A year ago, I was a corporate recruiter for the global headquarters of a publicly traded company of 3,000 people. I got 3-5 calls or emails a day from third party recruiting agencies all over the world asking me to pay them to recruit for my company’s open positions. I listened to the pitches of over 20 agencies, and none of them ever had a message that truly stood out. Sure, they could fill jobs, but I really struggled to find a recruiting resource I wanted to market as a valued partner to my company.
Since then, I have joined entreQuest, a consulting firm based in Baltimore, as a Talent Consultant. I knew I had struck gold when I found this position. eQ’s talent acquisition practice is a wildly unique and refreshing alternative to the recruiting agencies that called on me relentlessly. I only wish I had known about entreQuest when I was sitting in my seat as a corporate recruiter.
Having worked in both positions, as a Recruiter and now as a Talent Consultant, here are my 10 reasons on why eQ’s talent acquisition practice will always beat out recruiting:
1. It’s not a recruiting agency, in any shape or form. At entreQuest, we’re a consulting firm with a talent acquisition practice that views everything we do through the lens of management consulting. Our recruiters are actually called “Talent Consultants.”
2. Talent Acquisition is there to help your business grow, not their own. Our CEO at eQ wrote a New York Times bestseller, Grow Regardless, on how to grow companies regardless of size, industry, or the economy … it was also a Washington Post, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and USA Today bestseller. That book has set the focus for all of our recruiting efforts around growing clients to the next level. That’s going well beyond the scope of a normal recruiting agency.
3. Recruiting agencies tend to be much more focused on improving their numbers. But, as a consulting firm, we want to improve the organizational health of your company with every placement we make. We will never put a body in a seat and will instead strive to change your company for the better with every hire. It’s not only about getting the placement – it’s about getting the right placement.
4. Recruiting agencies give sales pitches; talent acquisition practices tell your story and your vision. Once we become a trusted partner and learn your company story, we’re going to share that story with everyone we interview. It is great brand recognition through confident and compelling word-of-mouth testimony. You want people to think of you as an incredible organization, and that’s exactly what a talent acquisition practice does.
5. Talent acquisition practices can utilize trusted and sourced candidates who know the practice. Here, we capitalize on our global network to recruit. People all over the world follow eQ, our CEO, and our content, which gives us a platform to access candidates across the globe.
6. There is an immense level of trust with talent acquisition over recruiting agencies. At eQ, half of the searches we do are retained searches. In the past year, over 50% of our clients have been willing to invest up front in talent acquisition engagements with entreQuest. This is proof that people are more willing to invest in talent acquisition. Trust is the key to success.
7. We only do direct hire placements. We don’t get distracted with the headaches of temp/contract recruitment. We want to focus on the hires that will make the greatest impact for our clients. Talent acquisition is an investment in your growth.
8. You get your money’s worth. While you pay a fee for talent acquisition efforts, you’ll get outstanding company marketing and branding through our job postings and the heavy outreach we do on your behalf.
9. Not only will you gain access to top candidates, but also extensive market knowledge through our recruiting efforts. Candidates can speak more freely and be more honest with us about how they view your company. We can get the word on the street and report back to you. Something I know recruiting agencies aren’t overly concerned with.
10. Our Talent Consulting team at eQ is the best I have seen in the business … we are aggressive candidate trackers and trusted advisors, who never want to deliver at any level less than 100%.
Talent acquisition is on the rise. It has been said that the war for talent is over – and talent won. Well, the talent is more likely than ever to choose a talent acquisition practice over recruiting agencies because the practices are determined to help client AND candidate. The best, most sought after talent knows to seek out talent acquisition … but are you?