If you’re leading a high-growth startup, it means your company is moving fast. And that includes hiring. But what happens if your current recruiting team is stretched thin, or you don’t have a dedicated staff for talent acquisition? You need capacity and expertise. You need a recruiting solution.
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Learn More: Comeet Elastic Recruiting Get Your Guide: The Ultimate Guide for Hiring to Scale Quickly Get Your Guide: Choosing an ATS for high-growth companies. Get Whitepaper: The New Startup Scalability Superpower
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Here’s a snapshot of ten situations where a recruiting solution can solve your hiring pain points and enable your company to grow.
1. You’ve just received funding and investors expect your company to scale, fast
A new round of funding typically brings plans for growth and the need to expand the startup team. While spending the money on new hires can be daunting, executing plans for growth without the team in place can lead to failure.
A startup needs experienced talent acquisition support with strengths in both recruiting strategy and tactics. It’s an investment, but as David Reid, Sales Director at VEM Tooling, plastics startup says, “Recruiting is a kind of investment that pays back over time, both time- and money-wise.”
2. It’s taking too long to fill positions
A job unfilled for too long at a startup can be crippling. But rushing the recruiting process is not optimal either because it could result in making the wrong hire. If a position has been unfilled for months, you may need to look at new options. A recruiting solution can present other options like exploring different sources of talent or writing more targeted and engaging job ads.
3. Your talent acquisition team is at capacity — or you don’t have one
Whether you have dedicated talent acquisition staff or others fulfilling that role, at some point they will not be able to take on additional hiring initiatives. Working extremely long hours is often the reality for startup life. But it can result in an exhausted team interacting with your future hires. And, it can mean you’re choosing from a smaller applicant pool if recruiting activities become limited. Some companies add external recruitment agencies to bridge the gap but often find the costs are too high.
With a recruiting solution designed for the growing startup — like Comeet’s Elastic Recruiting — you’ll get all you need, on-demand. Your startup will benefit from aligned support and specialized knowledge of your industry and roles. You’ll also have access to technology to track candidates through all stages of the process to stay organized and informed.
4. You don’t have a hiring plan or hiring process
Many startups move so quickly that they’re hiring “on the fly”. As they grow, if they don’t have a hiring plan or process it can be difficult to scale and can even add compliance and legal risks. Also, not having a hiring process can mean delays, bad hires, and negative impacts on business results.
When you add a recruiting partner that’s strategic, they’ll help develop a hiring plan and an effective hiring process. They’ll also forecast hiring needs, create job descriptions, handle candidate sourcing, and develop an interview process. You’ll know what’s required at every step, who’s participating, whether or not tests or assignments are involved, and other aspects like who extends a job offer and how.
5. Talent requirements are changing
As a startup grows, it’s not uncommon for early job descriptions to be out of alignment with changing demands on the business. Sometimes you realize this during the interview process. If you’re working with a traditional recruiting agency, this can mean starting a whole new search.
However, a more flexible and strategic recruiting solution can help you adjust quickly to changing needs.
6. You’re having trouble sourcing candidates for specialized positions
There are times when it’s difficult to find candidates for specialized roles. It can be challenging even with a remote talent strategy or being located in an area with an abundant supply of talent. For the startup, it means a lot of work to develop a recruiting strategy for specialized talent.
A strategic recruiting solution designed for fast hiring, on-demand, has the capability and resources so you don’t have to become an expert in recruiting. It also saves time and sets your company up to make the right hires.
7. You need to hire a lot of people in a short amount of time
Hiring one new candidate every couple of months is often manageable for the startup depending upon the roles. However, if your company needs to hire many people in a short timeframe, it can be a major undertaking. This is when partnering with an external recruiter or recruiting agency can help hire the right people faster.
8. You don’t have an Applicant Tracking System
If you have significant hiring needs and you’re using email and spreadsheets to manage the hiring process, it may be time to invest in a recruiting solution. You could invest in ATS technology which will help streamline your hiring process. But if you have limited recruiting staff, a full recruiting solution that includes both technology and recruiters is the best option that will make your investment go a lot further.
9. You don’t have a pipeline of qualified candidates
Early-stage startups typically rely on their networks to fill positions. While this can work well for a while, startups may be limiting their pool of candidates. Working with a recruiting solution provider, depending upon the type you choose, can help you build a pool of candidates to tap into when you have future vacancies.
10. Your cost-per-hire is too high
While it might seem counterproductive to work with an outside recruiter or recruiting partner if cost is a concern, doing so can actually lower your cost-per-hire. That depends on the recruiting solution you choose. We’ll share a few options and the pros and cons of each below. In general, the right solution can be more efficient and effective than growing an in-house team.
Common Recruiting Solution Options
With these signs in mind, let’s look at some ways a growing startup can address increased hiring needs:
- Internal recruiters — Hiring internal recruiters at the right time can make sense if you don’t have a better solution in place. However, doing this at the wrong time can mean you have extra staff costs and idle recruiters after hiring peaks are over.
- Contract recruiters, recruiting agencies, and professional search — External recruiters can work in a pinch to send you potential candidates. However, this is often expensive with some requiring hefty fees upfront. Another challenge is that they serve many clients and may not be fully aligned with your organization’s goals, which can result in less than ideal hires.
- Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) — Some companies provide recruiting services in an outsourced model. This means you’ll sign a contract for recruiting services for an extended timeframe. An RPO may source, screen and refer candidates (partial cycle RPO) or they could take over your entire interviewing and hiring process (full-service RPO). This may be a good option at some point. However, RPO services are costly and typically beyond the limited and varying needs of a growing startup.
- Elastic Recruiting — Elastic recruiting is an on-demand solution that feels like your team, without the long-term requirements. It combines the cutting-edge technology of a robust hiring software platform with the insight and deep industry knowledge of experienced recruiters.
Elastic Recruiting: An Ideal Recruiting Solution for High-growth Startups
At some point, you’ll need more bandwidth, more recruiting expertise, and the right technology if you don’t want your hiring to fall behind. We designed Elastic Recruiting(TM) by Comeet with the startup in mind.
Here’s how it works: When you choose Elastic Recruiting, we grow with you and are flexible for times of decreased hiring demand. You’ll get a designated talent acquisition strategist who serves as your company’s head of recruiting if you don’t have a department, and act as an extension of one if you do. Your strategist will work with your team and our group of experts to source, screen, schedule and interview candidates, all tracked in a single, easy-to-use platform.
Elastic Recruiting is the best of all recruiting worlds. It’s a sophisticated applicant tracking and hiring solution that combines multiple functions into a single platform. It offers maximum transparency and the human touch of personal recruiting experts who align and embed with your team. When you work with us, you’ll have a foundation that you can come back to when your hiring peaks again. Find out how Elastic Recruiting by Comeet can help take your startup hiring to the next level.
The Wrap Up
When your startup needs a recruiting solution, it means that your company is ready for the next level. One of the fastest and most effective ways to get to the next level is to leverage the expertise of others. Partnering with a recruiting solution provider will minimize mistakes and reduce the time it takes to make great hires.
