Doing it yourself vs outsourcing
There are fewer and fewer German speakers in the UK year after year. Due to Brexit, German citizens can’t really travel to work in the UK, unless they have a British partner or similar, due to visa restrictions.
Furthermore, language study is rapidly declining in universities by huge percentages year on year. And German, despite being the most in demand foreign language in the workplace, is one of the losers. Students are choosing to study Spanish instead.
For many international businesses, the DACH region is their 2nd biggest market after the UK, so they need German speakers based in the UK to really maximise their business.
So, what’s the best way to hire them for UK business sector roles?
Looking direct, or working with a specialist recruitment agency?
There are important factors which make up the recruitment process. Here they all are, with a comparison for each: Direct or outsource to a specialist agency?
Finding THE German speaking candidate when you need them
Did you know the number of people actively looking for a job at any one time in the UK is around 30% of the job market?
Hiring direct: Relies on a mixture of inbound interest via applications, and outbound approaches, often via one platform. With 10 or so other direct positions to fill for the company, this relies on candidates being fairly easily visible and identifiable. And relies on people actively looking to see the advert.
Working with a specialist agency: If they’re specialist, they genuinely have a much wider and deeper candidate base. This includes people not at all looking for a job, and not easily findable. These candidates may have been on the agencies books for a long time, and a specialist agent has a fast route to contact them. Moreover, when candidates do actively look for work, their first point of call is often a specialist agency. As this way, they can see multiple different jobs at the same time, and may have worked with the agent in the past.
From advert to interviews – A full time job!
One of the hardest parts of recruitment, whoever recruits, is the process from writing the job advert, to posting it, to a successful interview process. A mass of applications come in, and with that a lot of questions and interruptions! From candidates qualified AND not!! This part is often forgotten. It’s someone’s job to manage all of this.
Hiring direct: Gives you full visibility and control over the process. You have the knowledge how your brand is being conveyed, as you’re doing it. And can answer candidate questions on the spot. This naturally means you’re doing all of the legwork. if you’re juggling priorities, and /or multiple other vacancies, this can be stressful or mor time consuming than you can afford.
Working with an agency: A good agency is a professional outsourcer. They will run the time-consuming filtering process, take on the noise, and will only present the right candidates for review. If you give them the time in just one or two meetings at the start, they will take care to ask you ALL of the questions needed to sell your employer brand very well.
Candidate Due Diligence
Effective hiring means good recruitment. And bad hiring causes havoc in any business, large or small. Naturally, when a business process is so mission critical, there is a lot of work to do behind the scenes to ensure hazards are removed.
This is where candidate due diligence comes in. This means: We need to ensure the candidate fits the job all round, and big hiring hazards are avoided. This is a whole process, which must be at the forefront of any safe process.
Hiring direct: Experienced internal teams do already use care when assessing applicants. But when time is short, there are multiple vacancies, or experience IS limited, it’s easy to overlook subtle mismatches. It’s a tall order to always expect you’ll have time to go deep enough.
Working with an agency: An agency’s reputation and livelihood depends on their clients trusting them. Good agencies know that this means doing proper due diligence with their candidates. Whether clients can consciously articulate it or not, it’s one of the key reasons a client uses an agency. A good agency should do THE due diligence that’s necessary, to ensure they’re fully happy to submit the candidate.
Is Working with an Agency More Expensive?
It’s a fair perception. When working with an agency, the investment is much more visible than hiring directly. We all think of recruitment agencies as ‘expensive’ and there is variable quality in the industry.
But what are you paying for working with a quality partner?
It’s all the points mentioned here. The investment isn’t for a CV that lands, it’s not chuck and charge! It’s for the time and expertise behind the scenes needed to generate that CV, and see the process through to completion.
Simply put, good agency should: Reduce your stress and find a fully suitable candidate for the requirement at hand. If you can put trust in them to do so.
More About BonBon Languages
BonBon is a boutique German-specific multilingual recruitment consultancy trusted by international brands across the UK.
In order to help our clients grow across the DACH market: We combine storytelling, long-time market knowledge, and a deep candidate base.
Let’s talk , to see if it’s a fit to support your need to hire German speakers. Just drop Lauren a message at lauren@bonbonlanguages.co.uk and we’ll take it from there.