What is a Fractional Recruiter?
Gabrielle DeMers
Customer Success Manager
July 5, 2024
•
5 min
The term "fractional recruiting" describes staffing an organization with recruiters who will work a "fraction" of the hours required by a full-time employee. It is not uncommon for fractional employees to work as needed for multiple businesses.
As a result, fractional employees can be either part-time or full-time workers for a company, depending on the demands of the project at hand.
Fractional recruiting is a less expensive option compared to more traditional approaches to hiring, such as expensive recruitment agencies or specialized in-house recruiting teams.
How Does Fractional Recruitment Work?
As an a la carte service, fractional recruiting lets companies outsource finding and hiring new employees. Small and medium startups can streamline their talent sourcing processes without hiring expensive commission-based recruiters or establishing an in-house recruiting team or HR department.
In contrast to more conventional part-time jobs, where hours can vary based on client demand, "fractional hires" are often available to work set hours per week. Some fractional hires put in full-time hours, splitting their week between multiple clients. However, the flexibility these jobs can provide is a significant draw for many fractional workers.
To most people, "fractional hire" only applies to high-level executive talents, such as those who offer extensive expertise in a particular field to your company. However, fractional recruiters work part-time for your company to help you make hires.
Although local legislation will determine the precise legal status of employment, fractional hires are typically categorized as contractors and freelancers legally. Therefore, fractional hires usually do not get health insurance or vacation time, unlike full-time employees.
What are the Benefits of Hiring a Fractional Recruiter?
Finding the right people for your startup is critical in today's ever-changing economic world. If you're looking for a way to adapt to your changing employment needs without breaking the bank, consider fractional recruitment services.
Learn how your company might benefit from teaming up with industry experts in fractional recruitment like Dover:
1. It's Affordable
Fractional recruiting reduces overhead expenses compared to employing full-time recruiters. Companies may only access top recruiting talent if they commit to expensive, long-term employment contracts.
2. It's Adaptable
New organizations must be adaptable in this age of lightning-fast change. Companies seeking to maintain a competitive edge in fast-paced industries like technology would benefit significantly from having fractional recruiters available who have expertise in their field. A fractional recruiter can help companies find top talent quickly and adjust to changing hiring priorities.
3. It's Bespoke
Fractional recruiters often have extensive expertise in a particular area, specializing in finding software engineers or product designers. This approach allows companies to rely on the recruiter's expertise to find top talent so they can focus on how the candidate fits into their company.
4. Experienced Dedicated Recruiter
At Dover, we have one of our skilled recruiters "embedded" in your company to assist with hiring planning, sourcing, interviewing, and more. After meeting with your team to understand your hiring needs, this expert would become an integral part of your company, helping you make hires.
5. Better Candidate Quality
If you don't have a recruiter on staff, finding candidates often falls to your team who have little to no experience evaluating candidates. With a fractional recruiter, your internal team members can return their attention to the critical tasks of their jobs. The fractional recruiter can focus their energy on seeking people who match the position's requirements, so your team can concentrate on what they do best.
6. Efficient Scalability
Hiring is cyclical and your company will likely not always be hiring. A key feature of fractional recruitment is access to a fixed amount of time-bound professional assistance. At Dover, you can count on us to help when you're hiring, lending a hand as your company's demands and goals evolve. With a fractional recruiter, when you're not hiring you don't need to continue to pay for a recruiter like you would for a salaried internal recruiter.
7. Objective Advisor
Working for various different businesses gives fractional professionals a wealth of experience. They have new ideas and insights that can benefit your company. Because they are not a part of your company, they are more likely to look at things objectively.
Embedded recruitment, which goes by several names, including Recruitment-as-a-Service (RaaS) or Embedded Talent Partner, represents a more integrated approach to talent acquisition. With this approach, outside recruiters work as an extension of the client's internal talent function for a set duration, usually six or twelve months, or until roles are filled.
Collaboration is at the heart of embedded recruitment. External recruiters collaborate closely with hiring teams.
Businesses can also use agency recruiting services to find qualified individuals for open positions. Payment would only made when the agency's recommended candidate is hired. The percentage that a contingency recruiter charges for their services is usually between 10% and 30% of the hired employee's annual salary. Given that startups typically hire people who make six-figure salaries, using agencies is very expensive.
The low overhead associated with the pay-per-hire agency recruiting approach is a plus. Companies only pay when candidates are successfully onboarded. Under this model, businesses can deal with recruiting agencies on a project-by-project basis, which gives them flexibility and allows them to respond quickly to hiring demands.
There is also the option to hire a full-time in-house recruiter, however, typically early stage startups do not need a salaried recruiter unless they anticipating continuous hiring needs that justify paying a high salary and benefits for a full-time employee.
When comparing embedded recruitment approach to either a pay-per-hire or a full-time recruiter approach, consider the cost, flexibility, and hiring needs when making a decision.
If you're a founder who has decided to look into fractional hiring but isn't sure how, then this section is for you!
Read on to learn how:
Determine your hiring needs — what types of roles (sales, engineering, marketing, analytics, etc.) do you need to hire?
Research the current market for technical recruiters or recruiters who are experts at hiring the roles you're looking to fill. You can use benchmarking tools like Pave to learn how much technical recruiters make. What would they make on an hourly basis? Then make a realistic recruiting budget.
Calculate how many weekly hours of recruiting help you'll need based on how many positions you'll be hiring. A standard number of hours per week for a fractional engagement can be 5, 10, 20, or even 40. At Dover, however, there is not a limit on the number of weekly hours since we have a team or recruiting coordinators and interviewers who can help with hiring.
Once you have a good idea of what you need and how much it should cost, you can either search for unemployed recruiters on LinkedIn who have hired for similar roles and see if they are interested in being your fractional recruiter or you can use a company like Dover and work with one of our many fractional recruiters.
Tips for Startups and Founders
Prioritize Roles: Find out which positions could use fractional hiring in your company. You may not need help hiring entry level positions like an SDR or Customer Support Representative, but for in-demand positions like a Software Engineer, Product Manager, Product Designer, you'll likely need help finding and hiring top talent.
Get Down to Brass Tacks: Tell fractional recruiters precisely what you need from them regarding results and objectives. Well-defined goals are essential for achieving success.
Collaborate with Industry Experts: Hire the right people for your company with the help of a fractional hiring company like Dover, who have experience hiring people for startups.
Communication and Integration: Ensure that your internal teams and fractional leaders can freely communicate with each other to work together smoothly. At Dover, we communicate via email, Slack, through our web app, and on calls.
Examine and Revise: Regularly evaluate your hiring needs and how much recruiting help you need.
Work with one of Dover’s Hiring Experts!
If demand keeps rising, CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs should discover the power of fractional hiring.
Startups are revolutionized by fractional recruiting. In a highly competitive industry where salaries are rising, you can take advantage of expert talent without going into debt.
Dover is an excellent option for expanding your startup through fractional recruitment.
As a team, we understand the struggles startups face needing to prioritize building great products and tools over hiring new employees.
Take advantage of our on-demand recruiting services to quickly and affordably fill open positions with top talent, allowing your business to expand rapidly!
