Recent research may have indicated that in-house recruiters are relying less on recruitment agencies to fill vacancies, but most staffing businesses are still posting strong results, whilst the RECs monthly Report on Jobs shows vacancy levels rising on a monthly basis.

Many industry commentators have long been forecasting the decline of agencies, in the face of growing competition from job boards, internal recruitment teams and social networking, but the industry continues to grow, and offer an important route for sourcing the best talent. Newer sourcing or attraction models may seem to preclude the third party recruiter, whilst client and candidate expectations change and evolve in line with technology, but there remains a core need for recruiting specialists to find talent for companies, and to help that talent become hireable.

When I first entered the industry I recruited qualified accountants. Most firms saw agencies as advisers, their eyes and ears in the market place, who focused efforts on attracting great candidates. As a recruitment consultant your value proposition was usually the candidates that you could find, or that you knew of, and your overall market intelligence regarding shifting trends and pay scales, and competitor activity.

So what are some of the main advantages of using an agency now?

Knowledge of the market

The best recruiters will have their finger on the pulse of their specialist markets, and can give the hiring team insight in to what is happening. They should know the available talent, where they are and how to reach out to them, salary rates, career expectations, available skill-sets and current hiring complexities. If other businesses are struggling to find the same people as you they should be able to advise on alternative solutions. The best will act as partners and collaborators, and should still be your eyes and ears in the market.

Extended reach

Some candidates are hard to find. They may be passive or they may be selective. If they aren’t responding to job advertisements, don’t see themselves as part of your ‘talent pool’ and are too busy to search full time then the chances are that they may have relationships with trusted specialist recruiters in your sector. Even if they aren’t currently active, there’s a strong chance that a good recruiter will know who they are and how to reach them. Agencies have many networks – each consultant, candidate, client or collaborator has the potential to leverage their networks to help connect you to people with a range of skills and experiences, many of who would be off the radar of an in-house team or hiring manager.

Candidates not applicants

A lot of talent attraction is aimed at attracting applicants, whether they are responding to an advert, applying on spec, or through your website. A lot of these people may not be good matches for the role hence a lot of time will be invested in filtering, assessing, matching and communicating with them. When we talk of a bad candidate experience it’s normally an applicant experience that we are referring to. Time and resource poor recruitment teams may not be able to run a thorough matching process. Using a recruitment agency should mean that you see only candidates – job seekers who have been pre-selected to match all the criteria that you are looking for and who are worthy of consideration and interview.

Help with employer brand

Large companies invest a lot of time and money in developing and marketing their employer brand, but many SME and smaller businesses don’t have the same resources. If you chose your agency wisely then they can give potential candidates a real insight in to your business – what it’s like to work there, benefits and career openings available, and a feel for the culture. If you partner closely with agencies, let them spend time getting to know you and some of your key managers, then they should be able to represent you as an employer of choice. If a candidate checks your business out on social media, either through a site like Glassdoor or by searching for people who used to work with you, then a fully briefed recruitment partner should be able to help clarify any points that may arise.

Access to key strategic skills

In the RECs most recent Jobs Outlook, the number one reason that companies gave for using a recruitment agency was to gain short term access to key strategic skills, a reason that been growing in importance over the last 3 years, now overtaking covering leave and peaks in demand. With talent shortages now potentially hindering growth it’s not surprising that this is the case. Whilst some of the reasons I’ve already given may refer more to permanent recruiters, many also offer the opportunity to bring in qualified, experienced help at short notice. These flexible solutions are particularly crucial for a long term project or initiative.

Budget/Resource

Whilst the FIRMs recent in-house recruiter survey did hint at a decrease in agency use, it also showed a tightening of budgets and resources. When I asked corporate recruiters on social media to give me reasons why they use agencies many answers were around budget and resource. There is a budget for agency fees, but not to gain extra resource. There are are time constraints to performing a thorough search, so it is often easier for managers to interview from an agency shortlist – in fact many hiring managers, themselves possibly placed by recruitment agencies in the past, often favour third party recruiters. There is little doubt that a hard pressed HR or in-house team can benefit from the reach and networks of a trusted agency partner.

Of course most business will have their own reasons for using recruitment agencies. For many it’s the temporary staffing service, or the more recent managed workforce facility that many larger companies are favoring as a way to monitor staffing costs. For some it may be a short term need and for others they may offer a major route to market to access the strong talent that they would otherwise miss out on.

A recruitment agency helps job seekers find employment,while also helping a company find the perfect person for the job they are advertising.

Companies will hire a recruitment agency so that they do not have to sort through, possibly, hundreds of applications for a job. These days, there are more and more people applying for the same position and companies do not have the time to sift through that many applications. They will therefore hire a recruitment agency to take care of this part of the process and to whittle the number of candidates down to a manageable level. Business owners and executives do not have the time and, in many cases, do not have the skills to find the perfect candidates, so outsourcing to a recruitment agency may be the best solution.

There are a number of benefits to using recruitment agencies for employers and potential employees; below are just a few:

Using a recruitment agency saves time. The hiring process can be very time consuming, and especially the initial stages of sorting through applications. With so many people applying for the same position, it is understandable for a company to want to avoid this part of the process. Running a company is time consuming enough without having to take time away from this to sort through large numbers of CVs and application forms. Giving a recruitment agency the task of creating a shortlist of candidates for a position in a company is good business sense.

Some companies will use one recruitment agency to find the best person for their available position and will not advertise anywhere else. Failing to use recruitment agencies means that some candidates will not see these fantastic job advertisements and may miss the opportunity to work in a fantastic company with an excellent package.

Not only will recruitment agencies have the best jobs, they may also have access to the best candidates. Companies will benefit from the fact that a recruitment agency may have some of the best talent already registered on their books and it could mean finding the perfect candidate sooner rather than later.

There are many levels to the hiring process, including sorting through applications, interviewing, screening, and reference checks. A recruitment agency can take care of all of these steps bar the actual interview. By passing these processes to the recruitment agency, a company can ensure that it does not have to worry about calling previous employers for references or checking up on qualifications, etc. These jobs can all be taken care of by the agency before the interview, and that will give the employer peace of mind that the person they are interviewing has already passed the necessary checks.

A recruitment agency will want to make sure that the person they recommend for the position is the best person for the job. They will therefore be meticulous in their vetting process and will only choose candidates that they feel will do the job to the best of their ability. This gives employers the security that the candidate should be a good fit for the company.

A good recruitment agency can be used repeatedly for available positions within a company. Once they have found a successful candidate for a company, the company will feel confident that they will be able to do so again and it will take the worry out of the process. It means that when new positions become available, the agency will have the details they need and can find the perfect candidate as soon as possible.

Good recruitment agencies will work with both the client and the candidate and will try to help the candidate to make a good impression on the potential employer. This can be hugely beneficial to job seekers who are nervous about their interview.

Locating the Best Recruitment Agency

When it comes to recruitment, Recruit Me LLC has access to some of the best positions and the best talent for the Real Estate industry in general. We can help job seekers find the perfect position and can help employers to find the ideal candidate.