With talented candidates getting harder to find as the skills shortage continues to gain momentum, it’s time to ask yourself if you’re current recruitment methods are delivering the best results.

With the war for talent getting more and more competitive, chances are it isn’t.

Many in-house teams rely on a varied sourcing model that enhances their own capability with support from other external resourcing arrangements, with many organisations favouring the use of a preferred supplier list. However, with the war for talent raging on and making sourcing quality candidates harder than ever, questions have been raised on the effectiveness of this approach.

Managing relationships of several recruitment agencies is not only time consuming, but often leads to a relationship between recruitment agency and client becoming transactional, with success determined by metrics such as cost and speed of submission. In a tight labour market, in which skills are hard to find and the best candidates difficult to attract, if these relationships are going to be successful, then there needs to be a much more strategic partnership.

To achieve optimum results from your resourcing strategy, which will ultimately lead to improvements in quality, time and cost for each hire – businesses need to start building stronger collaborations with their recruitment suppliers.

There are four clear benefits for in-house recruitment teams in working collaboratively with their chosen recruitment agency:

1. Strategic Insights

Your agency partner becomes your eyes and ears in the market. They can advise you on remuneration trends, skill availabilities, locational data and the best way to approach relevant candidates. Offering market intelligence and a perspective on what motivates job seekers in different sectors can help you to understand complexities around filling specific roles.

2. Better Employer Brand Exposure

In a closer working relationship your agency partner will gain a much more detailed understanding of your brand, and your values and purpose too. They can better communicate the benefits of working for your business, and help navigate the best candidates through the recruitment process.

3. Improved Candidate Experience

Your agency has a vested interest in the candidate’s experience with your company as it reflects on the agency too. They can be the trusted advisor that lets you know if that experience is falling short, and might negatively impact your chances of winning round the top rated candidate.

4. Recruitment Becomes Less Reactive

When the partnership works well, and there is trust and belief in each other’s approaches to finding the best people, then talent acquisition can become a lot more proactive. Traditional PSLs might work best reactively when there is an urgent need, with little time to conduct a proper search and build rapport with the right candidate. More effective long term workforce planning can’t rely on a ‘distress purchase’ approach, it needs a more strategic plan that allows the agency time to focus its efforts on specialist roles and building candidate pools.

By opening up a collaborative partnership with your chosen recruitment agency, you stand to gain long-term access to strategic skills, valuable insights and understanding of the current labour market and the ability to tap into and identify the best candidates.