In today’s economy, hiring the best people is more critical than ever. And it can be expensive.

Not only do organisations have the financial costs of finding, interviewing, engaging and training new employees — there are also the ongoing costs of salaries, benefits and taxes once the employee is on board.

Thus, today’s leaders tend to view their new employees more and more as investments and, despite the initial overheads; they anticipate an excellent financial return over time.

Hiring the right employee enhances your work culture and pays you back a thousand times over in high employee morale, positive forward thinking planning, and accomplishing challenging goals.

Using a recruitment agency is a cost effective and efficient way to hire the best employees when compared to in-house recruiting.

In light of this, here are some of the key reasons why you should use a recruitment agency:

1. Save time and money
A recruitment agency can save you a lot of time sifting through applications, so that you only have to make time to view those worth considering. They can also schedule interviews, so you only have to prepare and turn up, as well as all of the administration. This could include everything from communications with applicants, (including notifying unsuccessful ones and providing feedback), and verifying candidate information (e.g. qualifications and references).

2. More efficient
All candidate applications are dealt with together – so that you can deal with them all in one go. Recruitment agencies also know how to advise you on and negotiate job offers on your behalf, if requested.
They will also manage the process smoothly when compared to in-house staff – who may be inexperienced in ‘best practice’ procedures.
Contract and temporary hire roles can also be filled at short notice, as most recruitment agents already have access to a vast pool of vetted candidates.

3. Short-term savings
Using a recruitment agency removes the cost of posting most job adverts and reduces company overtime costs. This is because temp hire through a recruitment agency is often cheaper than requiring regular staff to work overtime during busy periods. It also reduces the likelihood and cost of a bad hire.

4. Long term cost savings
When you use the same recruitment agency over and over again, it helps reduces future hiring costs. This is because the agent already has prior knowledge of your organisation and thus the process is much quicker.

Finally, before making the decision to hire a new employee, it is important to remember to:

1. Define the job before you hire
We recommend starting with a job analysis. This will enable you to collect information about the duties, responsibilities, skills, outcomes, and work environment of a particular job. It will also help you to develop the job description – and thus your recruiting strategy for the new employee.

2. Plan your recruiting strategy
The next step is to organise a recruiting planning meeting with the key people involved in hiring the new employee. It will usually involve the hiring manager, and at the meeting recruiting strategy is planned and the execution begins.

3. Use a reputable hiring agency
The advantages of using a well-established and reputable hiring firm to hire the best employees cannot be overstated. For example, when you use RecruitWest much of the above homework and candidate pool development has already been done for you.
Additionally, at RecruitWest we will most likely have an already-developed pool of candidates available – as well as years of experience and talent to help you with your search.