Working with a recruitment partner on permanent hires: from brief to joining

A recruitment partner can only search as well as the brief it is given and the feedback it receives. Before the first candidate is approached, agree three things: a written brief that the hiring manager has confirmed, a shortlist format that explains why each person is put forward, and a fixed number of working days within which your side responds. After that, the partner sources, screens, coordinates and follows up, while selection, compensation and the offer stay with you.

This post is written from the business's side of the relationship: what to prepare, what to expect at each stage, and where searches usually stall.

A short scope conversation at the start prevents most of the misunderstandings that surface later. It should answer a few practical questions.

• Which roles, levels and locations are covered
• Which channels the partner will use, and whether your own referrals and past applicants are included
• Who speaks to candidates, and what may be said about the business at first contact
• Who is the single contact on your side for questions about the role
• What the partner reports, in what format and how often
• How many working days your side has to respond to a shortlist and to interview feedback requests

If you already have a hiring process with fixed stages, share it. A partner working to your stages produces a shortlist your managers know how to use. If you do not, it is worth reading how to build a recruitment process before the next search, because the partner will otherwise fill the gap with its own habits.

The brief should come from a conversation with the hiring manager, not from HR forwarding an old job description. A job description is written to attract applicants. A brief is written for the people who will search and screen, and it needs to say things an advertisement never would, such as what would make a candidate a poor fit.

Role / level / location     ______________________________
Why the role exists         replacement / new / workload
Accountable for (6 months)  ______________________________

Must-have                   1. ________  2. ________  3. ________
Good to have                ______________________________
Can be learnt on the job    ______________________________
Would make a poor fit       ______________________________

Approved compensation range ______________   Approved by ________
Reporting line              ______________________________
Interview panel and rounds  ______________________________
What may be said about us   ______________________________
Decision-maker / deputy     ______________ / ______________
Brief confirmed by hiring manager:  Y / N   Date ____/____

Two lines matter more than they look. The approved compensation range lets the partner tell early whether a candidate's expectations are in reach, which saves everyone an interview that cannot end in an offer. The poor-fit line captures what the hiring manager would reject on sight, which otherwise only emerges after the first shortlist.

1. 1

   Sourcing and screening

   The partner approaches candidates through the agreed channels and screens them against the brief. Your part is to answer questions about the role quickly, because a question left waiting for a week holds up every conversation that depends on it.

2. 2

   The shortlist

   Candidates arrive with a short note on how each matches the brief and what is still open. Your part is to respond within the agreed days, with a reason for each profile you decline.

3. 3

   Interviews

   The partner schedules interviews, briefs candidates on the format and collects feedback in the agreed form. Your part is to keep the slots, interview against the brief and give feedback promptly.

4. 4

   Decision and offer

   You decide who to hire, set the compensation and issue the offer. The partner stays in contact with the candidate while you finalise it and passes on any questions they raise.

5. 5

   Acceptance to joining

   The partner follows up on documents and the joining date and tells you if anything changes. Your part is a call from the hiring manager and an onboarding plan ready for day one.

6. 6

   Review

   Once the joiner has started, review the brief, the channels and the stage dates together before the next search.

The quality of a second shortlist depends almost entirely on the feedback given on the first. A comment such as 'not the right fit' teaches the partner nothing. A comment such as 'strong on the technical side, but has never managed a team of this size' tells them exactly what to look for next.

Imagine, as an illustrative example, a hiring manager who declines three profiles in a row as 'too junior'. When asked what senior would look like, the answer turns out to be experience of handling key customer accounts alone, which was never in the brief. One sentence added to the must-have list changes the next shortlist more than another week of sourcing would.

• Candidates are declined for reasons that are not in the brief
• The must-have list has grown since the first interviews
• Candidates withdraw once they hear the compensation range
• Panel members describe the role differently from each other
• The role itself has changed since the search began

When any of these appears, stop and rewrite the brief with the hiring manager and the partner together. Asking for more profiles against a brief that no longer describes the role only produces more profiles that will be declined.

Ask the partner to report in a format you can merge with your own tracker: one row per candidate, the source, the date of each stage, and the reason a candidate left the process. If you use a second channel for the same role, record it the same way. Over a few searches, that record shows where candidates wait longest, which is often on your side rather than the partner's.

Acceptance is not the end of the search. Notice periods can be long, and a candidate who hears nothing for weeks is open to a counter-offer or a second process. Agree with the partner who contacts the candidate and when, and make sure one of those contacts comes from the hiring manager, since the manager is the person the candidate is actually joining. Tell the partner at once if your joining date, location or first-week plan changes, so the message the candidate hears stays consistent.

The hiring decision, the compensation, the offer and its terms, and onboarding stay with the business. A partner can support each of them but cannot make them. It also cannot promise a hire or a date, because the outcome depends on the role, the compensation, the availability of suitable candidates and how quickly interviews and decisions happen on your side.

GullyHR provides talent acquisition as a separate service from its recruitment process consulting. Where agreed, we can run a search from the written brief through sourcing, screening, interview coordination and follow-up to joining, and add background verification at the stage you choose. Selection and the offer remain your decisions.