Recruitment – to in-house, or to out-source?

We asked Dylan his thoughts on in-housing project recruitment, and how this can help save money, align company values and possibly speed up the time to recruit. His answer might surprise you – “this is the million pound question – and one that is notoriously difficult to answer. Recruitment is not just recruitment – much like eggs are not just eggs. A Victoria sponge made with fried eggs isn’t quite the same!”

“We look at our recruitment service as a project solution, one where delivery is critical, where speed to up-man is just as crucial as the end of project down-man. Having access to a network of skilled technicians who understand the work cycle, who have the necessary skills, and who are engaged in such a way as to limit exposure to non-compliant engagement and any claim of employment status ensures our clients can confidently move fast, competently, and focus on what they do best.”

Understanding the difference between project team recruitment and staff recruitment is crucial. There are specialist head hunters out there, and some fantastic staff recruiters, but, getting the balance right is absolutely critical to your successful recruitment strategy.

Market Know How

Bringing your recruitment team in-house can be a great way to ensure new starts are well aligned to your culture and values. For key staff roles, that has been shown to lead to lower staff turnover, higher productivity, and a stronger sense of team.

If you have recently in-housed your recruitment solution, those new recruitment staff bring fresh market know-how, intelligence, and a network of candidates. Where you’re managing project man-power, with rapid up- and down-manning, how do you keep that network fresh? Outside of your business, how is the market moving, where are rates trending? Is there a big project that is absorbing your traditional network of resources? Is your established recruitment team as close to the market as they once were?

Jack reflected on the impact of major projects, like Hinkley Point C, which has drawn specialist trades from across the UK, “It’s an increasing trend within major projects in the UK – which is increasingly skills starved - where we see local skill shortages being supplemented by national labour movements. In the Highlands of Scotland, there is a real outflow to projects like Hinkley. We’re working with infrastructure owner-developers and Tier 1 contractors now to plan for major infrastructure upgrade projects. We’re focusing on training, skills development, and skills retention across Scotland. This recruitment market know how is absolutely critical to the success of these projects. Engagement models must be flexible, compliant and attractive. With labour being such a large part of any project cost, getting this wrong can have a serious impact on both recruitment planning and cost control.”

In-House Project Recruitment – Our How To

Market Know How    
Freshen up your market intel.

• A new in-house recruiter always has fresh visibility, especially one who has come directly from a recruitment partner.
• Keep up to speed by following market leaders, attending networking and conference events.

Recruiter Networks
Keep your network fresh, and relevant.

• Keep your network fresh, and relevant.
• Is your recruitment team all over their socials?

A Strong Brand    
When you need to recruit, is the world watching?

• Focus on getting your brand out there, whether or not you are recruiting.
• Invest in your social media footprint.

Market Reach
Ensure you can reach every corner of the market.

• Are you subscribed: LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Premium, social feeds. There are lots of ways to reach the market.
• Pay per click on your jobs ads will help to get your campaign in front of your audience.

Reduce Costs, Increase Accuracy

Building your internal recruitment capability can definitely save money. We asked our commercial team to look at the break even point in moving recruitment in-house. They were slow to reach for their calculator…so we pressed them, a little.

Here’s a summary of what they said.

It’s both an easy one to answer, and incredibly difficult. When we think about in-housing a recruitment team, we also need to think about the whole employment cycle impact:

• Bolstering the back office – payroll, tax compliance, accounting and bank transaction management, HR, procurement systems;
• Logistics;
• Lngoing specialist subscriptions;
• Lynamic AI augmented search capabilities;
• Lecruitment insurances;
• Lash flow impact;
• 24/7 on call;
• The impact of staff changes on our capability; and
• Employment compliance and employment risk.

These are just some of the direct costs and resource impacts of internal project recruitment. To put a number on it, wow, that’s a difficult one. As a recruiter gets busier, they need an administrative support, so it’s never just a single resource team. With a combined (voluntary and involuntary) turnover of 35.8%, compared to an all-industry UK rate of 16.8%, maintaining a team is very challenging (REC report, Employee Turnover in the UK Recruitment Industry: A Comprehensive Analysis).