We are going to give you the gist of this article right up front: Don’t trust your search process to a staffing generalist. This is particularly true if your search requires extensive knowledge of one of the more sophisticated industry roles in IT, engineering, finance, and accounting, or even sales for that matter. If you put a general staffing recruiter on the phone with an engineer, it’s going to end badly for the recruiter. They simply won’t know the language of this complicated field and will wind up representing you poorly in front of the candidate. Here’s why your recruiting firm’s expertise should closely match the field you’re recruiting for.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
The best recruiting firms are not a “Jack of all trades and master of none.” Not even close! Successful staffing agencies employ recruiters who have spent many hours getting to know the market they are recruiting in as well as the types of candidates and skills necessary in the field.
Imagine a professional engineer asking questions to a recruiter that knows nothing about engineering? How many hours are wasted by recruiters searching for IT candidates that don’t have the skills you need—because the recruiter doesn’t understand those skills? We’re not saying the recruiter needs to be a programmer or a sales executive. But they need to understand the basic functions of these positions and what matters to the candidates and the employer.
How many stories have you heard (or experienced first-hand) of recruiters that send over a pile of resumes that do not fit the position? It happens all the time. The best way for you to avoid wasting time and money is to hire a specialist recruiting firm in your industry. You’re looking for a recruiting team that has put in thousands of hours and knows the acronyms, terms, and credentials that you believe are important. Does your recruiting team know the difference between cloud and on-premise software applications? Can they talk about cybersecurity? Do they understand how traditional engineering and accounting fields are being changed by software innovation? Can they discern the difference between a sales rep that can hit quota and one that is all talk?
Industry expertise matters when recruiting knowledgeable workers. It’s the difference between simply recruiting and quality recruitment. A high-quality specialty staffing firm can provide you not only with the best candidates, but the most valuable insights into these potential employees.
Industry expertise matters because the recruiting firm you hire represents your brand to every candidate you come in contact with. If your company uses generic recruiting firms, you will get generic results, and you’ll lose candidates simply because they think your staffing agency doesn’t know what they’re doing. It’s an untenable situation that you don’t want to fall victim to.
A.C.Coy has a different approach.
We’ve spent decades learning about IT, engineering, finance and accounting, and sales. Our team offers industry expertise in all of these fields. Not only do we have the best networks with top candidates in these areas, but we can also talk the talk that allows us to prequalify high-quality teams that can help improve your business. Talk with our team about your hiring needs. We are standing by to support your goals.
