Deciding what parts of your business to entrust with a vendor, and what to keep in house is a daunting task.  It seems there is someone willing to take over any part of your business that you will allow.  Hiring is one of the largest.

Promises of finding perfect people, with no work on behalf of your business, are boasted from multiple vendors but rarely can be achieved.  The plain fact is that some parts of your process of getting staff should only be given over to your own employees.  The secret to successfully using outside resources is knowing what to handle yourself.

In-Source your staffing by only using vendors for tasks that make your own employees better at hiring.  Stop buying services that try to replace your management and only add high costs.

Here are the major tasks needed to get the staff you need, and the viability for using outside resources to help:

Ad writing - The larger the crop of candidates pooled in the beginning the better the odds of finding the best talent in your market.  Advertising needs to be well written, with appropriate keywords and search engine optimization.  Job Boards like Indeed rank results based on wording, and your ranking can be the difference between the right candidate finding your ad, or applying somewhere else.  Quality ad writing can make a big difference, and costs little to outsource.  Give this one to an agency or vendor.

Job Board Placement - Online advertising has become a volume business.  One example is CareerBuilder, the regular retail price for a single ad is over $500, where a volume price for a contract with multiple ads can be under $100.  In addition, volume advertisers get prime placement on job boards.  This means the agencies get more ads for the dollar, and better search result.  Let a firm book your ads.  You will spend less for more advertising.

Applicant tracking and initial screening - Dealing with applicant traffic, is no different than sales traffic.  Your results are only going to be as good as your ability to track leads and establish which are worthwhile.  If your business has enough staff to dedicate to following up on applications, including calling every person that applies, keep this in-house.  If you do not have a separated staff let a company handle the routing of leads, including establishing separating the wheat from the chaff.  Only outsource if it is a low cost option, no need to pay thousands to have someone track and review applications.  Only use a low cost option, if you cannot dedicate staff in your own company.

Face to face interviews - The only way to really know who to hire is to meet face to face.  This can be a daunting and involved process.  Usually left to a department manager with limited experience in examining candidates.  While it is tempting to try and let a company meet applicants for you, and try and free up the department head to go about their daily business, this is the most critical step in hiring and has to stay in your hands.  Invest in training for your own employees, there are lots of HR training classes and webinars that are specifically designed to make your manager better at selecting the right candidates.  Train and In-Source the task of meeting candidates and interviews.  Never hand off to an outsider.

Orientation and training - Employees are won or lost in the first few days of employment.  The view of your business is set by how a new employee is introduced to the company and staff, and how easy it is for them to begin being productive.  There is no substitute for the leaders in a business taking a hands on approach to new staff coming to their department.  Having an outsider handle the first few days of a staff member enter your business has a negative impact on the long term retention of an employee.  In-source this to your staff.

Scrutinize your vendors carefully and start In-Sourcing more of your hiring process.

Greg Gershman - Managing Partner Recruitment HQ