Offshore Recruitment Services (ORS)-a Sign of the Times in the Staffing Industry
When I first read a recent article about staffing services resorting to offshore recruitment services, I then realized how many offers I get in my email box from recruitment services on a list of candidates who can ostensibly do anything and everything. I either delete or unsubscribe from these unsolicited companies. The article by J. Nurthen in our trade magazine, Staffing Industry Review, went on to say that because of the low-cost disrupters that have emerged in the human cloud to challenge the traditional staffing model, many staffing firms have looked at the potential of offshoring parts of their processes to less expensive labor markets. The benefits from doing so list cost reduction, flexibility, efficiency and focus. Something just doesn’t feel right about this. Even though the 23 vendors in India and the 4 in Pakistan mentioned may provide general administrative support, research, training, website design, SEO, IT consulting and technical support, our staffing team also provides these services and likes to recruit for these areas locally, right here in Tucson. We really like to sit down with the candidates, get to know them and understand what they are interested in doing, what their expertise is, their skillset, their career history and spend time in developing a relationship with them. The better we know our candidates, the more success we have in placing them with our clients. One staffing firm in Pittsburgh with 6 offices tried to use ORS and their experience was not very positive. The owner said that the off-shore companies really do not understand your geographic market.There are several areas of Pittsburgh that are very difficult to commute to because of traffic although the mileage seems ok. Candidates in our market understand this, however, off-shore recruiters do not. Other red flags appeared also. What kind of cultural fit seems best for a particular client? How well are the candidates screened and understood and, most importantly, valued? We appreciate our candidates deeply and want to do the best job possible in finding them suitable, interesting, and engaging work in our local Tucson market. If we are old-fashioned in this respect, I think that’s OK. Don’t you?
Ellie Patterson has been in the staffing industry for twenty-seven years and is a co-founder and partner at The Temp Connection in Tucson, AZ. She can be reached via email at ellie@thetempconnection.com.
