There are a lot of companies that don’t use a recruitment agency.  There are also a lot of companies that do use a recruitment agency – so who’s right?

Well, as this blog is written by a Recruitment Company owner, you might expect me to come up on the side of those that do.   Well, you’d be right – of course you would.   But then I wouldn’t be in this business if I didn’t believe and know how much value Recruitment Businesses offer to our clients.

A recruitment agency only charges when you have taken on the right person

On top of that, there aren’t too many industries that ONLY CHARGE when you’ve actually taken on the right person.   The legal industry like to firmly promote the phrase “no win, no fee”.  Well a recruitment agency is the same, and yet the real value in that statement seems to have lost its meaning in  Recruitment.   But if you are looking for staff – “what have you got to lose”??

The fact is, there is not much to lose. The very fabric of our industry, the very point of what we do is to save you 3 key elements.

• Time
• Money
• Hassle

Recruitment is an incredibly time consuming and expensive process.   But then so it should be, people are a business’s most precious and valuable resource.   And the right person is not easy to find.   “we’ll just stick and advert out” …………..    If only it were so easy.

IT’S ALL ABOUT REACH

The reality is that most recruitment businesses spend tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds on vast multiplatform advertising, buying in huge amounts of CV databases from elite and  expensive specialist job boards, through to the Monsters and Jobsites of the worlds.

But over and above that, we all have cultivated, carefully managed internal candidate databases.  Especially where agencies have niche sections, the quality of candidates that are often exclusive.

So how big is the pool you’re fishing in?   You might well be getting the best out of that pool, but agencies will often be fishing in an ocean in comparison.

TIME   

To work a relatively easy vacancy,  we allocate 2 initial days for resourcing alone.

Day 1 and 2   – The advert is placed and the databases searched , the networking and let’s face it – the   trying, trying, trying to reach that great candidate that never seems to be available.

Day 3 and 4  –   Interviews – technical vetting – reference checks.

Day 5 –   a second consultant will do another full sweep.  The value of a second pair of eyes on a search is enormous and nearly always turns up a new star candidate.

So that’s a week of full on work.    A week that busy HR Managers or Line Managers just can’t afford to take out of your already hectic schedule.   So direct hiring companies just don’t have the time to be this thorough and so inevitably the results are far less effective.

On top of that, difficult, senior or specialist positions can take much longer with far more work, more specialist advertising and intricate searching required.

MONEY

Of course, money is so important.   But so is Value.     The cost of advertising is huge but it’s our business and a very necessary evil for the recruitment company.   We can take advantage of economies of scale which direct hiring companies can’t, but still it’s a very expensive business.

But the cost of your time should never be underestimated.  The average HR Manager will be on around £40 – £50K.   If you could take yourself completely out of your already hectic position to allocate a week to recruitment – it will cost your company around £1,000 + adverts.   And of course there is no guarantee of success.      And what if the person doesn’t work out – there’s no rebate as you would get from an agency.  The costs start all over again.

SO BACK TO THE QUESTION – ” WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE”?  

Well if you find the right recruitment agency – with the right references – in the right sector,  you have absolutely nothing to lose but perhaps a week.    If you don’t see results in a week, then fine, move on.

But actually, you will almost certainly find that you are presented with the very best candidates that the whole market has to offer and a significant saving in:

• TIME
• MONEY
• HASSLE

If you are interested in anything that I have discussed in this or any other blogs, please feel free to call us on 0844 8794523.