In high performing dealerships, every team member — from the general managers to the sales reps, finance personnel, service technicians and marketing experts — will be found in front of customers each and every day, interacting with them, engaging with them, and building lasting relationships to secure a prosperous future for their business. They are the very lifeline that ties the organization’s success to the customer.

However, some organizations struggle because their employees are assigned tasks that distract them from customer focused activities, which can be very damaging to the business. One such distraction is recruiting, which has become all the more difficult in the age of digitization.

Web, cell phones and all things digital might make some things easier — like checking the weather on your smartphone or texting your colleagues — but when it comes to recruiting people, it’s a different story. People focused on talent acquisition rightly call the environment today  “the war for talent” when describing the level to which competition for good people has risen. Additionally, navigating the people sourcing landscape takes infinitely more time now. Add these two things together, and in many ways, digital actually runs counter to what is essentially a “people first” function.

Look online today and you will see an infinite number of recruiting sites. This means your business faces immense competition to win the attention of outstanding talent. When tasked with recruiting, it’s tempting to think that throwing a job specification online will bring in the right candidates. But what sites to use? How to write an engaging job spec? How to get it in front of “passive” talent if they’re not checking these boards, and how to screen through the likely hundreds of irrelevant responses you will receive (people collecting unemployment have to submit 3 resumes a week and will target any job even if they are wholly unqualified, just to meet quota).

Quick statistic — before electronic resumes, an average, well-placed job advertisement would return 10-20 responses. Today, that number can be in the hundreds!

It is not unusual for me to go into a client’s office and see a stack of resumes over a month old, collecting dust because the job of going through them is an overwhelming task, and not necessarily something that most people enjoy, especially when they are under pressure to perform financially.

More importantly, though, the people you want to talk to may not even be searching. They are hard at work doing good things for their employer — your competitor. Without a well-connected recruiter, how does your team identify these people, let alone have a convincing conversation about why they should join your team. Additionally, how does your company target competitive talent without drawing unwanted legal attention or without damaging your reputation?

Hiring managers have to know where the right talent is, determine where to source, think of creative ways to pitch the role and their company to attract these people, screen the incoming resumes, and conduct and coordinate phone interviews. All of that, just to schedule and manage face-to-face interviews which may or may not turn out to be a waste of time — when instead they should be working on income generating priorities.

A better, truly less costly and effective alternative for everyone involved is to hand these time-consuming operations over to a professional recruiter. Yes, there is a fee, but if you choose your recruiting firm carefully, your new hire should quickly represent a significant ROI (and I guarantee, will cost less than the combined hidden cost of your people’s efforts).

Here are 3 questions to ask yourself to determine whether engaging a recruiter makes sense:

• ROI-Where is your time best spent? Where is your time best spent to maximize your profits and minimize your losses? If a position is vacant, how much is it costing you in potential income and customer loyalty?
• Are you seeking new talent with industry experience and different perspectives? Industry specific recruiters will often bring experienced talent with additional skill sets that you may not have considered. These candidates can provide innovative ideas to other departments.
• Is it helpful to have someone anticipate your potential human capital needs as your company grows? Once you have established a strong relationship with an industry recruiter, you can rely on them for a variety of roles, and they will already understand your company goals and cultures. A strong relationship between you and your recruiter can save you hundreds of hours of work in the future. It’s also helpful to have a recruiter looking out for strong talent that can help you meet future goals.

The digital age has made the role of a people-centric, client-focused recruiter all the more essential for organizations who want to gain a competitive edge by focusing their team’s talents where they should be focused, while also being introduced to the right candidates in timely cost-effective fashion.

Next time you have an open role, consider using an industry specific recruiter to help source the right candidate for you. The right recruiter can do what no site can do — look beyond the resume and assess a candidate’s motivation, passion and company culture fit.

It is all about maximizing your ROI and minimizing your stress!