Why Partner with an HR Recruitment Consultant – Even in a Crowded Market
Right now, there’s no shortage of HR professionals in the job market. So, is this the time to use a recruitment consultant for your next HR hire?
Someone who will shape your HR department, strengthen your learning culture, and close key skills gaps.
It might feel tempting to handle it yourself. More candidates must mean easier hiring, right?
However, in practice, more CVs often lead to more confusion. And when you’re hiring someone who will shape your HR department, lead the culture, and support your team through change, getting it right matters.
Even with an applicant tracking system, hiring managers still spend hours reviewing CVs that don’t meet their culture or capability needs.
Here’s why working with an HR recruitment consultant still gives you the edge, even when the market’s flooded.
1. More HR candidates = more noise to cut through
A single HR role can attract over 100 applications. But how many of those are genuinely aligned with your needs, values, and business model?
Hiring managers and founders rarely have the time (or headspace) to sift through mismatched CVs, let alone assess whether someone has the right blend of compliance, people skills, and commercial thinking.
That’s where we come in. As a specialist HR recruitment agency, we know how to spot talent that truly fits, not just on paper, but in practice.
2. Not all HR experience is created equal
HR is a broad discipline, spanning everything from employee relations and talent acquisition to learning and development, organisational development, performance management, compensation, and employee benefits, among other areas.
Whether you need a standalone HR generalist, a commercial business partner, or someone to lead a transformation project, we help you define what “good” looks like in your context, then find exactly that.
3. The best HR professionals aren’t actively applying
Many top candidates in human resources are already in roles, quietly open to the right opportunity, but not applying through job boards.
They care about culture, flexibility, leadership, and impact, and want to talk to someone who understands their career path.
Top HR professionals aren’t just job hunting; they’re looking for the next meaningful step in their career path, one that supports their professional development and delivers impactful learning experiences.
As trusted HR recruitment specialists, we speak their language and bring your opportunity to life in a way that resonates.
4. HR hiring is about impact, not just compliance
The right hire in HR doesn’t just “do the job”. They shape culture, support engagement, and help your business grow from the inside out.
They influence how your teams learn, grow, and perform. The right hire can spark a learning strategy, improve your L&D team’s impact, and embed a culture of continuous learning.
The wrong hire? Even if technically qualified, they can create friction, slow progress, and quietly lose team trust.
We go beyond CVs to uncover the values, mindset, and potential that drive real, lasting impact.
5. Your HR hire sends a signal
Whether it’s a Talent Acquisition Specialist, HR Manager, or Chief People Officer, your HR hire will influence how your business is perceived, by your people, your candidates, and the wider market.
Partnering with the right HR recruitment consultant ensures that the hire is not only credible and commercial but also aligned to your mission and momentum.
Real Results from Real Clients
We recently worked with Tidewater on a retained search for a senior HR hire. Their feedback sums up why partnering with a specialist matters, especially when quality and speed are critical.
“The Hunter Adams HR recruiting team played a pivotal role in successfully filling our HR Manager position, leveraging their deep expertise in the Aberdeen HR talent market and extensive professional network. Their consultative approach ensured they not only understood our organisational objectives but also aligned the candidate profile with our strategic intent to elevate the role.
Given our accelerated hiring timeline, Hunter Adams executed an efficient and streamlined talent acquisition strategy, delivering high-calibre candidates within a competitive timeframe. They guided our decision-making process by presenting a curated shortlist of top-tier HR professionals, demonstrating exceptional candidate pipelining and leadership search capabilities.
Ultimately, their proactive collaboration resulted in a swift time-to-hire, exceeding our expectations in both speed and quality of hire. We are very pleased with the high-impact HR leader we have now welcomed to our team!”
— Lisa Ortega, VP Human Resources, Tidewater
In Summary
Even with thousands of professionals in the HR job market, the right ones are still hard to find, and are quick to go.
That’s why savvy businesses partner with trusted HR recruitment consultants who know the difference between a decent CV and a truly transformational hire.
If you’re hiring into HR, from Advisor to Chief People Officer, we’d love to help. Talk to Candice, Head of Recruitment at Hunter Adams today – candice.thompson@hunteradams.co.uk
