For decades, companies turned to international staffing agencies to get the best cross-boarder talent. The role of these intermediaries was to do the “heavy lifting,” from sourcing to screening, and relocating successful candidates. However, as hiring becomes more interwoven, more global, digitally driven, and fast-paced, employers are rethinking this traditional approach.
As such, a considerable number of companies are now working with recruiters directly. This is a shift that promises greater speed, more transparency, and overall flexibility. What’s behind the change and how are platforms like ours helping to usher in this era of international recruitment?
The Problem With Traditional Staffing Agencies
While traditional staffing agencies have their role in modern recruitment, and remain a pivotal part of the labor market’s inner workings, their methods haven’t always managed to keep up with the evolving demands of employers.
What are the main frustrations companies have voiced in the past?
High Agency Fees
Originally, staffing agencies were considered as a cost-effective solution to bridge the gap between candidates and employers. However, as the hiring process becomes more digitized and easier to track, the rigid pricing models and often steep fees have become harder to justify, especially in the cases of at-scale cross-broarder recruitment. And what once promised as a convenient and smart way to hire, now often eats away at recruitment budgets.
Slow Turnaround Times
Recruitment is a cumbersome process as it is, but bureaucratic workflows can slow it down even more. The delay in filling roles is a common complaint, as traditional staffing agencies usually operate with several approval layers, department handovers, and gruelling back-and-forth communication between departments and with clients. Each step adds time, and that delay can mean losing out on top talent in today’s competitive market, especially in the blue-collar sector, where everything’s moving fast.
Lack of Transparency
Employers have often felt left out of the loop while agencies manage the entire recruitment process. They don’t always know the details of the agency’s sourcing strategy and candidate pipelines. The lack of real-time collaboration has often led to misalignment and misplaced candidates.
Inefficient Communication
From updates to clarifying job requirements, and adjusting criteria, the communication between agency account managers and hiring teams is often slow, fragmented, and thus, prone to errors. Needless to say, this only adds friction to an already time-sensitive process.
As the labor market speeds up, becoming more complex, and competitive, these pain points and often sluggish movement has turned businesses to try out other alternatives, things with more agility and speed.
The Shift in Finding Talent: Employers and Recruiters Working Directly
In response to these challenges, some companies have turned away from working with large staffing agencies. Instead, some they’ve chosen to work directly with recruiters, more specifically, independent professionals who specialise in local markets or niche industries.
Here are the main factors that are fueling this shift:
- Increased speed and flexibility: Due to the more compact size of a small freelancer team, these direct partnerships allow both sides to communicate more effectively, make faster decisions, and improve candidate placements.
- Tech-powered platforms: Platformisation has made a tremendous impact on the hiring process, and in the case of solutions as Hire Abroad, the system also doubles as a marketplace where recruiters and employers can connect and collaborate with more ease.
- Lower costs: Removing layers of approvals and information exchange between different departments doesn’t only make for faster placement and communication, but also reduces overhead and improves ROI.
- Better relationships: Direct communication between employers and recruiters can also lead to better partnerships. There’s no communicational interference, which means that recruiters can better understand company needs, culture, and address hiring needs better.
Simply put, what was once a process layered with back-and-forths and coordination now is a much faster and clearer process with more accountability and transparency.
Real Voices: The Shift in Action
What better way to demonstrate the benefits of this system than presenting it from the employer’s perspective? We spoke with Douwe van den Dungen from TOBworks, a Dutch company that made the decision to shift, at least partly, away from traditional staffing agencies and build direct recruiter relationships.
As he recalls, one of their biggest frustrations were the lack of transparency and slow communication. “We often felt like the agency didn’t really understand our needs, which led to mismatched candidates. It created a lot of friction.”
That’s when TOBworks decided to take the alternative route.
“The main driver was the desire for a more personalized and agile partnership. We were looking for recruiters who could integrate more closely with our internal teams and really understand our culture and goals. Cost was also a factor – working directly with recruiters allowed us to reduce overhead and gain better value for our investment”.
What changed?
According to Douwe, the pacing of the hiring process isn’t the only positive aspect that came with this move.
“Time-to-hire has decreased significantly, and the quality of candidates has improved. Direct recruiters tend to be more engaged and proactive, and they often come with deeper industry knowledge. This means we receive more relevant candidates, faster, and with a better cultural fit”.
What role did Hire Abroad play?
“Hire Abroad has streamlined our international hiring tremendously. Their platform and network give us access to vetted recruiters who specialize in specific regions or industries. This has made it easier to navigate local regulations, shorten hiring cycles, and ensure compliance, all while maintaining high-quality candidate pipelines”.
Lastly, when asked whether he would recommend this approach to other companies who want to scale their operations, he stated that these direct partnerships offer a modern, customised, and more action-centered approach to talent acquisition, which is also more cost-effective.
The Challenges of Recruiter-Only Hiring
While working with recruiters this way offers a large set of advantages, there may also be trade-offs if you’re not careful.
Inconsistent Quality
If you want to build direct partnerships, you must know what you’re looking for. Not all independent recruiters have the same level of experience, industry knowledge, and professionalism. Familiarise yourself with the basics of recruitment and look for an expert who has a quality vetting process. Because the success of the process heavily relies on the individual recruiter’s integrity and expertise, you should always work with solid professionals.
Lack of Accountability
When working directly with recruiters, you may bear the legal responsibility for employment compliance, payroll, and compliance. You need to be well prepared, or use another solution (like Hire Abroad) to take care of the administrative burdens of the process.
Limited Capacity
You should assess not just your immediate hiring needs, but year-on-year trends as well. Why? Independent recruiters may not have the resources or scale to manage high-volume hiring needs. While they excel in niche or specialized roles, they may struggle to meet the speed or volume demands of companies undergoing rapid growth or seasonal expansion.
Coordination Complexity
While working with staffing agencies much slower, opting to eliminate them means that you need to be more organized as well. When working with multiple recruiters across regions or functions, things can get disorganized fast. Without a centralized system or process, employers risk overlapping outreach, inconsistent messaging, and misalignment on hiring goals.
However, smart solutions like Hire Abroad help bridge the gap as they offer the speed and personalization of direct recruitment with the structure, transparency, and support typically found in agency models.
How Hire Abroad Powers This New Model
Hire Abroad and similar platforms are literally at the heart of this transformation. We help create direct relationships between recruiters and employers, removing the inefficiencies and barriers that come with agency-driven models. On that note, we also offer agencies a more effective and cost-friendly method to work with recruiters.
Key Features:
- Centralised platform for recruiter-employer collaboration
- Verified recruiter network
- Tools for job management, compliance, and communication
- Transparent performance data
Benefits for Employers:
- Faster placements with more relevant candidates
- Lower recruitment costs by eliminating middlemen
- Greater autonomy over the hiring process
- Direct communication and stronger collaboration with recruiters
Benefits for Recruiters:
- Direct access to international job openings
- Streamlined workflows and faster payouts
- A platform that supports both freelance and agency recruiters
The Future of Cross-Border Hiring
As global hiring becomes more nuanced, companies are also making changes and find value in working with specialised recruiters who understand local laws, labor markets, and cultural expectations. This shift toward platform-powered, recruiter-first models is already reshaping how companies find talent abroad.
We’re not saying that agencies are a thing of the past, but the future of hiring is going to be more direct and digital, with more transparency and less bureaucracy.
Ready to simplify your international hiring process?
Join HireAbroad and connect directly with top recruiters today.
