The process of hiring a recruitment agency To find employees for your business
High-quality and motivated employees are the key to any successful business, and sometimes you need help finding them. Recruitment companies are a great resource for acquiring talent, but it can be challenging to identify companies that can give you the best return on your investment.
In this article, we're going to help you identify your needs and understand your current recruiting and retention challenges. We will discuss how to hire the right staffing agency, how to use it effectively, and how to do it all within your budget.
Determining business needs
If you look at the number of vacancies posted on job boards, websites and social media, it is obvious that the demand for the best talent far exceeds the supply, and this creates problems for you and your company. To plan for the future and keep your business growing , you need to understand the current challenges of attracting and hiring the best employees.
Let's start with university graduates. The number of such graduates can no longer meet the demand for talent in many in-demand professions, including IT, engineering and robotics. And thanks to technology, there are more options to choose from. As a result, engineering students who would have chosen a traditional career as an electrical, mechanical, civil, or structural engineer now have an infinite number of other options for non-traditional roles.
In addition, global competition for talent will continue to grow and raise wage requirements. This trend is especially strong in countries with limited population growth, and many global companies allow employees to work remotely. And lately, we have seen a trend where employees prefer to work from home , refusing additional increases in the form of bonuses, compensation for travel expenses, etc.
Companies are also facing the fact that technology has changed the hiring playing field forever. People are making ever closer professional and personal connections through social media, making it relatively easy for a person to find a job. A survey published on LinkedIn.com found that more than 85% of people who change jobs have found a new opportunity through their network of acquaintances.
In addition, some companies have created referral bonuses for their employees. Thus, literally every employee of their company is actively recruiting good specialists. If you don't have a lucrative employee referral program, it's hard for you to compete.
Now consider recruiting companies. They are not cheap, so you need to use them wisely. A good recruitment agency can be a powerful and profitable part of your team, but at the same time, you can go through dozens of them if you are not satisfied with the results. In such situations, you not only pay a commission, but you can also lose money and reduce productivity.
Here are a few steps on how to evaluate your current resources. Start by listing all the resources you have used in the last 12 months. This list should include website posts, job postings, recruitment agencies, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites. And be sure to include your employee referral program and any additional resources, whether you pay for them or not.
Some resources may be more effective at attracting full-time or contract employees. So break down your resources by the types of positions they fill effectively. Resources that specialize in a particular niche can often provide the best people for a specific task.
Then look at the number of tickets that were listed and, more importantly, the percentage of those tickets that were filled by each specific resource. This list will quickly show which resources are a waste of time and money. You should examine the pros and cons of each resource, including time to fill vacancies, retention of placed candidates, wasted time such as finding unqualified candidates, return on your investment, and any other data relevant to your evaluation.
Also ask candidates what resources they use when looking for a new job. Do they use job aggregator sites, visit company websites, use the social network LinkedIn, or in some other way? One of them can be a great source of talent.
Once you've assessed your current recruiting resources, it's time to conduct a gap analysis for each candidate. Think about what you need from external resources and then analyze your actual results. For example, if you work with a specific agency that can fill your vacancies but never hires an engineer, this is a disadvantage. Therefore, you need to find new resources to attract the engineers you need to hire and fill this gap.
Evaluation of a recruitment agency in terms of benefits for your business
Past experience influences how you perceive the value of recruitment agencies, so let's look at how to clearly evaluate a recruitment company based on your role as a hiring manager. Start by making a list of recruitment agencies you have used or are currently using to identify the most talented employees.
Next to each company, list what you like best about their services to help you identify the most talented employees. Determine what specifically each company did that led to a successful hire. Take the time to review application completion rates, hiring times, placement retention, post-hire follow-up, financial investment, and problem solving.
When looking at the processes and results of recruiting agencies, ask yourself what you would like each company to do differently. When checking the percentage of outstanding applications, also check how did you actually fill these positions or did they remain vacant? If you stopped working with certain staffing agencies, what exactly made you leave?
Take the time to analyze the services they offer, the results they delivered, and the person you contacted at each staffing company. Determine if anything could be changed to continue doing business with them. Then evaluate the services, specialties, and geographic features of each staffing company you have used. This will help you determine if they are suitable for your current and future needs.
Did the agencies you used specialize in niche areas such as IT, engineering or accounting to fill your applications in those specific areas? Did they offer services that included not only full-time hiring, but also temporary workers or long-term contractors to suit your needs?
Finally, review the information you receive to determine what your company needs when you hire staffing agencies to help you meet your future needs. This process will make your job easier and help attract talent.
When you need to fill an important position, it's too late to try to find the best niche recruiting companies. This is what you want to do before you have a need. Therefore, it is important to identify in advance recruitment agencies that specialize in exactly what you need most.
