The Role of Consultants in Today’s Recruitment Landscape

Historically, recruitment has been looked at as more of a selling function wherein recruiters are required to sell the job and the company to prospective candidates. However, with the advent of technology and internet and the growing war for talent, recruitment has become a much more complex process requiring a cohesive mix of process, planning, technology and resources to hire and retain the best talent available. There are, at any given point in time, millions of people looking for a job, and yet employers are finding it difficult to fill key positions. This matching of employer needs with the candidate’s experience and qualifications requires skill and expertise—and is a herculean task in itself.

In such a scenario, the biggest help to businesses and recruiters alike has come in the form of recruitment consultants who offer a specialized bouquet of services in recruitment. They offer both depth and breadth of expertise helping recruiters build employer brand, combine technology and social media to enable organizations to recruit best in-class talent, as well as providing recruiting infrastructure in the cloud to make the process easily accessible from anywhere and at any time.

The basic role of consultants is to work closely with an organization’s in-house recruitment team  in developing specialized recruitment strategies and quality-based processes starting from manpower planning, compelling job descriptions to sourcing and screening the best talent available through well-designed, technology-based assessment tools and search processes.

Since they work with organizations across sectors and industries, they have access to industry best practices as well as industry know-how, which can add strategic value to the recruiting function.

Morgan Hoogvelt, who is currently serving as managing partner of MorganHCM, a leading full-service human capital consulting firm, says “I identify areas where organizations can save a lot of time and money if they reshape their people strategy and adopt fresh approaches to talent acquisition. That is precisely what consultants help them do – introduce them to new technologies, innovative strategies and specific and targeted approaches to people management”

The key advantages of engaging with recruitment consultants include:

• Access to a huge database of candidates drawn from across industries and specialties
• Delivering innovative talent acquisition strategies to source quality candidates
• Training hiring managers and recruiters on interview selection techniques and tools
• Integrating the latest social media platforms to connect and engage with talent base
• Employing the latest sourcing and screening techniques to ensure organizations are able to hire the best talent available in the market

In recent times, recruitment consultants have structured their business to be able to offer a wide array of recruitment and analytical services that enable recruiters and organizations to build their recruitment function as well as track its efficiency and effectiveness. They have both the scale and size to leverage technology and expertise across clients and offer strategic insights on recruiting trends and techniques.

Consultants, however, do need to put in significant time and effort to ensure that they do justice to the faith and trust entrusted in them by their clients.

“Being a consultant for an organization is a role of great responsibility. Clients from different industries have different needs and I make sure that the solutions are very specific to each of their business challenges,” Morgan says.

Also with technology taking precedence in today’s highly competitive recruitment scenario, consulting companies are actively seeking partnerships with technological solution providers and vice versa. This alliance, in fact, can greatly benefit clients since they readily have an array of solutions to choose from.

The recent partnership between Morgan HCM and ZALP, an employee referral solutions provider, aims to further strengthen the association between technology and strategic guidance, both when used in conjunction can work wonders for clients.

A recruitment consultant, therefore, is no longer just an intermediary between companies seeking to recruit professionals and professionals seeking a career move. It is increasingly becoming a very specialized role that is fuelled by growing technology, a dynamic recruiting environment and a geographically shrinking marketplace.