Why A Recruitment Agency Is Good For Business
HOW TO FIND A GOOD RECRUITMENT AGENCY?
If you are like many companies right now, struggling to get quality candidates to apply for your current roles, and are therefore considering using the services of a Recruitment Agency then what should you expect?
Always start by reviewing all the agencies in your local area, what is their Google rating vs number of reviews {A 5* rating, but with only 1 review isn’t necessarily a true reflection}. Read at least 5 or 6 testimonials as these really do give you an understanding of how candidates and clients truly felt working with them. Check their social media and see if they take time to regularly post jobs, information and generally connect with their audience? What information can you gain from their website? Websites can give you a general feel as to the type of agency you are working with, in terms of how they communicate their aims and work ethic, as well as the type of roles they tend to work on. If they have an “About Us” section, you can easily gain insight into the experience of their staff within the industry as well as looking through their LinkedIn company and employee profiles.
A website will also show you how they advertise jobs so you can see how they look to engage and attract candidates. It is also good to find out what job boards they will also promote your vacancies on e.g., CV Library / Reed / Total Jobs /Indeed etc – this is usually paid for by the agency themselves and is part of the reason a fee is provided at the start of the process.
At the start of your search for the right agency a big question to ask yourself is “Would I be happy to pay a full fee to an agency that has never met or screened thoroughly the candidates they are sending over as prospective employees?”
WHAT DO YOU GET FOR YOUR FEE?
When you are discussing the agency fee, always enquire as to what you will gain for this fee. As well as the jobs being posted on a variety of job boards {check how many}. A good agency will spend many hours CV Searching and sifting through potential applicants to ensure only quality candidates are selected and registered. They will also confirm candidates have all the necessary Right to Work paperwork, education and qualifications required to fulfil a job.
An established agency will also have many candidates already on their database, as many candidates prefer to go through a recommended agency than direct to a company. Reliable agencies will always interview candidates face to face {via Teams or Zoom} to really get to know their work history, capabilities, work ethic and fundamentally their fit with a company and specific job role. Detailed agencies will have an initial telephone conversation with a candidate, discussing their current situation and finding out what they are generally looking for. This will then be followed with a visual meeting to go into further detail about specifics of jobs they have worked in and gain a much deeper understanding about the person themselves, what they are seeking and whether they need to update their CV and promote themselves better. Ask your potential agency how they meet prospective candidates and if they don’t meet candidates this way, consider trying a different agency, it may save you considerable time and money in the long term.
An agency will also work hard on building relationships, both with candidates and clients. By meeting candidates face to face, they can speak to them in a relaxed, but professional environment and draw all their key attributes and skills from them, making sure their CV truly represents them and they are confident in themselves and able to interview well.
In terms of clients, you will find an excellent agency will ask to visit your offices and establish your working environment, the structure and type of employees that work well for you, as well as ensuring it is a safe and friendly place for the candidates they will potentially supply for review. They will also look to continue to build a rapport with their clients, as well as their HR departments or Managers. Building strong and trustworthy relationships really helps growing a mutual understanding and can save both time and money throughout your corporation and employment process.
At the start of any staffing campaign, ensure you have full site of the agencies fees and what this includes, as well as if the candidate doesn’t work out for some reason, where you stand.
HOW YOU CAN HELP YOURSELF
Keep abreast of the current UK employment situation, and if you don’t have the time, your chosen agency can keep you updated as they will work with this daily. For instance, currently although the job market has started to open up, there are a lack of candidates. Therefore, if you want to interview someone, do it sooner rather than later and make sure you communicate regularly with the agency to keep the candidate warm.
Especially in the current market it is essential to have a sense of urgency in responding to your agency regarding candidates, so many clients are missing out on the best person for the job by taking far too long to decide, and by not working together with the agency, sometimes not responding to their telephone messages or emails – an agency can only keep someone interested for so long, until another employer sees their potential, and you won’t want to miss out.
