Michael Budzowski
I have conversations with HR managers every day. Head of TA, HR Director, People Lead – SMEs, scale-ups, sometimes corporate. And the conversation almost always starts the same way: “We have a pretty tense situation at the moment.”
What comes next varies in the details but not in the structure. Either someone has dropped out at short notice. Or growth has overtaken planning. Or a project has been approved that no one had planned for so quickly. The result is always the same: more vacancies than capacity, and the question arises: do we need external recruiting support, and if so, what kind?
This is exactly where my conversations usually start. And I almost always ask the same three questions.
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What happens at this moment and why it gets expensive
I say this without reproach because it is not an individual failure: under pressure, people make reactive decisions. That’s human nature. And companies do it too.
The most common reaction I see is that you hire two, three, sometimes five headhunters at the same time. The feeling of doing something outweighs the question of whether you are doing the right thing.
The paradox here is that you solve a capacity problem by creating a coordination problem and a cost problem. Three headhunters want to be managed. Three headhunters have commission interests. And three headhunters rarely cover the bandwidth that is needed in such phases – ten parallel vacancies across functional areas, from finance to tech to operations.
The result: high investment, fragmented quality, and the HR team is still overloaded. Only now with coordination effort.
The three questions I ask every HR manager
Before anyone hires external recruiting support, in whatever form, there are three questions that I think are really crucial:
1. is this a capacity problem or a competence problem?
It sounds banal, but it’s not. If the team is well positioned but simply has too few hands, you need operational reinforcement. Someone who can source, screen and coordinate from day one. If, on the other hand, a specific skillset is missing (e.g. executive search for a C-level position), a specialized provider is the better choice. Subsuming both under “we need support” leads to the wrong decisions.
2. how many vacancies need to be filled in the next 90 days?
Less than three digits: Case-by-case decision. From five parallel positions, you don’t need service provider coordination, but an embedded capacity that knows and manages the process from the inside. This is the difference between an external contractor and an interim recruiter who actually works in the system with access to tools, processes and the right internal contacts.
3. when does the problem actually start and when could it have been visible?
That is the most uncomfortable question. Because the answer is almost always: sooner. Growth plans are in place. Personnel planning is no secret. Most bottlenecks are foreseeable, but they only escalate when they can no longer be ignored. Weeks, sometimes months, pass until then. And it is precisely these weeks that drive up time-to-hire and cost candidates.
What would be different if action was taken earlier
I experience this with customers who don’t just request external recruiting support when things are on fire. The difference is clear.
If we know a business plan before the jobs are open, we can anticipate. We can set up sourcing channels before the pressure is on. We can calibrate processes before they are under strain. And we can act as a true extension of the TA team – not a stopgap that needs to be rescued retroactively.
This is not a marketing promise. This is the structural difference between reaction and partnership.
Interim recruiting also works reactively, I don’t dismiss that. But it really comes into its own when it is used proactively. When the question is not “How do we get out of this?” but “How do we make sure we don’t get into this situation in the first place?”
A final assessment
I’m not talking about HR teams being permanently dependent on external support. The opposite is true: good external recruiting support ends with a stronger internal team, not a dependency. Knowledge transfer, documented processes, calibrated channels – that remains.
But the first step is to put the issue on the table at an early stage. Not as an admission of failure, but as a strategic decision.
Companies that do this fill positions faster, more cheaply and with better quality. Not because they are luckier, but because they start acting earlier.
Do you currently have more vacancies than capacity?
Feel free to book an appointment in my calendar for a non-binding consultation.
Michael Oliver Budzowski
Director Strategic Sales & Partnerships
Michael helps companies to make growth more predictable – with clear processes, measurable KPIs and a recruiting structure that takes the pressure off the team.
Book an appointment here on the right and find out in 20 minutes whether and how Kooku can support you.
Frequently asked questions about external recruiting support
External recruiting support makes sense if an HR team has more vacancies than its own capacity, if team members are absent at short notice (parental leave, resignation) or if company growth happens faster than the internal headcount is approved. Rule of thumb: It is almost always worth using an interim recruiter if there are five or more vacancies at the same time.
A headhunter works on commission and usually fills individual positions. An interim recruiter works embedded in the company, takes over the entire recruiting process for several vacancies at the same time and charges transparently by the hour – without any conflict of interest due to commission.
At Kooku, interim recruiters are usually operational within one to two weeks. They bring their own tool licenses (LinkedIn Recruiter, XING TalentManager) and are productive from day one – without long training periods.
This varies depending on the initial situation. Most mandates at Kooku run for between two and six months – long enough to deliver real results, short enough to remain flexible. The notice period is usually four weeks, so there are no long contractual commitments. If you realize that you need to work with us for longer, you can easily extend the contract.
Faster than most people expect. An experienced interim recruiter brings their own tool infrastructure with them – LinkedIn Recruiter, XING Talent Manager, active sourcing methodology. What he needs: a briefing appointment, access to the ATS and a contact person for technical queries. At Kooku, our interim recruiters are usually operational within the first week and start with active sourcing.
A freelancer is one person. If he drops out, the project stands still. An agency interim recruiter has a whole team behind them: Colleagues who can step in, shared know-how from hundreds of projects and tool licenses that an individual could not operate economically. There is also another practical advantage: no risk of bogus self-employment because the recruiter is permanently employed.
Less than for a new internal hire. What an interim recruiter needs is not a basic recruiting course, but context: which positions, which requirements, what makes the company tick, who the hiring managers are. In most cases, two to three days of structured onboarding is enough to get you fully up and running.
