Don’t sacrifice company culture when you outsource recruitment

2021 has been a turbulent year in recruitment, with Covid causing worldwide skills and labour shortages, and over a quarter of workers planning to switch jobs in “The Great Resignation”. Finding the right candidate for the job looks set to remain challenging in 2022.

While skills and experience are important, finding employees who fit with your company culture is also vital to avoid high employee turnover and more unfilled roles.

What is company culture?

Company culture refers to the attitudes, behaviours, shared values and goals of a company. Even if you haven’t intentionally defined your company culture, you still have one, whether it’s suit-and-tie traditional or fun and funky. If you get your culture right, productivity, quality, and staff loyalty will follow.

Outsourcing your recruitment

More companies than ever are outsourcing their recruitment to gain an edge in today’s competitive labour market. To find candidates who are a good cultural fit, your recruitment agency has to become part of your team and understand the qualities you’re looking for. Building a strong relationship with your recruitment partner will enable them to hire the best candidates and boost your retention rates.

Using one specialist agency for all your recruitment needs will enable them to combine specialist industry knowledge with an in-depth understanding of your business to create a more efficient hiring process.

You can help by inviting them to meetings, introducing them to leaders and managers, and letting them observe your culture in action, including conflict resolution, employee behaviours and emotions, and what the workplace looks like (if there is one).

The cost of recruitment

Recruiting a single new employee in the UK costs an average of £3,000, according to Glassdoor. And a bad hire could cost you far more. For a typical middle management role, the recruitment and training costs coupled with the cost of lost productivity would set you back about £312,000, according to Agency Central.

That’s why you need to track your recruitment metrics. such as hiring velocity, time to fill roles, cost per hire, and hire quality–or choose a recruitment partner who can track them for you. These metrics will enable you to track and improve hiring, employee turnover and productivity.

You can also use hiring scorecards to list skills, qualifications and traits that candidates need to succeed in a role. You can then measure your net hiring score by asking the hiring manager and the new hire themselves how well they feel the person and the company fit.

Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that outsourcing recruitment means sacrificing your company culture. With a recruitment partner that’s willing to immerse itself fully in your company, you can avoid the dangers and costs of a bad hire and find candidates who will fit perfectly into your company culture and become valued members of your team.