You can start by reviewing your strategic hiring plans for the coming year to determine what types of jobs will create the biggest challenges for you, after which you can start researching recruitment agencies that are experienced and have established networks with talent in these positions.
There are several ways to identify recruiting companies and their areas of specialization. You can do a simple browser search by entering the job title, the word recruiting agency, and your geographic location.
Once you have a list of potential recruitment agencies, look at their website to determine if they really specialize where you have needs, look at the positions posted on their website, look at their LinkedIn profile to determine the titles the posts they post and read the testimonials and testimonials to verify the information.
If you have multi-state needs, you may decide to work with a larger recruiting organization that has multiple locations. This ensures that they establish networks of the best talent in the geographic areas where you need help. It's also wise to have at least two companies competing for your business so you can compare results and determine who will be your preferred supplier and who will be on standby.
Finally, remember that a recruiting agency should make your job easier. They must provide candidates that you do not consider yourself, and must provide you with only those talents that match the credentials specified in your application. So take the time to identify the staffing agencies that best suit your needs and then get ready to hire the best talent.
Questions you should ask a recruiting agency
Have you ever wondered how to choose the recruiting agencies that will give you the best results? Recruiting companies come in all shapes, sizes, and offer a wide variety of services, so ask yourself the following questions before you start considering the right recruiting agency:
- What hiring issues are bugging you?
- When you analyze your hiring time, what challenging jobs are out of time?
- Determine if you are hiring full-time candidates, contractors, part-time employees, or a combination of all three?
- Also consider the number of applications and the location of vacancies that need to be filled.
Once you've identified your needs and concerns, it's time to explore your options to partner with the best recruiting agencies. Take a look at the services they offer. Some recruiting agencies only hire people for full-time jobs, some only work with highly qualified candidates, others only hire contractors or temporary workers.
Many recruiting companies specialize in a particular industry or niche. Also, look into local recruiting agencies that are more of a generalist in a particular geographic area. Their network is broader in the types of candidates they represent, but focused on specific geographical parameters.
Most recruiting agencies say they are special, unique, different from their competitors. But when you ask how they are different, they all say the same thing. They specialize in your industry, they have the best candidates, they conduct thorough interviews and background checks. Therefore, it is better to make a list of questions that you can ask in advance in order to find recruiting companies that are truly different from their competitors.
The first thing you want to know about is their ability to place the candidates you need to hire. What is their track record? Ask for a list of companies they have worked for. Are they companies similar to yours? Ask for details. What applications did they fill and how long did it take them to fill the vacancy? Where were the jobs located? And ask, what percentage of the applications they recruit actually result in a hire?
These questions will help you understand what kind of work they do and what results you should expect. But keep in mind that you are going to be building a relationship with this organization, so you also want to learn about the company itself. Ask about the training they provide for their internal team. Have they made a commitment to invest in professional certifications for their recruiters and account managers?
And it is important that you determine how and who will communicate with you. You don't want 10 people from the same recruiting company to call you, but you want to have more than one contact. Will you communicate with the account manager and recruiter? If not, make sure you have a backup contact assigned to you in case your primary contact is unavailable.
Ask questions about your contact's experience and track record, and ask for testimonials from satisfied customers so you can verify the results and level of service your contact provides. Finally, determine what efforts the recruiting agency has made online to stand out from the competition. Check out their website, social media profile, LinkedIn profile, and blog.
It must be understood that recruiters use the same message boards that companies pay for. And as a result, they present candidates that you have already identified. You need to find recruiting agencies that think outside the box. You need to find companies that know how to attract passive candidates.
Today, all recruiting agencies have a database of candidates in their ATS or CRM, and they all use other free and paid resources to identify top talent. So ask them some important questions: how do you find your candidates? How big is your database? How often do you correspond with the candidates in your database?
Recruiting companies should have a strong social media presence, especially LinkedIn. Successful recruiting agencies are always identifying new resources to attract top talent and filling their portfolio well in advance. Finally, ask what percentage of candidates placed by the agency are the result of referrals. Check their website to see if they have a paid referral program.
Determine how their hiring process is different for full-time candidates versus contractors or temporary workers. And how does the recruiting process begin? Is the initial contact with the source by email or phone call? And what percentage of recruiting efforts are directed towards passive and active candidates?
Ask them to describe their process once they have found a potential candidate. Do they fill out paperwork ahead of time or just send resumes? Ask about average tenure for positions in specific areas. Then learn about their interview process. Are the interviews done in person, via Skype or by phone? Ask if they are doing a classic interview or a stressful one?
