When to outsource recruitment and when to keep it in-house
It’s Monday, you have four open roles, and your tech leads have spent weeks squeezing interviews in between meetings. At the leadership meeting someone asks the question every growing company gets to sooner or later: do we hire an in-house recruiter, bring in an agency, or carry on as we are?
Our answer, even though this is what we do for a living, is that it depends on the role. What works best is deciding vacancy by vacancy, with some clear thinking, rather than out of habit or because “that’s how we’ve always done it”.
What you do better in-house
An internal team knows the culture from the inside, and it shows in how they describe the role and who they screen out. They build up learning from one process to the next, treat candidates in a consistent way and, when hiring volume is high and steady, cost is more predictable. You also control the pace and every message a candidate receives.
It works best for recurring roles: profiles the market has plenty of and that your company already knows how to attract. If you bring in several people a year for the same kind of role, it makes a lot of sense for your own team to own that.
What an outside partner adds
A specialist partner comes in when the problem is a different one. Many of the best people aren’t looking for a job and will never see your ad. Reaching them takes a network, time and a well-thought-out message, and that’s a large part of what we do every day.
A partner also brings market knowledge: what salary ranges are being paid, which profiles are available, what other companies are offering and what’s realistic to ask for. They add capacity during peaks, when you need to fill several roles at once without adding permanent headcount. They make discreet searches possible for sensitive replacements. And they bring judgement on roles your company has never hired for, which is exactly where it’s easiest to get it wrong.
Five questions before you decide
For each vacancy, it’s worth answering these honestly:
- Is it a scarce profile? If few people have the experience you need and nearly all of them are employed, active search makes the difference.
- Is this the first time you’re hiring for this role? If nobody on the team has done the job, you’ll struggle to define the profile and assess candidates.
- What does it cost you to leave it open? A role that’s holding up a launch or a revenue line justifies spending more to fill it sooner.
- Does it need to be confidential? Replacing someone who is still with the company, or opening a role that isn’t public yet, almost always calls for a discreet search.
- Do you have real capacity inside? Having someone in People isn’t enough. The question is whether they have the hours this particular search needs.
If you answer yes to two or more of the first four, or no to the fifth, you’ll most likely be better off working with a partner on that role.
It’s rarely all or nothing
The companies we work best with tend to mix approaches. The most common set-up is for the People team to handle recurring roles while searches for scarce, senior or confidential profiles go outside. Another model that works well is using a partner to get a new function off the ground, such as a data team or international sales: they fill the first positions, help you work out what the right profile looks like and, once the team is in place, the people inside take over. And some companies outsource just one part, say sourcing and first-round assessment, while keeping final interviews and the offer in-house.
Mistakes we see on both sides
When outsourcing, the most visible mistake is having several agencies on the same role without coordinating them. The same candidate gets three different messages about the same job, and your company looks a lot worse than it should. We also see companies hand over the definition of the profile, when no partner can replace a proper conversation with the hiring manager. And others take days to give feedback on the candidates presented, while those candidates keep receiving other offers.
When hiring in-house, the classic mistake is assuming that posting a job ad is enough for people who will never see it. Or loading recruitment onto managers who have no time left, so the process drags on for weeks. And almost nobody measures: how long each process takes, where candidates drop out, how many offers are turned down and why.
If you decide to go outside
Check that the partner specialises in your sector and the kind of profile you need, and that they can explain clearly how they work: how they define the role, how they assess and how many candidates they usually present. Terms and guarantees should be clear from the start, with no small print.
And pay attention to something that’s often overlooked: how they talk about your company. Ask them how they’d pitch the role to a candidate. For weeks, that will be your company’s voice in the market, and if you don’t recognise yourself in it, better to find out before you start.
At Mimmic Talent we often work hand in hand with internal People teams, taking on the trickier searches while they handle the rest. If it would help to think out loud about what’s worth outsourcing in your case, drop us a line.