How can you Improve the Effectiveness of Resourcing the Right Candidate?

There has been a shift in the market recently, from that of a Candidate driven Recruitment Market to that of a Company driven Recruitment Market.
What does this mean for your company and how are you and your HR Department going to get the best out of this?

Traditionally, Companies have contacted recruitment agencies for a number of Key reasons:
Lack of suitable candidates available on the market for Senior Positions
In a busy HR Environment there is not enough time to screen the many applicants that you may receive for junior positions
Rapid Expansion of Companies meant more induction courses, more training, more assessments and more HR tasks in general means less time to search for difficult to find candidates
High Turnover of staff due to competition between rival companies for the best and most experienced staff

Currently Companies are looking at using agencies for other reasons:
When recruiting directly, many companies are finding that for every role advertised there are upward of 100 applicants, mostly without the relevant experience, which is time consuming to filter though
There is still a lack of Senior Quality Candidates available on the market, as there is a fear of changing jobs for those who are not being made redundant, and therefore head hunting is still required
With Hiring Freezes in place in many companies, and with reduced headcount, companies need to get the very best of the available candidates to ensure new hires are capable of handling more than the ‘job spec’.


How you can take advantage?
What some Companies are finding is that in order to reduce their costs and still get the quality of service that they need, Professional Agencies are reducing their fees in exchange for exclusivity on the role and possibly a Retained Assignment fee. Everybody wins here – The Company have a dedicated Senior Consultant working on the role where the Recruiter can afford to spend 100% of their time on this position as the risk of their competition has been eliminated. In a situation where Contingency Recruitment Fees are in place this is a key point.
The Company can also have a structured timeframe for interviews and a deadline for an offer and start date, which can be managed by the single agency. There is only one point of contact, one agency, and not several consultants all looking for feedback on their candidates.
Paying a retainer up front provides reassurance to the Company that the Agency is working their role and that they have to deliver.
It doesn’t cost anything for Companies to give Agencies temporary exclusivity and it frees up considerable time for the HR Department. The Recruiter has to deliver the “High in Demand” Candidate through Headhunting, Network Mapping and overall contacts and market knowledge in a quick turnaround time during this temporary exclusive period, or risk loosing it and have the role become contingency based between competing agencies.

Costings and Savings:
1) With direct applicants, there is no rebate period or free replacement should the candidate not work out. If the Candidate doesn’t work out then it is back to square one regarding interviewing and searching for candidates. If you use an Agency (if the agency is doing the correct job and adhering to their Standards) you can be happy in the knowledge that they will be relevant to the position and that the candidate is of a certain calibre, professionalism and is committed to the position and future of their career. There is no back up plan with using Job Hire websites - you have paid for the advertisement and the CVs you receive is all that you can use, and if a candidate does not work out you have to buy new advertising space

2) Rates seem to have become more competitive but regardless of the charge, the amount of work that goes into the process is still the same and again the standards, ethics and workload (Pre-interview screening, CV formatting, cover letters, Reference checking, Visa working rights, Pre-interview Training etc) have to be adhered to. Perhaps something that is rarely considered by companies is that this is on a contingency basis, so even after this amount of work is done there is no guarantee that we will be paid for this service in the end (Internal interviews, Candidate has found another job, position has been but on hold, Recruitment Freeze) You would not get this service from a Job website where you have to pay up front before you even see a CV and then have to process all the work thereafter. With a recruitment agency, you will get a reduced rate and a higher level of service and a better chance of getting the perfect candidate.


Which Agency should you choose?
There are good agencies and bad “cowboy” Agencies. Agencies are not all the same!! Do not choose an agency based on the rate alone. If you have doubts, ask to see testimonials from clients. Understand what recruitment services are on offer. Take the time out to meet with the Agency face to face, that will help understand the benefits of utilising their services and also you can directly explain how you want the recruitment process to happen. The meeting will allow the Agency to better understand your company, your teams, your wants and needs – as well as how your current service can be improved.


Written by Sinead O’Sullivan