What Staffing Firms Should Look For in an Offshore Provider

There’s been a shift in mentality when it comes to staffing firms using offshore recruiting teams. In years past, remote recruiting providers were seen strictly as vendors and a way to bring down costs. Today, however, they are viewed as trusted partners that can help staffing companies grow their overall business. Certainly, it’s easy to find an offshore team that can provide sourcing and recruiting but, in addition to talent acquisition services, a more experienced offshore provider will be able to provide strategic planning and advisement to help ensure long term growth.  Here we’ll discuss just a few of the key things to look for in a remote recruiting provider.

Onboarding Capabilities

A company’s HR department has a lot of responsibilities. From collecting necessary documentation from candidates, to setting up drug screenings, HR can quickly get inundated with a lot of administrative tasks that can slow down the onboarding process. So while it’s important to seek out an offshore partner with an extensive recruiting pipeline, it’s also worthwhile to find a partner who understands your compliance process and can provide onboarding assistance. This includes background & reference checks and interview scheduling. This is not only a more cost-effective way to handle administrative tasks , it also has the added benefit of lightening the load of your HR department and internal staff, allowing them to focus on more long term goals like creating an engaging brand experience.

Transparency & the Capacity to Come Onsite

Some companies might hesitate to work with offshore provider for a variety of reasons. They feel like there may be a lack of transparency, or perhaps they’re worried about ineffective communication. And they’re not necessarily wrong to be skeptical. Some remote recruiting companies won’t prioritize strategic planning, which can be made worse if they have no onshore presence. That’s why, when looking to partner with an offshore resource, it’s important to make sure that they have the capacity to visit your facilities if need be. Larger scale partnerships should involve face-to-face meetings, helping to facilitate knowledge transfers and improve overall transparency. Additionally it’ll enable your offshore resources to better operate within your compliance process. A qualified remote recruiting team will do whatever it takes to understand the unique challenges facing your firm.  That way staffing companies can be put at ease, knowing their offshore partner truly understands their recruiting processes.

A Proven Process

When looking to partner with an offshore team, it’s critical that you consider their credentials and assess whether or not they have a proven process of delivering effective recruiting support. Some offshore providers have high turnover rates, which means less experienced recruiters—something staffing firms need to be on the lookout for.  If they’re the real deal, an offshore company should have no problem educating you on their past and current client partnerships. Staffing firms should seek out a remote recruiting team that has experience in servicing multiple industries, even if your firm only happens to recruit for a specific sector like IT or healthcare. The offshore support will help you better service your clients beyond the scope of your internal staff’s expertise, improving your business relationships over the long-term.

Solution Design & a Consultative Approach

Every business has unique needs, and being able to articulate those needs to a potential offshore partner is crucial to developing an effective business solution. In turn, staffing firms need to look for an offshore provider that will truly take those needs into account, and not one that offers a “cookie cutter,” generalized solution to complex challenges. And while a lot of staffing firms get into the offshore market in part for cost savings, you can’t simply opt for the cheapest provider. The most effective offshore teams take a consultative approach. They emphasize long-term growth, functioning as a trusted partner—not just vendor throwing submittals at open reqs. An experienced provider will be able to openly discuss strategy, and tell you which processes are suited for outsourcing and which ones are not.

Not all offshore teams are created equally. And today, more and more firms are beginning to see offshore teams as necessary tool to grow their business. So, when looking to enlist the support of a remote recruitment team, you need to carefully assess and make sure that company will be a good fit with your own internal staff. Do they have onboarding capacities? US facilities? What about a proven process? These are all aspects staffing companies need to take into consideration before jumping into a partnership.

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