The Case for Hiring an Internal Recruiter

In my last blog post, I discussed the changing role of the corporate recruiter. While I touched upon the importance of talent management to companies of all sizes, recruiting for startup hotspots such as Boston, Silicon Valley, and NYC often require more time and more skill, since the talent market is increasingly competitive and aggressive.

According to CNN, 40% of the 130,000 job openings in Silicon Valley are for software engineers. With so many open positions, where can you find the top talent and hire them over your competition, while keeping up with your non-recruitment related responsibilities?

While OpenView’s expansion stage portfolio companies have been able to utilize the recruiting support provided by the OpenView Labs team, most companies at this stage of growth do not have recruitment help at their disposal. Last month, Business Insider put out a great piece on the top five reasons why startups without recruiting support are at a distinct disadvantage, and I want to share them below:

1. You never have enough proactive time. Management teams at expansion stage companies have a lot on their plates. Recruitment, particularly for companies at this size which do not already have a well established brand behind them, requires a great deal of proactive time to find top candidates. It requires effort and energy to develop candidate flow, meet candidates, vet them, check references, etc. Having a recruiter who will work with you to push you to react to candidates and help to prioritize your recruitment initiatives should mprove your time to hire.

2. Hiring inexperience. If you do not have a lot of experience hiring, particularly when it comes to hiring for more senior positions, you will likely benefit from hiring a recruiter who has. According to Business Insider, many entrepreneurs are not skilled interviewers, and are not experienced at assessing their current human capital needs, analyzing any gaps of management team members, and then understanding the market and how to fill the gap. An experienced recruiter is invaluable in this regard.

3. Shallow reference checking. Busy entrepreneurs often rush one of the most important components in the interview process– the reference check. Perhaps they already feel that they have made a decision on a candidate, but are going through the rhythm of contacting references, when really this should be an opportunity to push for a deeper understanding of the candidates’ histories and claims. Further, this is an opportunity to learn from your candidates’ former managers on how they can best be managed for success.

4. Quarterbacking the selling process. The best candidates are doing their due dilligence on you as much, or more, than your due dilligence on them. Even though you are deciding whether a candidate is a fit for your company throughout the interview process, you need to be in a position to sell every step of the way. A recruiter can be very helpful in this aspect of the recruiting process- by proactively surfacing objections and handling them with data and follow-up conversations, linking candidates to the right people who can best answer their questions and give them a greater understanding of the opportunity.

5. Focus on closing. Closing candidates in a competitive market is difficult. Many things can get in the way of closing out an interview process with your top candidates, including counteroffers, compressed timeframes and personal considerations. If you do not have the proactive time necessary to seal the deal, you may lose out on your best candidates. Having a recruiter on board gives you a focused closer.

Does your company have a dedicated recruiter on board? If not, how do you manage the recruiting process at your company?