What is a Contract Recruiter? A Comprehensive Guide

Workforce staffing requirements often fluctuate. Whether your company needs to respond to surge hiring needs, streamline its hiring process, implement an ATS, temporarily back-fill, or staff a special project, a contract recruiter might be exactly what you need to weather these natural fluctuations and grow your business.

What is a Contract Recruiter?

Contract recruiters, also known as contingency recruiters or headhunters, are hiring specialists who focus on workforce needs, adding recruiting bandwidth for a set period of time in order to meet corporate hiring goals. These professionals are hired to fill positions on a short-term basis and fill a set number of jobs in a given amount of time.

Once contracted, an employer shares information about their workforce needs. The contract recruiter optimizes the sourcing, selection, and hiring process, dedicating themself to the company’s contingent workforce needs. Utilizing their candidate pool and extensive recruitment experience, contract recruiters fill open jobs with ideal candidate matches.

Managers now have time to focus on other business needs. Utilizing the expertise of a highly experienced recruitment team on a contract basis can be an excellent business move.

Why work with contract recruiters?

During the length of the contract, a contract recruiter sources, screens, and communicates with clients exclusively for your company. These skilled workers enable an organized recruiting response to surge hiring demands and provide an additional scalable labor recruiting force at a much lower cost than hiring a staff recruiter. They know where to look for talent and reduce the time it takes to fill open positions.

“In today’s tight and challenging job market, utilizing contract recruiters provides businesses the support they need to identify and attract the best talent to meet current and future hiring demands,” explains Dora Floyd, Orion Talent Director of Staffing.

Contract recruiting makes sense for many reasons, including:

This case study provides a real-life example of how a Fortune 500 company utilized contract recruiters to meet its hiring needs.

When should you bring on a contract recruiter?

Whether your company infrastructure doesn’t allow for a permanent recruitment team or you need extra assistance to meet hiring needs, there are many reasons why a company should bring on a contract recruiter. Situations where you should bring in a contract recruiter include for seasonal hiring needs, to hire short-term contract workers for a project, during mergers and acquisitions, or simply due to market fluctuations.

What to Look For in a Contract Recruiter

While recruiters bring a lot to the table, not all contract recruiters are equally skilled. Here are some things you may want to consider when selecting the right contract recruiter for your business and writing the contract:

Learn More Today

Contract recruiters are cost-effective professionals who can help you fill your job vacancies in no time. Recruiters produce results, and they truly understand a good candidate from a bad one. If you need to flex to meet market demand, a contract recruiter might be what you’re missing. Check out Orion Talent’s Contract Recruiter Solutions for more information about how a contract recruiter can help with your hiring needs.

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