Deciding to work with a recruitment agency will come with a lot of benefits for your business, especially within the current climate where it’s a candidate driven market. There are 4 key reasons why other businesses choose to use a recruitment agency.

• Saving resource, time, and money
• Improve the quality of hire
• Additional security
• Specialist knowledge

So, now we have established the WHY let’s now talk about the HOW. There are some key objectives to establish to ensure they are truly the right fit to recruit for your business.

“WHAT IS THE COST OF YOUR SERVICE?”

Every recruitment agency will have different costs for their services, as the employer you are responsible for all fees incurred, this is a question you should be asking!

The fees will usually be determined by what type of position you are recruiting for and under what type of employment, for example, temporary, temp to perm or permanent.

Just remember, the most expensive/cheaper agency isn’t always the best route. Stick within your budget and think about what services work with your business!

“DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT EXPERTISE?”

Test your recruitment agencies knowledge and look at the quality! You need to remember that your recruitment partner is representing your business, nothing but the best should be expected!

You should pay attention to their client list, ask for testimonials from candidates and clients. This is a good way of finding the quality within their work and services.

A good tip to see if they have a professional image is to, find out if they have a positive social media presence and check they are members of the recommended professional associations.

“WHAT IS YOUR SUCCESS RATE WITH PLACING?”

Recruitment is not a cheap investment! You should aim to ensure that your recruitment partner has a high success rate of previous placements for long-term candidates within a business.

“CANDIDATE RESOURCING PROCESS?”

In our opinion, this is the most important question to ask a potential recruitment partner!

This can cover everything from advertising, interview process and how a recruitment partner deems a candidate to be appropriate for an individual business to meet both needs and requirements.

The quick answer is, take your time. Quality over quantity is always key within this process. A recruiter that really gets to know the individual business along with their candidates, will naturally find higher success rates within their placements.

Your chosen recruiter should ultimately understand that a candidate and a job role is more than two condensed sides of a piece of paper!

“HOW OFTEN DO YOU COMMUNICATE DURING THE PROCESS?”

Communication is key! Your agency should provide you with collaborate, communicative and an efficient partnership to create a successful service. Anything less than you feel is necessary, they are not the recruitment partner for your business.

“WHAT HAPPENS IF THE CANDIDATE DOESN’T REMAIN WITH THE BUSINESS?”

It’s rare that once a candidate is placed within a business that they do not last, however hiccups do happen through no one’s fault. Your chosen recruitment agency should have prior preparations to prepare for the worst.

You want to be looking for the rebate period within their “terms”, this will include providing their policy on refunds and replacements within a certain time frame.

“WHAT ONGOING SUPPORT WOULD YOU OFFER?”

Some recruitment agencies choose to not keep in contact once they have placed within your business, but there will be others that offer in their services to remain in contact with you regarding the candidate, ensuring everything is going well and to be on hand should you require any guidance or further support.

It’s up to you as a hiring manager and business to decide which route you’d prefer; the point is the recruitment agency listens to your needs!