As a candidate looking for a new role, finding a job can be a very overwhelming and confusing process, especially in our modern times where there are so many places to look. From traditional job advertisements in local newspapers, to job boards such as Indeed and Reed and even social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn – there can be many choices to choose from. Between all of these there are also employment agencies and recruitment agencies but what is the difference between the two?

The biggest difference is the type of clients that they service. A recruitment agency tends to work for a number of companies/employers who are looking to fill roles at those specific organisations, whereas an employment agency tends to find the candidates first before matching them to roles. 

Though this does at first glance appear to be very similar there is in fact a key difference here – most recruitment consultants begin with a job brief in mind, as a result they tend to be looking for more skilled candidates who fit this brief, essentially “headhunting” specific people with specific skills for a specific position. 

On the other hand, an employment agency works by getting in touch with businesses who have positions available to refer a job to them. As a consequence, most employment agencies tend to go after more unskilled and less specialised positions.

Both can help job seekers but in different ways. An employment agency can help someone who is in the early stages of their career, maybe they are a school leaver or perhaps someone who is moving industries. A recruitment agency can help people to find roles that meet their exact skill sets if they want to progress further in their careers. 

One other misconception surrounding recruitment agencies is how they are funded, with people often thinking recruitment agencies only register people to meet KPI’s so they can receive funding from the government. However, many recruitment agencies are privately owned so they do not receive funding and their financial model largely depends on finding their clients the right staff for positions that are available and therefore, hiring for the long term.

Shawthorpe is a recruitment agency but also a HR consultant for our clients. This means the positions we are recruiting for are at companies we have a long-standing relationship with and for many of them we also manage their HR services beyond the initial job offer. We believe this alongside our core values of honesty, consistency, dependability and reliability means our agency acts with both our clients and candidates best interests at heart. For example, we interview every candidate to ensure you will fit the company that we refer you for, not just in terms of skill set, but also in terms of your personality as well.

If you would like to work with us, you can call us on 01952 263973 and one of our team will be able to assist you. Alternatively, you can submit your details on our app and our team will be able to get started straight away. You can also find out more about registering with a recruitment agency on our blog post here.