In a labour market as competitive and changeable as New Zealand’s, choosing the right recruitment approach is crucial. Even with greater availability of candidates today than in recent years, there are ongoing skills shortages across numerous industries, immigration trends highlighting the ‘brain drain’ (thanks Australia!), and increasing pressure to find cost-effective hiring solutions. So employers are asking themselves: should we manage the recruitment process ourselves or should we use a recruitment agency?

The reality is that you don’t need to choose just one or the other. You can keep some parts of the process in-house while outsourcing others to a recruitment company – this is normally called ‘unbundled’ recruitment. Alternatively, you can enlist the help of a recruitment partner for the entire process, this is generally called ‘full service’ or ‘end-to-end’ recruitment.

Whether you choose a more ‘bespoke’ approach or enlist the help or a recruitment agency for the entire hiring process really depends on your organisation’s unique situation, the role you’re recruiting, and the market conditions. This is a conversation I have with my clients all the time, so let’s look at each type of recruitment service, what they are, and when to use them!

What is Full-Service Recruitment?

Most people are more familiar with this type of recruitment. ‘Full-service’ or ‘end-to-end’ recruitment covers the entire hiring journey. Depending on your requirements and the agency you’re working with, this could include:

1. Needs Analysis & Job Briefing
This is the very first meeting to discuss and define your hiring requirements. Each agency has a process they’ll take you through to identify the skills and experience of the role you’re hiring for, as well as details about the organisation and team culture.

2. Consultation & Role Definition
This involves a more in-depth dive into defining the role(s), including crafting job descriptions, defining competencies, and advising on pay benchmarks or salary bands.

3. Sourcing & Advertising
During this phase, your recruiter uses specialist tools, platforms and channels to find the right candidates. This often includes activity like listing the role on job boards (e.g. SEEK, Trade Me Jobs, LinkedIn, etc.), searching internal databases, reaching out to industry networks, advertising on social media, and targeted outreach to passive candidates.

4. Screening & Shortlisting
As the recruitment company receives applications, they sort through the CVs, find the best candidates, and screen them to ensure they match the role and any other requirements you may have specified. The screening process could be a few basic questions, or a more rigorous discussion. The recruiter then delivers a curated short (or long) list of candidates for you to review.

5. Interview & Assessment
During this step your recruitment partner manages all the interview logistics, whether that’s interviewing by phone, in-person, or by panel. Once you’ve identified your top pick(s), the agency can then assist with background checks, references, and any assessments necessary, like psychometric or skills testing.

6. Offer Management & Post-Placement Care
At this final stage your agency will present offer terms, facilitate any negotiations between parties, and ensure the process remains seamless for both sides. Most agencies then extend support beyond the hire, which could include assisting with onboarding planning, making sure candidates are ready for their first day, and checking in periodically with both you and the candidate to ensure they settle in well.

The steps above may differ depending on the agency you’re working with, or some steps may not be included, but the key thing to know is that full-service recruitment means that you’re enlisting an agency to handle the entire hiring process, from start to finish – whatever that may look like.

What is Unbundled Recruitment?

A lot of employers and hiring managers I talk to initially assume that if they use a recruitment agency, they have to use them for the entire hiring process. But as I’ve mentioned, this isn’t the case. ‘Unbundled’ recruitment is a more flexible approach, where you choose only the specific hiring services you need or want support with, rather than the full package.

What does that look like? Well, each of the steps in the full-service approach above can be broken down further into individual components. For example, you could enlist an agency just to advertise the job and screen CVs, or just to check references – or even all of those components, without any other services. I’ll give you a real-life example a little later on.

When to Use Unbundled Recruitment

Unbundled can be a great option when you need additional support to supplement your internal hiring process – whether that’s due to constraints in time, resources, capability, or budget. It can be especially effective when:

• You have some capacity in your internal HR/P&C/Recruitment team, but not enough. E.g. you’re filling temporary or lower-level roles at scale and don’t have time to screen all the CVs.
• You have some recruitment capability in-house, but need additional support in certain areas. E.g. your normal advertising platforms aren’t resulting in the right candidates and you require access to specialist sourcing methods.
• You’re recruiting a role with requirements outside the norm for your organisation. E.g. you have a strong internal hiring process but need to outsource psychometric or skills testing.
• You’re having difficulty filling a role and need to re-advertise, but want to protect your brand reputation.
• You have budget constraints that mean full-service isn’t a viable option, but you still require hiring support.

