A rapidly growing company can be an exciting place to work. You may have new demands to meet while in this growth mode, but they’re often full of new experiences and opportunities.
But amid the daily challenges, expanding companies often underestimate the amount of extra work that is placed on HR departments when adding new employees. Hiring one new employee at a time is difficult, but trying to recruit, hire, train and onboard multiple sales reps across the country can be overwhelming.
If your HR department can’t keep up with the increasing workload, then you risk making hiring mistakes that will cost you and your company.
The good news is that you don’t have to take on a large recruiting project by yourself. Below, you will learn the benefits of partnering with a sales recruiting agency when you have a complex, multi-market hiring initiative.
COMPLETE RECRUITING STRATEGY
There are many moving parts when it comes to hiring multiple sales reps across the country. You have to figure out which markets to target first, how you’re going to find top sales reps in those locations, and how to reach out and follow up with so many candidates.
Fortunately, a sales recruiting firm can create a strategy to help you stay organized and take a lot of the initial legwork off your plate. They can target multiple markets at once, reach out to hundreds of sales candidates and even filter applications so you’re only interviewing top performers.
Also, there are a lot of considerations that are easy to overlook but could end up causing a lot of problems in the process: multiple time zones, how you are going to interview candidates (Skype, phone, in person, etc), and following up with candidates to let them know they didn’t move forward in the process. A recruiting firm will make sure the process is consistent, everyone is on the same page, and that candidates are well-informed about these details.
STAY WITHIN HIRING BUDGET
When a recruiting project has so many moving parts, it’s easy to go over budget. Whether you missed a hiring deadline and had to extend the project or you hired the wrong candidate, all of these extra costs can really add up.
Working with a recruiting firm gives you the peace of mind to establish a budget upfront and know exactly what you’re getting with the price. Many recruiting firms also offer replacement options if a candidate doesn’t work out to make sure you get the right candidate for your business without paying extra fees.
WIDER REACH
If you were hiring for a local sales position, you might already have a few good candidates in mind or posting a job advertisement might yield one or two qualified candidates. However, when you’re hiring all over the country for multiple positions, it’s going to be tough to recruit top talent when you’re unfamiliar with the market. If you don’t have any contacts to reach out to in those areas either, it will be more difficult to get a response and could delay your project.
National recruiting firms will have an ATS built up with candidates all across the country to reach out to. Its candidate base will be far reaching with the best sales candidates in the U.S. Also, the recruiters won’t have to start the project from scratch and will be able to hit the ground running.
MEET TIGHT HIRING DEADLINES
Hiring many people at once is a big job and will require long hours from your department. It might be difficult to perform all the activities associated with hiring top candidates in such a short time, especially if everyone needs to start on the same day to attend a company training program. You don’t want to miss out on top candidates because your team was stretched too thin and you couldn’t fill the positions on time.
A recruiting firm will assist you with all of the upfront work so it won’t be such a drain on your resources and company time. All you will need to do is assess and review the top candidates.
And remember, the longer it takes you to recruit for the positions, the longer those positions will keep hurting your bottom line.
BETTER QUALITY CANDIDATES
There are a ton of mediocre salespeople out there, so how can you ensure that you only hire the most qualified and exceptional candidates?
A sales recruitment agency can cut out the underperformers and look at the factors that really matter to find you only the best reps. It’s better to let an expert guide you through hundreds of unqualified candidates than to make a costly hiring mistake.
Taking on a multi-market hiring initiative is difficult even for the most prepared HR departments. Most companies have a hiring process that works for one candidate at a time, and adding multiple candidates to this process can lead to hiring mistakes, missed deadlines, and unforeseen costs.
As an HR leader, how much time do you spend on recruiting? How does that compare with your other responsibilities?
