The Questions to Ask When Selecting a Recruiting Partner with Amy Arenz of Concero Search Partners LLC

Startups suck at choosing recruiting partners! 

There is no magic button to push to have candidates pop out for your roles. Before you hire, put the same thought and care into your recruiting strategy as you would into every other aspect of your business. Just having a strategy will dramatically increase your chances of landing great talent as opposed to just hiring those who are ok. 

Today’s Quote: 

"It is rare to find a business partner who is selfless. If you are lucky it happens once in a lifetime." -  Michael Eisner

Our guest today: Amy Arenz, Founder & CEO of Concero Search Partners, LLC

Amy has been in the search and placement industry for more than 25 years.  Due to the high demand for her services, Amy founded Concero in 2010 to increase resources and improve the capacity to better accommodate her many clients. Concero specializes in recruiting sales, technical and go to market talent for high-growth, private and publicly listed technology companies.

Show highlights:

• Why picking the right partner is so crucial to your business’s success
• Different types of recruiting options & What to look for your particular situation
• How to uncover if the recruiting partner is right for you

Why is it important to choose a recruiting partner?

Time Savings: 

• Too much on your plate
• Recruiting is kinda done
• Not really knowing what is needed 
• Grouping too much profile into one person… people that don’t actually exist. 
• Create more work when you use multiple firms. 
• Confusing and burning the market
• Internal recruiters become process babysitters

What are the options?

• Hire multiple firms, Hire an FTE, Hire a contractor, Hire a single partner
• How to determine your needs

Challenges in 

• Single Partner vs Multiple Partners
• Single Partner Advantages:
  • Learns Company Brand
  • Works with the leadership team that they probably hired
  • Develop processes that can then be utilized
• Broad # of roles  - can you fill lots of different positions or just one specialty
• Leveraging historical experience

Rick’s Input:

• • More is better is wrong
  • Retained vs Contingent
    • Dependent on the level of engagement required
    • Higher touch and value in a retained partner

What to ask to determine the right fit for your company

Reporting & Data

• Question: How will we know what effort has been put into our search(s)?
• Transparency of Process
• 3-4X pipeline
• Weekly reporting
• What’s in it for me? 

Experience and expertise in the space

• Question: What experience do you have in our space? What recruiting tools do you use?
• Not educating the firm on the basics of what you do
• Have a network
• Come in and ramp quickly because of industry niche

It’s not just hiring

• Question: Do you have experience in helping a company set up a recruitment process?
• Job description
• Interview process / candidate experience
• branding/messaging 

Rick’s Nuggets

Additional questions to ask

• What problems do you best solve?
• What does your ideal client look like? (independent of our company)
• What are the metrics to best define our expectations 
  • What is your Interview to placement ratio- Every good recruiter knows this!

Key Takeaways:

• Find a recruiting partner that provides transparency and gains your trust!
• Don’t fall into the trap of the more recruiters the better
• Dig into a recruiting partner’s expertise functioning in non-hiring support roles such as recruiting process design and setting up post-offer onboarding