Recruitment: The Ignored Engine of Your Business (and Why That’s a Massive Mistake)!
I’m not going to rehash the old “why you should use an Agency Recruiter” bull. This isn’t about pushing 3rd party recruiters.
Regardless of your business strategy & world view; your Recruiters are your best friend. You should be demanding the same level of craft from them that you do from your Technical teams. But you should also be viewing them with the same respect.
You all talk about people being your greatest asset; but seem reluctant to give your “people specialists” a seat at the table.
I won’t name the source, but a Technical contact of ours made a relevant statement which applies here:
One of the hardest questions we answer for our large enterprise customers is why they should choose (name removed to protect the innocent) instead of managing their own technical services. It can seem counterintuitive that paying extra for a managed service can save you money. However, when we factor in economies of scale - particularly in regard to access to specialized knowledge and tooling - the case for managed services becomes clear. This was certainly the case for some of our clients earlier this year, where their investments paid off in the form of a quietly managed bug fix.
The point is that specialist people bring horsepower to your business that you may not have.
Let’s be fair, as a business owner or primary; at your base you have one of two priorities. Either you make money, or you save money.
Your recruitment team should be doing the same & measured accordingly.
Our results are often measured by recruitment process KPIs rather than business outcomes. I think that should change.
But it’s difficult to measure without looking downstream. So how do we achieve one of those two goals for you?
Revenue Generation:
- Revenue: We fill your revenue generating roles. Our work impacts project delays, capacity planning & pipelining, product launches etc; all with immediate consequences on your revenue.
- Top talent: skilled recruiters bring you people who stick, stay & deliver. Good recruiters introduce you to the people who will perform in your environment, not just the next bum in a seat.
- Expansion: Good recruiters aren’t just recruiting hand to mouth. They’re preparing for what is coming. They’re aiming at being able to fill roles before you are desperate. The horsepower comes from proactivity not reactivity.
Cost savings:
- Time to hire: We bring horsepower to eliminate productivity gaps open seats cause.
- Lower opportunity costs: open seats cost money in productivity, missed business opportunities or delayed projects.
- Reduction in attrition: I’ve already mentioned stick, stay and deliver.
- Negotiating fair salaries: knowing what you can get for your budgets or enabling accurate business decisions on ROI.
Risk mitigation:
- Avoiding bad hires: Don’t fall for the BS, no recruiter can eliminate the risk in hiring but a good recruiter knows how to layer in risk management as an extension of you. Reducing the risk of lost productivity and attrition.
- Minimising legal & compliance risks: e.g. do they have rights to work here.
Strategic value:
- Workforce planning: anticipate & prepare for workforce needs, avoid reactive & therefore costly knee jerk hires.
- Market intelligence: trends, pricing, competitor strategies. Knowing who we want and where they are, makes you money.
- Scaling efficiency: A duplication of a few points.
I could carry on, but in the interests of readability, I’ll stop there.
2 recent examples of Cox Purtell Technologies work are:
- A start up predicted to be influential in Health, brought on a Fractional CTO to build their enterprise product. He engaged us to build his technical leadership team (Head of Engineering already in place). We did so quickly, but also introduced them to such high calibre humans that he was able to step away early. They are well on track to delivering on their product time frames.
- A Consulting business relied on a Partner for their hiring. As they begin to scale further, he found himself losing hours just sifting through CVs. He engaged us as a test; we very quickly filled his first role, that success led us to subsequently helping him engage his first (non Founder) level lead. He will be able to spend more time working on his business, rather than just working in it. We will be actively discussing a Recruitment as a Service model as his demands increase.
Good Recruiters/TA are demanding; we want tools, we want to know you, we want your time and attention. BUT once you’ve made that investment, we are autonomous high powered missiles that you can leave confident that we will hit your goals.
Invest in your internal TA team or bring on external Specialists like my team but do it with the intention of investing in your business. The hype around AI camouflages human skills and resourcefulness. Yes, data is the gold mine but the ability to unlock that gold mine is where your Recruiter /TA shines. Stereotypically, we are Resourcefulness personified.
Recruitment isn’t just about putting bums on seats—it’s about driving the engine of your business. The talent you bring in doesn’t just keep the lights on; it’s what helps you grow, innovate, and get ahead of the competition. Whether it’s finding revenue-driving specialists, saving you time and money, or mitigating the risks of bad hires, good recruiters aren’t a luxury—they’re a necessity.
Backing your recruitment team, whether it’s in-house or an external specialist crew, is about investing in your business’s future. It’s not just about hiring for today but making sure you’re set up to tackle tomorrow’s challenges before they even appear on your radar.
The businesses that win aren’t the ones that treat recruitment as a cost centre—they’re the ones that recognise us as strategic weapon weapons.
Give your recruitment specialists the respect, tools, and support they need, and they’ll deliver more than just hires—they’ll help you build a business that thrives.
Happy hunting, call me, James Purtell or Lizzie Ritchie if you’d like to know how Cox Purtell produces outcomes for business owners like you.
