Handling your executive recruitment needs in-house may seem like a scary proposition. Will your team have the expertise needed to find talent of the highest caliber, talent your company needs to move it forward now and in the future? In many ways, your in-house skills may be exactly what is needed to find the right candidate for an executive position, and can surpass even the industry expertise an outside firm might bring to bear. Company Knowledge vs. Industry Knowledge While an outside recruiting firm may have a broad picture of your industry or niche that in-house recruiters can miss at times, in-house recruiters have a much more comprehensive picture of your company and its needs than an outside firm could ever hope to gain. You won’t need to spend a lot of time explaining to your team what the company needs, because in-house staff will be intimately familiar with those needs in ways outside recruiters will likely never match. And chances are, at least some team members have the industry knowledge that is needed, if they have attended industry-wide conferences or have a wide network of contacts within the field. If industry-wide knowledge does seem to be lacking, you may be able to consult with a recruiter or other industry professional to fill in the gaps without outsourcing the whole process to someone who may or may not “get” your company and its specific needs. Finding Talent With In-House Personnel When you work with an outside recruiter to fill an executive position, one of the first things you will be asked for is referrals. In many cases, companies hire executives from within their own ranks, or hire someone that their own company executives know and trust. Why hand off referral lists to an outside recruiter, where they may be used as potential candidates for any number of jobs besides your own? Instead, you can make use of referrals in-house and maintain your own talent pipeline that you may be able to draw from again and again as you need to fill positions. And if internal candidates and referrals don’t yield the talent you’re looking for, your existing executive team will have contacts outside the company that may yield candidates, and can conduct networking efforts that rival those of any recruiting firm if they are shown where to look. Cost of In-House Searches If you build a team of in-house recruiters from your executive board, HR department, and department heads, you can save tens of thousands of dollars compared to paying 30 percent of your new hire’s salary to an outside recruiting firm. Some companies choose to hire an in-house executive search professional to head their search, which can have an even greater cost up front but may pay off if you have to conduct multiple searches in a short period of time. Knowing what your company is likely to need can help you make the best decision and handle your costs in the best possible way. Whatever you decide to do, Thrive TRM can keep the entire team in the loop with group messaging, instant reports, and candidate profiles at your fingertips. Contact us to see how we can help you with in-house executive recruiting and still save you money in the long run.