Dear HR,

We get it. Recruiting agencies have a bad rap.  And that’s understandable! There are more than enough shady staffing companies out there who are more than happy to take your money without delivering the results you paid for. So how does Rust Belt Recruiting remediate that? Let’s break it down.

What’s the difference between recruiting and HR (Human Resources)? 

Recruiting and HR are two necessary functions of any organization. You often see the line between these two functions blur, depending on how an organization approaches them. Some organizations may have separate teams for each function, some recruiters may perform HR tasks, and some HR professionals will perform recruiting tasks. It all depends, but ultimately both functions are not necessarily the same. 

Recruiting Defined

Recruiting is defined as the process of identifying and hiring the best possible talent for a vacant or newly defined role. The role of recruiting typically includes, but is not limited to:

• Sourcing potential candidates from various avenues, such as job boards, social media, referrals, and their network
• Evaluating the candidates’ resumes, skills, and qualifications based on the job requirements and company culture 
• Interviewing the candidates to assess their fit for the role and the organization 

HR Defined

HR is defined as managing the human capital of an organization and ensuring that the employees are satisfied, productive, and aligned with the organization’s culture. The role of HR typically includes, but is not limited to:

• Developing and executing policies, programs, and initiatives to support the organization’s objectives and culture
• Facilitating the onboarding process for new hires
• Overseeing employee performance, recognition, compensation, and benefits
• Fostering a positive and healthy work environment to reduce turnover 
• Ensuring that the organization complies with relevant laws and regulations

To put it concisely, recruiting is focused on hiring the right people to join the organization and HR is focused on retaining those successful hires. 

HR & Recruiting in the Manufacturing Industry

Recruiting and HR are essential functions in all industries but let’s take a closer look at how they currently exist in the manufacturing industry. 

We typically see that small to mid-sized manufacturers will have a lean HR team with limited bandwidth. Sometimes they don’t even have a dedicated HR role, meaning that an under-qualified individual is stuck balancing two sets of responsibilities. (Rust Belt Outsourcing Case Study)

Larger manufacturers tend to have more robust HR teams but those teams often still find themselves at capacity when they’re faced with handling business development efforts such as expansions or relocation. 

“There is a reason recruiting is an industry. It is a time-consuming task for leaders of a business. When you partner with us, we’re going take that all off your plate and we’re going to do all we can to really understand your business.” 

– Taylor Evans (President, Rust Belt Recruiting) 

That is why Rust Belt Recruiting was founded on the principle of redefining manufacturing recruiting.

“Before starting Rust Belt Recruiting, I witnessed how manufacturing staffing and recruiting had become transactional and commodity-oriented. Employers were faced with frustration due to inadequately vetted and prepared candidates and the highly skilled workers were being undervalued.”

 -Taylor Evans (President, Rust Belt Recruiting)

The RBR Difference

Rust Belt approaches recruiting differently than traditional staffing & recruiting companies. Here’s how:

• We focus solely on supporting manufacturers and industrial companies
• We provide permanent placement recruitment services for all types of industrial roles, from professional to production
• We are direct hire only – Temporary or temporary to permanent hires are not the candidate pool that we represent
• We act as an engaged partner, in other words, we take on a limited amount of work so that our team can focus on filling your roles
• We offer flexible fee structures that meet the needs of your business

Simply put, we view our clients as partners. Engaging with us is a consultative process to uncover a solution that is right-sized for your organization. Check out this testimonial from one of our clients, an experienced HR professional:

“[The Rust Belt team] listened to what we were in the process of doing and what we expected to be doing, and they really kind of took a pause and said, ‘Okay, this isn’t going to be our typical model or the model that we generally present.’ And they were able to customize what they were offering to us so that it met our needs. And I’m a pretty tough customer. I’ve been around for a long time and been in business for a long time. I’m not shy about speaking my mind. Ultimately, what’s important to me is what’s important to my business. It needs to be a mutually beneficial relationship with a vendor. But a lot of vendors, a lot of service providers, it’s their pitch, it’s their box that they want to put you in and, set that on a table in front of you, and then that’s it. And I didn’t find the Rust Belt team to be that way. It’s been a really successful relationship. We were able to get [our open] positions filled way faster than we would have been able to on our own because we don’t have a dedicated talent acquisition person on our team. We are generalists…[and] their ability to pivot with us as we changed our processes, to work directly with our hiring managers when they needed to do that, all of that just ended up making for a really terrific relationship with them.”

– Trudy Cheney (Vice President, Global Human Resources at Xaloy)

Hear more about Trudy’s experience with Rust Belt Recruiting here: 

This consultative approach is exactly why Rust Belt Recruiting acts as your ally, not your enemy. We’re here to work with you, not against you, to uncover exactly what your organization needs, whether that’s to supplement your processes or entirely outsource them. 

Learn more about our service offerings: Decoding Industrial Recruiting: Addressing Frequently Asked Questions 

Contact us today to learn more about how we can find the right-sized solution for your manufacturing facility! 

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Other Resources:

Finding Industrial Talent: Three Reasons Why Recruitment Outsourcing is the Solution

Creating Successful Partnerships: Our Ideal Client Profile