Before comparing recruitment partners, identify the part of hiring your company needs help delivering. A shortage of relevant candidates calls for a different conversation from a backlog of interviews or a slow internal approval process.
Write down the bottleneck, the work your team can own and the decisions that need to stay with your hiring managers. Use that brief to evaluate support against your actual requirement.
Start with the bottleneck
Review a recent vacancy and ask where progress stopped. Avoid treating a long list of profiles as evidence that the hiring problem is solved.
| Hiring problem | Questions to explore with a provider |
|---|---|
| Too few relevant applicants | How will the requirement be clarified, and how will relevance be assessed before profiles are shared? |
| Inconsistent screening | Which role criteria and assessment steps will be used, and what can our team review? |
| Slow stakeholder decisions | Who owns feedback, which evidence is shared and when is the next action agreed? |
| Too much coordination | Who communicates with candidates and coordinates interviews, offers and joining steps? |
A partner cannot resolve an unclear role or an unavailable decision maker by sending more profiles. Define the internal changes needed alongside the external support.
Decide which responsibilities you want help with
There is a practical difference between using hiring software and asking a team to deliver recruitment work. Software can organise information and assessments while your staff run the process. Managed support adds people and agreed delivery responsibilities.
TalentTree offers AI Self-Service for teams using AI-powered hiring tools and recruitment delivery Managed by Trove for support from sourcing through joining. The appropriate scope depends on your roles and the work you want your team to retain.
Do not assume that a service label defines every included activity. Confirm the actual scope and commercial terms with the provider.
Prepare a one-page requirement brief
Use this template for one real vacancy before discussing a wider engagement:
Role and business purpose: What work will this person own?
Hiring quantity: How many people are needed for this requirement?
Location and work mode: Office location, remote eligibility or hybrid expectations.
Must-have evidence: Skills, experience or qualifications that are necessary, and how they can be assessed.
Trainable areas: Skills your team can support after joining.
Compensation and terms: Approved range, units, employment type and any conditions candidates must understand.
Decision makers: Who reviews profiles, interviews and approves offers?
Current bottleneck: Where is the process getting stuck?
Responsibilities requested: Sourcing, screening, assessments, coordination or other agreed work.
Feedback process: Who responds, what feedback is needed and how next actions are recorded?
An illustrative requirement might say: “We need customer-support candidates who can explain a service issue clearly and work from our stated office location. We can train the product knowledge. Our team will conduct the final interview; we need help with sourcing and initial screening.”
That example deliberately avoids assumed salaries, hiring volumes or deadlines. Fill in those facts from your approved requirement.
Ask to see the review process
Evaluate how a provider will make its work understandable to your hiring team. Ask what you will receive at the review stage, how incomplete information is labelled and how you can provide feedback.
For assessments, start with job relevance. A structured interview should explore capabilities needed for the role, and reviewers should understand how the evidence will be used. Discuss human follow-up for unclear answers rather than treating a summary result as the whole hiring decision.
TalentTree combines structured AI interviews with human review. A Talent Passport brings candidate experience, available assessment results, interview feedback and verification evidence into a shared view. Its contents depend on the steps completed for that candidate; it is not a statement that every check has been completed.
Agree who does what before work begins
A short responsibility table makes gaps easier to spot. Complete it with the provider rather than assuming the answer:
| Activity | Owner to agree | Evidence or handoff to agree |
|---|---|---|
| Approve the role brief | Employer | Current requirements and permitted trade-offs |
| Source and screen | Employer, provider or shared | Relevant profiles and review criteria |
| Arrange assessments | Employer, provider or shared | Required steps and completed/pending status |
| Conduct final interviews | Agreed interviewers | Feedback and next decision |
| Approve compensation and offers | Employer | Approved terms and candidate communication |
| Coordinate joining | Employer, provider or shared | Agreed joining steps and follow-up |
Also agree how candidate information will be shared, who needs access and where documents should be submitted. Use appropriate authorised channels rather than circulating identity documents or resumes in public posts.
Discuss commercial and delivery terms directly
Ask what activities are included, how charges are calculated, when payments become due and what any replacement or cancellation terms mean for your requirement. Ask how a change in role scope will be handled. Record the agreed answers in the engagement documentation.
Do not compare offers only by a headline fee. Compare the actual work included, your team’s remaining responsibilities and the information you can review. This guide does not establish TalentTree or Trove prices, service levels or placement guarantees.
Evaluate the process using a real role
During a walkthrough, work through a representative vacancy. Can the team explain how the brief becomes screening criteria? Can a hiring manager identify completed and pending steps? Is it clear who takes the next action?
Once work starts, review the measures that fit the bottleneck: relevant profiles reviewed, interview feedback completed, time waiting for a decision and agreed joining activity. Define what counts as relevant before comparing results. Use actual records rather than assuming a higher profile count means better delivery.
Your next step
Bring one approved requirement and your current bottleneck to the conversation. TalentTree and Trove can discuss whether AI Self-Service or managed recruitment delivery fits the support you need.
Discuss a hiring requirement or request a walkthrough. Share company and role context in the enquiry; avoid adding private candidate records.