“Recruitment agency is not a naughty word…”

Allen Tyson

 

So, I normally don’t write posts as I try to keep my opinion to myself. Well most of the time.

And I am far from a literary genius given I struggle to even write Xmas cards… Sorry Mum.

However, there is one thing that I feel passionate enough about to try this whole blogging thing.

There appears to be a consistent negative perception of recruitment agencies and of the industry in general (cue gasps of shock from all the readers).

To be honest at one time or another every industry seems to come under fire. I guess this is the world we live in and social media giving everyone a global stage only amplifies negative messages or isolated bad experiences.

So, I am going to use social media to send a short positive message about the recruitment industry and great recruitment agencies.

There are bad agencies out there (again cue gasps of shock from all the readers). Fact of life.

In countries whereby, there is no licensing for recruitment agencies, there is a low barrier to entry anyone can set up a recruitment agency… and they often do (caveat – licensing does not always guarantee quality).

It is unfortunate that the fly by night agencies lower the perception of other great agencies through poor delivery. Whether it be poor candidate submission, lack of candidates, candidates scrapped from job boards adding very little value to your recruitment efforts (the list goes on).

But I am here to inform you as someone that sees daily, agencies globally servicing varied industries, a great agency can provide a significant value proposition to your business. This is why great agencies are engaged by some of the largest employers in the world and some of the best performing talent acquisition teams build strong agency networks.

Peaks in recruitment, periods of limited bandwidth, support for recruiting specialist roles, highly sort after disciplines or limited suitable candidates are all key drivers, I see for agency engagement.

It is a well-known fact the great recruitment agency has significant passive networks. They engage and mature these over years and have their finger on the pulse in their industries verticals they service. Therefore, time to higher is reduced and access to highly skilled candidates is increased.

Remember it’s not about finding the best talent… but the “right” talent. The talent that is right for your company and AI is not yet capable of determining this (yet). Agencies through their passive networks can quickly match suitable candidates in their known networks through human experience and nature.

Sometimes you need to ask whether you know you hired the best candidate. Or whether your search was as extensive as that of an agency or agencies.

Passive networks become even more important particularly in countries with unemployment rates sub 10% whereby people aren’t necessarily actively looking. They are not browsing job boards or logging into linked in regularly or even worse they don’t have detailed profiles (Who would have thought it!).

Agencies as a third party can be impartial with regards to the candidates presented ensuring the right candidate gets the job without bias. I think sometime this is over looked and undervalued.

The positives of using agencies are extensive but won’t I continue to bore you. And yes, I am passionate about the recruitment industry.

So, I know you’re sitting there all thinking, but I haven’t addressed the cost of using an agency.

Well what I can tell you is a lot of companies who decline to use agency services forget about direct and indirect costs such as:

1. Role left vacant for an extended period.
2. The cost of running weekly campaigns on job boards and staff costs to verify and shortlist candidates.
3. Last but not least, the indirect cost of making the wrong hire.

Agencies further can add value through free replacement of candidates and temp to perm contract whereby the agency contracts the candidate for 3 months and if successful converted to a permanent role minimizing the risk to a company through a trial period.

I have recently run a scenario for one of our existing clients and provided a cost analysis against the “old methodology of sourcing” and the new approach through the great agencies on the Ubidy platform. It was significant when factors around time to hire, conversion rate, retention and cost per hire were considered.

So, summing up. “Great agencies” can add real value to your next search whether for 1 or 100 roles.

In the end, the key to having a positive engagement with a recruitment agency is to cut through the noise and find agencies with the recruiters that will deliver exceptional results.

As one of the original founders of Ubidy this was the main driver for building a technology to enable and support companies wishing to cut through the noise. To be able to establish meaningful engagements with agencies. The end result; access to a global community of compliant and outstanding agencies, ensuring the right candidate is hired, with a reduced time to hire.

If you disagree then PM me or even better, provide us your next difficult role and let’s trial it on the platform together to see the results. I am confident I can change your perception. But be warned, you may actually enjoy it!