The internal vs external recruitment debate is one that draws a lot of attention online. To cut through all of the noise that comes with the external recruitment vs internal recruitment discussion, we’ve outlined the differences between the two below.
What is Internal Recruitment?
Generally speaking, the responsibilities of an internal recruiter do not differ drastically from those of an external recruiter.
One of the common misconceptions in the internal vs external recruitment debate is that the two parties have significantly different workloads. This simply isn’t the case – both are focused on supporting the hiring needs of an organization.
Companies that leverage an internal recruitment approach hire salaried employees to oversee their organization’s hiring needs. These internal recruiters are responsible for the creation and promotion of job listings, as well as candidate sourcing, vetting, and interviewing processes.
They also decide when the organization will partner with consultancies or external recruiters to assist with hiring-related projects.
Internal recruiters will often enter into agreements with external vendors to help them manage the influx of job orders they may receive from hiring managers and members of their leadership team. Just like the candidates they vet, internal recruiters take the lead on researching and selecting external recruiting partners that best fit the needs of the organization as a whole.
After receiving approval from their manager(s), internal recruiters are responsible for finalizing the fee agreement with the external agency and determining when the appropriate time to introduce external support to their internal team members will be.
Oftentimes, internal recruiters will seek the services of external recruiters when their workload or number of job orders exceeds a volume that they can manage independently. In certain cases, external recruiters may be brought on by internal recruitment teams when a particular role or group of roles has presented challenges from a placement perspective.
What is External Recruitment?
Now that we’ve debunked the biggest myth within the internal recruitment vs external recruitment conversation and disproved the notion that the two roles work on entirely different projects, we can begin to explore the ways external recruiters partner with organizations and their internal recruitment staff.
External recruiters are third-party agencies that serve to augment the existing hiring initiatives of firms across a variety of industries and verticals. Unlike internal recruiters, who are largely dependent on outbound recruiting processes and inbound advertising campaigns through job listing networks, external recruiters often possess unique connections to talent and other advisory services in their geographical market.
Because they have access to diversified networks of individuals who are both actively and passively looking for new employment opportunities, external recruiters can tap into large talent pools to quickly identify the best entry-level, middle-management, and C-suite level candidates.
External recruiters also have access to data and industry research studies that can help scale an organization in other ways aside from strictly recruiting.
At times, organizations will have an opening due to the departure of a former employee. In instances like this, internal team members will debate the benefits of internal promotion vs external recruitment efforts. With support from an external agency’s resources, internal recruiters can make better evaluations of current individuals from within the organization to determine whether promotion or recruitment is the best course of action for the company.
Read More: Top Recruiting Firms – Daley and Associates
Internal vs External Recruitment Benefits and Disadvantages
Relying on an internal recruitment staff or an external agency for hiring purposes presents a few clear advantages and disadvantages for a firm.
Internal Recruitment:
Internal recruiters focus on the holistic needs of the company. This means they take information from across various departments into account when making a decision.
They understand the demands of leadership and internal teams better than anybody. Even when partnering with external agencies, internal recruiters must serve as the source of truth for all things related to the company’s mission, culture, branding, and operations. Because of their direct connection to the firm they are hiring for, internal recruiters usually have a very strong idea as to what they need from a candidate for a given role.
There are no service fees for internal recruiters. As mentioned previously, internal recruiters are usually full-time, salaried employees. The costs to fund internal recruitment efforts are stated within the individual employee contracts.
Depending on the size of a company and the size of its internal recruiting team, solely relying on in-house recruiters may be considered a disadvantage in some instances. For example, if a company has a small internal recruitment team, they are susceptible to becoming overwhelmed by a high volume of job orders at any given time. If an organization is only hiring for one kind of position on a cyclical basis, it may be manageable for a small internal team to manage. However, this would not be the case for a small team of internal recruiters tasked with placing a new in-house legal council, a new lead IT developer, and an accountant, all within the same month.
External Recruitment:
External recruiters, on the other hand, have the power of numbers on their side – in more ways than one. In addition to direct access to a vast quantity of talent networks, advisory services, and industry insights, external recruiters also work in groups categorized by expertise. In most cases, external agencies will deploy teams specialized by vertical to address their clients’ needs.
Whereas an internal recruiter would be responsible for hiring across multiple departments, an agency can deploy an engineering team to hire developers, an IT team to hire infrastructure administrators, an operations team to hire sales and marketing professionals, etc.
External recruiters have a consistent presence in the talent market. This means they access industry information that is not made directly available to the firms that are hiring. Because they have daily conversations with professionals ranging from entry-level professionals to decision-makers to members of the C-suite, external recruiters are privy to discussions related to trends in the startup world, major corporations, hedge funds, and beyond.
External recruiters can easily leverage these “trends” as key talking points during their conversations with potential candidates. This demonstrates their industry expertise, which, in turn, can positively reflect the hiring entity (the client).
When thinking of external recruiting agencies, a lot of organizations may see the fee associated as a disadvantage. Although there is a fee for their services, an organization’s inaction can prove to be even more costly than said expenses. For example, if a job order stays open for an extended period while internal recruiters continue to pay for advertising on the listing, the cost of the advertisements, in addition to the revenue lost due to the vacancy, can far exceed the service fees required by the external party.
Read More: The Advantages of Hiring Through External Recruitment
When to Hire Internally
While it’s ideal for an organization to have both an internal and external recruiting presence, budget constraints do not always make this possible.
If you are picking between one or the other, it’s important to consider the type of roles you are hiring for in terms of seniority.
When it comes to hiring for entry-level positions requiring one or fewer years of professional experience (positions for college graduates) or the same kind of position consistently, internal recruiters are a far more reasonable choice. They are, of course, qualified to hire for more advanced positions – this is merely to note that it would be unwise to spend funds on external support for these kinds of roles.
When to Hire Externally
If, however, you are hiring for a multitude of roles that are varied in terms of both vertical and seniority, an external agency is likely the best choice. Taking full advantage of an external agency’s network, resources, and confidential relationships with individuals who may either be actively or passively looking (as not every candidate can publicly state they are looking for a new position) would be to your organization’s benefit.
Internal vs External Recruitment: Which is Right for Your Business?
Amid the online discussions concerning external recruitment vs internal recruitment, many participants seem to lose sight of what’s important when it comes to quality recruitment strategy.
At Daley And Associates, our goals include building teams, companies, and connections. We are passionate about cultivating strong relationships with our clients and candidates, as we believe these relationships serve as a foundation for future success.
Our specialized teams have over 250 years of combined experience recruiting accounting, administration, human resources, operations, finance, information technology, legal, and life science professionals.
If you are at a crossroads due to an internal vs external recruitment dilemma, we encourage you to contact the Daley And Associates team today.
