Managed recruiting services vs recruiting software comes down to a single question: who does the work? Recruiting software gives your team tools to find, screen and track candidates, while a managed recruiting service runs that work for you and delivers candidates ready to interview. The right choice depends on how often you hire and whether you have people with time to run the process.
Managed recruiting services vs recruiting software at a glance
- Recruiting software: you buy a tool, and your team does the recruiting.
- Managed recruiting services: you buy the outcome, and an outside team does the recruiting.
- In both cases: you make the final hiring decision.
The comparison table below covers the details.
What managed recruiting services and recruiting software actually are
What is recruiting software?
Recruiting software is any tool that helps an internal team manage hiring. The most common type is an applicant tracking system (ATS), which collects applications, moves candidates through each stage and keeps records in 1 place. Recruiting CRMs, on the other hand, focus on building relationships with candidates you might hire later. There are also tools for sourcing, assessments and interview scheduling.
What all of these have in common is that they organize and automate the work, but they don’t do it. Someone on your team still writes the job posts, reviews applications, calls candidates, follows up with the ones who stop responding and books interviews. In other words, software makes that person faster. It doesn’t replace them.
What are managed recruiting services?
Managed recruiting services are an outside team that runs the recruiting process for you. Typically, that means sourcing candidates, screening them, contacting them and coordinating interviews. Your managers then meet the candidates and decide who to hire.
This model is different from a traditional staffing agency. With a staffing agency, workers are often employed by the agency and placed with your company. With managed recruiting, you hire the candidates directly, and the service focuses on filling your pipeline with qualified candidates. Recruiting as a Service (RaaS) is one model within this category, and it’s the one Workwolf® uses.
Managed recruiting services vs recruiting software compared side by side
Here’s how the 2 options compare on the points that matter most when you’re hiring frontline staff.
| Recruiting software | Managed recruiting services | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Organizes and automates hiring tasks | Runs sourcing, screening, outreach and interview coordination |
| Who does the work | Your internal team | The service’s recruiting team |
| Best for | Companies with recruiters who have capacity to use it | Companies that hire frontline roles often and in volume, without enough recruiting capacity |
| What your team needs | People to post jobs, review applications, contact candidates and book interviews | Managers available to interview candidates and make hiring decisions |
| Control over the process | Full control over every step | You set the requirements, and the service runs the steps |
| How you pay | A license or subscription, plus the time of the team that runs it | Usually a fee per hire |
| Who makes the hiring decision | You | You |
Which option fits your company
When recruiting software is the better choice
Software is often the right call, and it’s worth saying plainly. If you have an internal recruiting team with room in their week, a good ATS will make them more productive without adding an outside partner. It also makes sense if you only hire a handful of people a year, or if your roles are highly specialized and need a recruiter who knows your business in depth.
Similarly, companies that want full control over every step usually prefer to keep recruiting internal. That includes the wording of each job post, the tone of every message and the order in which candidates move forward.
When a managed recruiting service makes more sense
The picture changes when hiring never stops. If you hire frontline staff every month, deal with seasonal peaks or high turnover, or rely on operations managers to screen candidates between their other responsibilities, the bottleneck usually isn’t the tool. It’s the hours. In that situation, a managed recruiting service takes the repetitive work off your team’s plate: reviewing applications, calling candidates, filtering out poor fits and filling interview calendars.
It’s also a good fit when you don’t have dedicated recruiters at all. Many companies that hire field sales reps, call center agents or retail staff run hiring through managers whose real job is running the operation. For them, buying software would just add another system nobody has time to use.
Can you use both?
Yes. Many companies use recruiting software for everyday hiring and add a managed service for the volume their team can’t absorb. When it comes to managed recruiting services vs recruiting software, the 2 options aren’t mutually exclusive, since they solve different problems.
How Workwolf® runs managed recruiting
Workwolf® is a Recruiting as a Service (RaaS) company built for businesses that hire frontline staff in volume. It works with companies in field sales, call centers, retail, event marketing, property management and the trades, including HVAC technicians, electricians and plumbers. Here’s how the process works:
- Sourcing: Workwolf® finds candidates for each open role.
- Screening: the team checks candidates against the role’s requirements before they reach you.
- Outreach: recruiters contact candidates and keep them engaged through the process.
- Interview coordination: qualified candidates go straight into your managers’ interview calendars.
- Your decision: you interview the candidates and decide who to hire.
Built on its own technology
Workwolf® runs on its own AI engine, Packfinder. It screens and ranks every applicant against the profile of each client’s top performers, and it gets more precise with every placement.
Screening that improves with every hire
After each hire, clients share how it turned out. Workwolf® then uses those results to refine the screening for that specific client. As a result, the screening gets more precise for your roles over time.
What to expect on timelines
Timelines depend on the role, the location and how much screening each position needs. What changes right away is where your team’s time goes. Candidates arrive already screened and booked into interviews, so your managers only spend time on the conversations that matter.
Frequently asked questions
What are the different types of recruitment services?
Staffing agencies supply workers, often temporary, who are usually employed by the agency. Executive search firms focus on senior and leadership roles. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) takes over part or all of a company’s recruiting function. Finally, managed recruiting services, including RaaS, run sourcing, screening and interview coordination while the client keeps the hiring decision.
What’s the difference between an ATS and a recruiting CRM?
An ATS manages candidates who have applied to an open role and tracks them through each stage of hiring. A recruiting CRM, by contrast, helps you build and maintain relationships with people you might hire in the future. Both are recruiting software, so both still need someone on your team to run them.
How do I know if my company needs a managed recruiting service?
Look at who’s doing the recruiting today and what it’s costing them. If managers are screening applications at night, open roles stay unfilled for weeks, or your team can’t keep up during seasonal peaks, the problem is capacity rather than tools. That’s usually the point where a managed service makes more sense than adding another platform.
Does a managed recruiting service replace my HR team?
No. A managed recruiting service takes over the operational side of recruiting, such as sourcing, screening and scheduling. Your HR team and managers still decide who to hire, and they keep handling onboarding, policies and everything else that comes after the offer.
Is a managed recruiting service more expensive than software?
It depends on what you include in the comparison. With software, you pay a license, plus the time of the people who run it. With a managed recruiting service, you usually pay a fee per hire. For a fair comparison, add up the license and the hours your team spends running it, then weigh that total against the cost per hire.
See if managed recruiting fits your hiring volume
Still weighing managed recruiting services vs recruiting software? The best way to decide is to look at your own open roles and how much hiring your team can realistically handle. Book a demo with Workwolf® to see how managed recruiting would work for your business.
