We live in a time when the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mantra is everywhere to be found. From online videos outlining tasks as simple as changing the battery in our car’s key fob, to TV shows that encourage rolling-up our own sleeves to landscape our backyard or build a tiny house for life completely “off the grid”. The DIY mentality isn’t simply limited to homeowners. Business owners throughout every industry are continually thinking of ways to increase profit – one way to accomplish this is to do talent acquisition in house. While DIY might save dollars at home, is it right for your company?

Here are three considerations to help you answer that question:

Time is Money. The old adage “your time is worth something” has not gone out of style, just ask all the folks dedicated to Business Process Improvement. With the help of accumulated data, they will be quick to prove that efficiency is king when it comes to driving increased profitability within an organization.

Every hour of time that an owner or manager spends on talent acquisition quickly adds-up significantly when you factor in salary, benefits, interruptions to support staff and overhead expenses. Not to mention the opportunity cost of not quickly filling the position. For every day, week or month that the position is open, the company loses out on the productivity that could have been generated by a new qualified employee. Those are dollars that the bottom line will never see again.

Most owners and managers only spend time on hiring when necessary to fill a gap. Utilizing professional recruitment allows them to remain focused on their High Payoff Activities and put their training and skills to best use, which should generate less expense and more profit in the long run. You may not want to spend the fee to hire a professional recruiter, but is DIY really cheaper in the end? It would be worth doing the math.

Quality employees net earnings. You may or may not have spoken these words, “Our employees make this possible”. From my experience, the phrase is true. Hiring effectively takes knowledge and specialized skills to get the best result. Recruiting the best talent possible into your organization should be the number one priority. As a Business owner or manager, you have enough to worry about. So, why on earth would it not make sense to put the best resources available on that mission?

Writing effective ads is essential to jump starting the search. Is writing a compelling job advertisement the strong suit of your management team? Not unless they do it every day, but recruiters do. They employ best-practices to develop ads targeting the right audience. Do you, or members of your management team have the innate ability to “read” candidates or identify applicants that are not a match efficiently, ultimately saving time and headaches later? Recruiters do. They are dialed in when it comes to determining if an applicant matches the company culture and has the skill set to fill the gap.

It’s also important to remember that candidates aren’t the only one selling themselves in the hiring process. Now more than ever, it’s critical that companies market themselves to qualified applicants, who may be entertaining other offers. Many managers are not trained or equipped to sell in a competitive market for new hires. You can attract all the right candidates, but it takes “closing the sale” to make the hire, otherwise your dollars are being wasted.

It takes a team. You are busy managing and running a company, and while you have a network of contacts, do they too have a deep network of contacts, or potential candidates? DIY entails activating traditional methods: employee referral, posting an ad on a job board or website, etc. However, posting that job advertisement costs money. Money that you and your team worked hard to earn. DIY means that your team spends hours combing through prospective candidates that made it through your application filters. Did your filters miss a potentially great employee? What does your application in-take process look like? Does your team really have the time to look?

Working with an employment partner means just that – they are a partner to help you find the right person. Think of them as your team. They have access and subscriptions to several job boards not to mention highly developed networks of people who regularly assist with locating candidates. Your employment partner is always looking for you, not just when they have time away from their assigned duties, ensuring you are more likely to interview highly-qualified candidates.

Employing the Do-It-Yourself attitude in your business model can result in a win, but only if you have the dedicated team, time and outlet to capture highly-qualified candidates. Partner with the right recruiter and you’ll only pay for performance. It is a no-risk situation. You get to lean on their network of job boards, their skillset to write a job posting, and their talent to identify highly-qualified individuals that you will want to meet with. In the end, it’s a win-win.

Looking for help recruiting or have more questions? Contact one of our qualified team members at Peters Personnel by calling (402) 593-9939. We would love the opportunity to help you develop a Talent Acquisition process that makes sense for your business.

Pete joined Peters Personnel in 2016 and brings with him valuable business acumen having grown up within the framework of a family business and through 15+ years of banking and financial services experience. Most recently as a leader with TS Banking Group, Pete played a significant role in the development of a hiring methodology that has supported that company's growth from 25 employees to 175+ over the past ten years. He believes the key to talent placement success is providing the employer and employee with the tools and counsel necessary to identify and match qualified skills with a passion for the work.