These are just some examples – there are lots of different situations where you might need support, so another way to look at it is to consider what benefits unbundled offers:

• Flexibility
  You can choose exactly what support you need, when you need it, depending on your organisation’s recruitment capability and capacity. You can also maintain ownership of parts of the process if that’s important to you.
• Scalability
  You can change which services you choose as your organisation grows, making it ideal for SMEs with changing requirements or larger organisations filling specialist roles or managing high-volume recruitment drives.
• Cost Effectiveness
  You only pay for the specific recruitment components you need, avoiding the expense of a full-service recruitment package when it’s not required.
• Time Efficiency
  You can leverage the specialist systems and processes that agencies provide, reducing the time-to-hire and getting the person you need in your business faster.
• Quality Results
  You benefit from expert advertising and sourcing approaches that ensure the best candidate or result, no matter which part of the process you’re outsourcing.

Unbundled: A Real Example

One of my clients was hiring for a new role, and while internal staff had expressed interest, the client “wanted to make sure that we had the best candidate”, so they decided to advertise externally too.

They chose to do this themselves because they had previously used other recruitment agencies for end-to-end services, but found “they were expensive and did not fully understand our requirements”. Unfortunately, their advertising didn’t result in the calibre of candidates they were looking for, and the client was wary of advertising again because they felt it could negatively impact the perception of their brand if they were seen to be repeatedly advertising the same role.

Enter Madison and our unbundled services! After a few discussions to ensure I understood their needs and concerns, I suggested we recruit for the role under Madison’s name. This would protect the client’s brand, while also leveraging Madison’s positive reputation and strong brand recognition in the NZ job market to attract a new pool of candidates.

So ahead we went – I advertised the role, screened out any overseas applications, and sent the rest to the client to review, as agreed. Since the candidate experience is also really important to us (and our client), we made sure to clearly communicate the situation and our role in the process to the candidates too.

The result? The client loved it! Their feedback was that it was cost-effective and they didn’t have to spend time and energy fielding enquiries. They also appreciated that our advertising methods meant we were able to reach applicants who wouldn’t have otherwise applied.

“We remained anonymous and were able to confirm what the calibre of candidates were in the market. We hired internally, however this person also applied through the Madison ad.”

They found the process so helpful that they’ve since returned to use our unbundled services again!

When to Use Full-Service Recruitment

While unbundled recruitment can supplement your internal hiring processes, it still requires some internal resources and capacity. Full-service recruitment, on the other hand, generally requires only involvement only at defined milestones.

With end-to-end recruitment you get all the benefits of unbundled, plus the strategic advantage of having a single partner who takes responsibility for the process from start to finish. It’s more than just task execution; it’s a true consultancy partnership. This means:

• One point of contact and full accountability for the quality of hire.
• Motivation to deliver quickly and effectively, often with replacement guarantees.
• Consistency in candidate experience, protecting both your brand and the agency’s.
• A complete view of the role and business needs, so recommendations are informed by context from day one.
• Specialist sourcing methods to reach both active and passive candidates.
• Advanced systems and processes for effectively managing applications, tracking candidates, and coordinating assessments.
• Market intelligence to position your role competitively and set realistic salary expectations.
• Advice on workforce planning, future growth, and team structure.
• A long-term partner who understands your culture, values, and goals.

By partnering with an agency, you also free up your own time and resources, allowing you to focus entirely on your business.

This model is particularly valuable for:

• Executive or specialist roles that require discreet headhunting.
• Confidential or sensitive hires where privacy is critical.
• Hard-to-fill positions in competitive or niche markets.
• Urgent projects requiring multiple hires in a short time frame.
• Organisations without in-house teams to manage recruitment effectively.

In these type of situations, full-service recruitment not only saves time but also reduces the risk of a bad hire (we’ve all seen it happen!). There are lots of varying statics on the cost and impact of hiring the wrong person, but research agrees that a bad hire can hit a business hard, driving up costs, reducing productivity, and affecting team morale. But that risk is significantly reduced when an experienced agency manages the process end-to-end.

So, while the upfront cost of full-service recruitment may be higher than a single unbundled component, it can often deliver greater value for money, all things considered. The efficiency, quality of hire, and reduced risk mean the investment pays off, especially in a tight talent market where getting the right person quickly can have a major impact on your business performance.

How to Decide Which Model to Use

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The best recruitment model depends on your role, budget, timeframes, and internal resources. Ask yourself:

• Do we have the capacity to manage part of this process in-house?
• Is the role likely to attract good candidates through our advertising alone?
• Would passive candidates be a better fit than active ones?
• How critical is it that we get this hire right the first time?
• Is cost-saving more important than time-saving in this case?

If you’re not sure which path to take, I’d be more than happy to help you assess your options – feel free to reach out!