Providing a good job description from the beginning of your search is key, this will be the basis from which an agency will advertise your position and seek to promote the benefits of the role and your company, ensure you stand out from competitors and are viewed as an attractive option. This is an important sales tool so take time to write this up, including any additional benefits that come with the role e.g., pension/bonus schemes.
Treat a recruitment agency as an extension of your HR department, they are all human and if you make them feel part of your team, they will put in every effort to achieve the common goal of finding the best people to work for you.
PUT A RECRUITMENT BUDGET IN PLACE
Whether you are seeking Permanent or Temporary staff throughout the working year, its often a good idea to put some budget aside for the recruitment process. You are only going to expect the best to work in YOUR COMPANY, so only work with the best recruitment agency who can provide the high standards you require to find the best quality people. It is a false economy to think you will attract the best people by only making a small investment in this area.
If you wish to negotiate lower fees, consider what would be the benefit for the agency – a valued agency will know their worth and the overall time and requirements they need to put into searching for the ideal candidate. What you may want to consider is offering the agency “Sole Agency” at a lower fee for the first two weeks. This gives both parties a benefit and could be an ideal way of testing a new agency to see how they operate and whether they are the best fit for you.
Also, if one agency fees are 15%, whilst another 10% for example, don’t assume the lower offer is always a better offer – as discussed above get to know the quality of the agency and the quality of service that will be provided. It’s also good to consider that most recruitment consultants work on a commission basis so if you are asking for a reduced fee vs a company who is willing to pay the full fee for a professional service then it maybe worth thinking whose role may get a little more attention.
Remember if the agency doesn’t place anyone there is no fee, so you really don’t have anything to lose, but so much to gain.
THINK ABOUT YOUR COMPANY AND WHAT IT HAS TO OFFER
Whether working with an agency for the first time or not, always take some time to sell your company to them, we are often so busy we can just off load the information then expect someone to hit the ground running. However, many job titles are the same, and therefore the content of the job descriptions can be the same or certainly similar. If you take time to really sell the benefits of your company to the agency, this will give them some great selling points to add to the job posts and hopefully engage with more people faster.
Areas to consider might be wellbeing programmes, personal development initiatives, do you nurture creativity. What are your leadership values and training? What is the working environment like? Quiet, family run, vibrant etc all essential information to help you stand out. One for the current working environment is would you consider hybrid or remote working?
THINGS TO CONSIDER
If you chose to work with an agency, be thorough in the information you provide them and your research into how they work. Don’t think of them as a last-minute thought. At the start of any staffing campaign, consider whether the role you are looking to fill would best fit with an agency doing the work on your behalf e.g. Is it a national campaign that needs a wider team or a niche role that may need more CV searching? Take the time to brief them properly, a good job description, selling the benefits of working for your company vs any other. Communicating regularly with your chosen agency, remember they are talking to candidates on your behalf, and it is both your reputations that matter here. By not getting back to agencies after they have sent numerous CVs or after interviews really doesn’t reflect well on either party as far as the prospective candidates feel, and there is a high risk of losing the best candidates due to delays in communicating.
Know who you are working with and what you will be getting for your money, do your research as you would in any other area of your business. Always be honest about your experience too, feedback is essential for any business to learn and grow and ask the agency to do the same with you and your team, it really is a two-way dialogue.
Remember an honest, trustworthy, and well-established agency will always do their best for you and the candidate. Saving a few pounds on an agency fee might not always be what it appears, but it doesn’t do any harm to discuss a good agency will either agree or explain why they can’t reduce the fee in terms of the experience and hours required to really find you an exceptional candidate. A good consultant will work extremely hard on your behalf, and this will become very apparent very quickly.
Perhaps it’s time to rethink your thoughts on using an agency and think very differently about using reputable ones who employ talented people who know how to find talented people as this could be exactly what you need right now in a very different UK working environment.
