As the pandemic subsides and restrictions are eased, it seems the economy is improving, as evidenced by “Now Hiring” signs in nearly every business window. Here at NPAworldwide, we are seeing job postings skyrocket on the network’s internal job sharing board. Also, very tellingly, we aren’t seeing as many candidates being posted. This is quite rare when more jobs are being added than candidates in our database.

These companies are going to face a challenge as hiring needs outweigh the candidate supply. Hiring managers are turning to recruiters to help fill these roles quickly, but it’s still a challenge – candidates have become much more picky about where, when, and how they want to work. Read the rest of this entry »

When you are a small employer, you should search for candidates yourself, right? Not according to an Inc. article I read recently by Vanessa Merit Nornberg called These Days, Recruiters are Worth the Money.

Like most small employers, Vanessa had been searching for candidates herself. She believed her reasoning was sound because she assumed the following:

• Working with recruiters was a waste of time,
• Reviewing resumes for the “right candidate” should be done by her as she knew best who to interview, and
• Hiring a recruiter was too expensive for her small budget.

However, the reality of her hiring situation was that it was taking her a very long and frustrating time to find the “right candidate” even though she searched a variety of ways including placing ads on large and specialized job boards as well as on local university boards.

Then, one of her senior staff members suggested she contact a recruiter she knew. Reluctantly, Vanessa met with the recruiter. In the end, she decided to try something different. She signed a contingency recruitment agreement. She would pay the recruiter only if she hired a candidate presented by the recruiter.

The results surprised Vanessa. Within one month, Vanessa hired the “right candidate” from the group of candidates presented by the recruiter. Her experience working with a recruiter changed her hiring strategy. She concluded the following about the experience:

• She filled the position faster.
• She spent less money considering the overall cost of hiring which included the cost of her time to search for candidates.
• The recruiter was able to find the “right candidate” for the position.

While the above is compelling, Vanessa discovered something even more interesting. She asked the candidate she hired why she worked with a recruiter instead of posting her resume on job boards. The candidate replied, “because recruiters make sure your resume gets seen, while submitting via the Internet is like sending your resume into oblivion.”

Bottom line: even small employers benefit from working with independent recruiters to find the “right candidate.”