Growth comes in multiple forms, be it revenue, customer base or headcount, and often these grow hand in hand. And, unless you’re Instagram who sells for $1B with a headcount of just 14, it’s likely your headcount will actually drive the growth of your customer base and revenue.
Did you know that, according to a study by Notion Capital, 80% of funding from series A/B is for people.
When done right, effective hiring becomes the catalyst for growth. But, when it goes wrong – it can lead to failure. In a report by CBInsights, 23% of startups reported team issues to be the reason for startup failure.
Building a mature talent function takes time (sort of implied by ‘mature’), and time is often something rapidly growing companies are in short supply of.
That is where an Embedded Talent Partner Model comes into play.
With the embedded talent partner model we embed a full-fledged team, or hiring squad, into a business that acts as or complements the existing talent acquisition team. It combines the relevance and understanding of internal recruiters, with the flexibility of recruitment agencies.
In this guide, we will share the nine top advantages of the Embedded Talent Partner Model.
Save money
According to a U.S Bank study, 82% of startup failures are due to poor cash management. Cost savings and early profitability are essential to success in a market as turbulent as right now in 2022.
Recruiting and hiring are not direct revenue-generating activities, so you must consider options that save you money in these core areas – a pound saved is a pound earned, as far as the bottom line is concerned.
The Embedded Talent Partner Model is a great way to save money while maintaining the quality of your hires.
Instead of charging a hefty 20% fee on every hire as the recruitment agencies, an ETP provides a fixed-cost solution. This way, you not only save money but can also forecast your expenses giving you stability and predictability when it comes to your HR costs.
Reduced Time to Hire
The speed of your recruitment reflects your time to hire – and, it has an impact on your Employer Branding as well.
More than 57% of job seekers lose interest in a job when the hiring process is too long, a study suggests. A longer time to hire will lead you to lose out on exceptional talent simply by offering a less than superb candidate experience. Candidates will infer that the way you treat them during the hiring process will be a reflection of how you treat them when they join you. So with this in mind, best not to keep candidates waiting any longer than you need to.
A recruitment agency often assigns multiple companies to one consultant – which leads to a longer time to hire. On the other hand, an ETP works as your internal TA function, respecting your timelines, and dedicating themselves solely to you.
More transparency
When you are working with a recruitment agency, you don’t know about the candidates or the process they adopt. There is zero at worst, and very little at best, transparency when it comes to their process.
An ETP, on the other hand, provides you with complete transparency. Since they use your communication channels and act as your internal TA function, transparency will not be a problem. An ETP also uses your communication channels and assets (emails, signatures, etc.), fully representing your company.
Kandidate Embedded Talent Partners also provide a bespoke end of week report giving you a full breakdown of that week’s activities and outcomes.
More control
Another advantage of working with an Embedded Talent Partner is that you have complete control over the recruitment process. From top-of-funnel (sourcing) to bottom-of-funnel (offer), you are in charge of everything.
When contrasted to an agency, the only control you really have is over whether or not to progress with a candidate; you simply have no control over how your messages are communicated to the candidate.
The ETPs, on the other hand, join your team and work under your guidance and support to help you hit the recruiting targets. You have complete control over the process, and you work together as a team to hire the best candidates for your scaleup.
Better-fit candidates in the hiring process
Finding the correct candidates for your company is as essential as finding the right product for the market. Without it, there is no business at all!
A better-fit candidate is one who not only has the skills to wildly succeed in their new role, but just as importantly, are a cultural fit, too. Recruitment agencies are simply less effective at finding cultural fit candidates, and this is simply a result of circumstance – they have never witnessed your culture first-hand.
ETPs work as part of your team, know your company in and out, and can find better-fit candidates through their hiring processes.
Better representation of your startup to the candidates
When a recruitment agency sources candidates, they do so using their communication channels and brand. Sometimes, they don’t even disclose the company’s name. “Hi, I am hiring for an exciting company in VERTICAL solving PROBLEM and are looking for ROLE” is pretty much as much info as they’ll give out to a prospective candidate; the result being lower response rates from the most in-demand candidates, and this alone could be costing you access to the best talent in the market.
An Embedded Talent Partner uses your startup’s communication channels and reaches out to candidates as part of your internal TA function, representing your company transparently, and in a manner you would approve of.
Reduced candidate drop-off
As stated earlier, a longer time to hire results in candidates losing interest in your company/job. Many candidates apply at multiple companies, and when they get an offer before you, they might consider turning down yours.
Sure, you can respond with “don’t you think you should pursue this opportunity also, so you can weigh up what option is best for you?”, but they may already be loyal to the company who moved faster and who they feel prioritised them more than you did.
An Embedded Talent Partner ensures a speedy recruitment process, which results in a reduced candidate drop-off rate, resulting in reduced time-to-hire, more efficiency, and a faster flow of talent to help grow your startup.
Improved communication
Traditional, or ‘old-school’, recruitment agencies are well known for poor communication. We all know the feeling of “I briefed you 1 week ago and haven’t received any candidates, what’s going on??”. And you can bet this poor communication extends to the candidates in your pipeline, too.
ETPs act as your internal recruiters, and because of internal and external exposure – they can communicate significantly more effectively.
A squad is better than separate consultants.
For a startup, recruitment agencies assign one or two consultants at max. Because of their clientele and internal pay structure, less clients decrease their chances of placement and therefore their profitability – ‘mitigating risk’, it’s called.
They may have 10 live roles, and placing 3 is a good month. Well, what if you fall into the 7 roles that didn’t get filled because there was ‘lower hanging fruit’?
In contrast, ETPs place a complete squad to hit your recruiting targets. We at Kandidate place a Talent Partner with a Sourcer and a Client Delivery Manager.
If you’d like to find out more about working with an Embedded Talent Partner, CLICK HERE and a member of the Kandidate team will get in touch.
