By Marc Gilker
Today’s hiring landscape can be confusing. To pile on, the web is littered with misinformation on popular methods like Direct Hire. Let’s set the record straight: you can hire directly through your company and use a recruiting agency. You don’t have to choose one or the other.
So, what is Direct Hire?
The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that direct hiring is when a company hires a candidate directly to their internal payroll. Simply, the candidate becomes an employee of the company that hired them.
The most popular alternative to the Direct Hire process is Contract Staffing, where an agency is paid to place a candidate for a company, but the candidate is hired and paid by the agency for the duration of an employment contract.
When would an agency be involved with a Direct Hire?
For many hiring managers, especially in today’s job market, finding candidates to fill certain positions can be challenging. There may not be a lot of job seekers in your industry, or the skills needed to perform the essential functions of a position may be hard to come by in your current pool of candidates.
That’s where a recruiting agency like SRG Stillwater can step in and put those hard-to-find candidates in front of hiring managers. The agency serves as the headhunter for a fee, but hiring is still handled directly by your company.
Weighing Direct Hire with and without using a recruiting agency:
Advantages of hiring directly without recruiters:
- You aren’t paying a fee to an outside agency.
- You may have great candidates who already work for your company.
- You can assemble your own search team internally.
Potential downsides to hiring directly without recruiters:
- Your candidate pool may be limited to active candidates, and the people applying may not match who you are looking for.
- You and your team will have one more item to add to your already busy schedules.
- If you hire someone who doesn’t work out, you need to reinvest more of your company’s time and resources in finding someone new.
Advantages of hiring directly with a recruiting agency:
- Professional Recruiters find passive candidates with the specialized skills and background you are looking for.
- Select agencies, like SRG Stillwater, guarantee the success of a hired candidate. If they don’t work out, we will restart the custom search process and find an equally qualified candidate for free.
- It’s easier to maintain a confidential search when limiting internal personnel in the search process.
Potential downsides to hiring directly with a recruiting agency:
- If your search partner offers a contingent search, you will pay a fee when you hire a candidate. If you use a retained search, you will also owe an upfront fee. Learn more about the two processes.
- While you will have full control over hiring, you won’t control the search process.
- Depending on the agency, it may be difficult for their recruiters to find someone who fits your company culture. SRG Stillwater starts our search process by immersing ourselves in a company’s culture to create a fully tailored search.
Direct Hire and recruiting aren’t always separate.
Despite the many online definitions of “Direct Hire” that distinguish the process from recruiting, the two are often used together. At SRG Stillwater, Direct Hire is the most popular service our recruiters provide to the companies we work with.
If you need help finding the right person to fill an open position, our team of Professional Recruiters is ready to create a custom search for you. Contact us to learn more.