“We Have an HR Person.” So Why Hire a Recruiter?
The objection we hear most, and the honest answer: HR and recruiting are two very different jobs, and asking one person to do both shortchanges both.
TL;DR
An HR professional is trained in compliance, benefits, employee relations, policies, and performance: taking care of the people you have. Recruiting is a sales job: finding people who aren’t looking, reaching out, following up, and keeping good candidates engaged for hours every day. They are different skill sets that compete for the same hours. A recruiter works alongside your HR team, not instead of them. HR takes care of your people. We help you find the next ones.
I hear this all the time: “We don’t need recruiting help. We have an HR person.”
My question is always the same. Would you ask your HR person to handle sales?
Probably not.
What your HR person is actually trained for
None of this is a knock on HR. HR professionals are highly trained in the legalities of hiring, employee relations, benefits, compliance, policies, performance issues, and everything else that comes with taking care of your people. That work is essential, it carries real legal risk when it’s done wrong, and it deserves someone’s full attention.
But recruiting is a different skill set.
Why recruiting is a sales job
We don’t just post a job and wait for applications to come in. We find people. We reach out. We follow up. We sell the opportunity. We talk to people who may not even be looking for a new job yet, because in construction and the trades, the best candidates usually aren’t. They’re on someone else’s payroll, doing good work, and nobody’s job posting is going to reach them.
And just like sales, it takes persistence. The first message gets ignored. The good candidate goes quiet for a week. The interview no-shows, the reschedules, the offer negotiations: somebody has to keep chasing all of it every single day, because the moment you stop, another company’s recruiter is calling your candidate. We wrote about what that daily grind actually looks like, and the short version is that it’s constant.
One person, two very different jobs
Your HR person already has plenty to do. Asking them to also spend hours every day searching resumes, contacting candidates, following up, screening applicants, and trying to keep good people engaged is asking one person to do two very different jobs.
And here’s what happens in practice: the job with a deadline wins. Payroll has to run. The compliance question has to get answered today. The open enrollment window closes Friday. Recruiting, which punishes you slowly instead of immediately, slips to the bottom of the list. Three days later the best applicant in the pile has already accepted somewhere else, and nobody did anything wrong. The structure did.
Who owns what
This is how the split works when Edisto plugs in alongside an HR team:
| Your HR team owns | Edisto owns | |
|---|---|---|
| People | The employees you have | The candidates you need |
| Daily work | Benefits, payroll questions, compliance, policies, performance | Sourcing, outreach, screening, recorded first interviews, scheduling, no-shows |
| Skill set | Legal, administrative, employee relations | Sales: hunting, pitching, following up |
| The handoff | Takes over at the offer: onboarding, paperwork, day one | Hands off a signed hire, then goes back to the pipeline |
Every candidate we present arrives with a recorded 15 to 30 minute interview through our Virtual Candidate Showcase, so your team, HR included, meets people on video before anyone commits an hour live. When you hire, HR runs onboarding the way they always have. Nothing about their job gets smaller. The two roles just stop competing for the same hours.
That’s where Edisto comes in
We work alongside your HR team, not instead of them. The whole engagement runs on one flat monthly fee with unlimited hires: on when you’re hiring, off when you’re not, no placement fees eating the budget your HR person has to defend.
HR takes care of your people. We help you find the next ones.
There’s a big difference.
Have an HR team and open roles?
Tell us what you’re hiring for. We’ll show you exactly where we’d plug in alongside the people you already have.
Talk With LoriFAQ
Does Edisto replace our HR person?
No. We handle the recruiting side only: sourcing, outreach, screening, recorded first interviews, and scheduling. Your HR team keeps everything they own today, including onboarding the people we help you hire. We work alongside them, not instead of them.
Can’t our HR person just post the job and collect applications?
They can, and for some roles that’s enough. But posting only reaches people actively looking. In the trades, the strongest candidates are usually employed and not searching, which means someone has to find them, reach out, and sell the opportunity. That’s a daily sales effort, not an administrative task.
We don’t have an HR person at all. Does this still work?
Yes. Plenty of our clients are owner-led companies where the owner or an office manager wears the HR hat. We take the recruiting workload either way, and the flat monthly fee doesn’t change based on who we hand candidates to.
How does the handoff between Edisto and HR work?
We run the search up through the final interview and offer support. Once your pick signs, HR takes over: paperwork, onboarding, benefits, day one. Clean lines, no overlap, and both jobs get someone’s full attention.
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