To help you determine the level of a hired candidate, ask recruiting agencies what percentage of interviewed candidates are presented to clients and how presentations are made. What percentage of submitted candidates are interviewed by clients and what percentage are screened? You should expect all submitted candidates to be asked for credentials, so 100% of candidates must be interviewed.
Also, ask how many candidates go through client interviews before hiring someone. Recruiting companies that have a structured recruitment and interview process also track statistics and metrics and should be able to provide you with the data.
It's a good idea to ask a recruiting agency how long they've been with their current clients, especially clients like your company. Review the recruiting company's LinkedIn profile for referrals from current clients and candidates they have posted. Ask the agency to provide you with feedback or recommendations aimed at retaining placed candidates.
Now let's discuss how you can evaluate customer satisfaction before you start working with a recruiting company. Every recruiting agency has either a positive or negative track record with their current clients, so you want to know how and when recruiting organizations receive criticism or feedback from their current clients.
You will often see testimonials or recommendations on the firm's website or LinkedIn profile, but you need something more. You want the recruiting company to put in the effort to gather solid feedback. As a company about to hire a recruiting agency, you should be asking questions that reveal customer satisfaction.
Ask if they have an exclusive arrangement with any clients. If the answer is yes, ask what they did to deserve this partnership. What percentage of new clients are the result of referrals? If their clients are satisfied with their results, they will provide recommendations. This is a great indicator of customer satisfaction.
Ask if the agency positions itself as a workforce/workplace expert by providing relevant information to its clients? Some companies provide monthly training sessions for their clients, others send out interesting articles, newsletters, or maintain an industry blog. Finally, ask what processes are in place to continually improve customer satisfaction?
Before hiring a recruiting company, talk to them about what you will do after they place someone for a job. There should always be a follow-up process, whether the position is a full-time job, a contract, or a temporary assignment. You want to know that the agency is the candidate's advocate from the very beginning of the interview, throughout the hiring process and after they are hired.
Ask them to describe the onboarding process they use for their staff, contractors, and temporary workers to align with their client's company. Ask how often they communicate during the two-week trial period and after their candidates have started their new position.
Then ask them how they deal with the problems they discover during the follow-up process. Does the agency immediately contact their client or try to solve the problem on their own? When problems arise, how successful are they in solving the problem and retaining the employee? Ask about some specific examples of the results they have achieved and how their solutions have benefited both the candidate and their client.
Recruiting companies that care enough to keep in touch with their candidates after they are hired are organizations that are committed to providing you with high-quality employees for the long term.
Defining Expectations
You may find yourself at a complete loss when working with more than one recruiting agency because they all work differently. Imagine how much time you would save if you understood what to expect from them and what they need from you to hire employees. The key to success is having a frank conversation and setting reasonable expectations.
Keep in mind that changing client needs and new technologies have caused recruiting companies to drastically change the way they work, and the processes they use vary depending on their niche and the segment of the profession they work in.
Before choosing a recruiting company, ask them for a detailed written list of what they are going to do for you and how they will do it. You want to know what you can expect. Then ask the agency for a written list of what they need from you to identify the employees you will hire.
Time is of the essence in the hiring process, and lack of communication can result in you losing the professional you want to hire. Let's take a look at how you can set up effective communication channels with recruiting companies.
Clarify how you will communicate important steps in the process, including details of your application, interview times, how you will provide feedback on applicants, updates to your search criteria, and renewal of offers.
These important steps should be taken over the phone because an immediate response will help move the hiring process forward. Text messages can be very effective, but telephone communication is most effective for dealing with critical issues. Non-critical actions that do not require immediate attention can be performed via email.
You should expect a recruiting agency to contact you after you have hired one of their candidates to make sure their candidate is doing a good job. Recruiters can test skills and experience, but they need to make sure they place their candidate with the right executives in the right position.
A recruiter cannot foresee the challenges their candidates may face related to your company culture, their line manager, or co-workers. But if they contact you and find out about the problems, a recruiter can help you deal with the situation. You also want the recruiter to contact the candidate. Determine how this feedback will be communicated to you.
Small problems can usually be resolved before they develop into major problems that lead to employee turnover. It is often more convenient for your new employee to trust their recruiter than to talk to their new boss. The recruiting company should be able to immediately share these concerns with you.
Plan to provide recruiting companies with feedback on the candidates you are hiring for at least six months. It will also help them determine which of their resources provide the best talent for your company. Should any issues arise, your feedback will help recruiting agencies improve and refine their future recruiting efforts.
Lastly, don't forget to be frank about potential problem areas when talking to the recruiting agency. Ask what the recruiting company is doing to prevent problems ahead of time. Ask how often they face these problems with their current clients and how they solve them.
Conclusion
Now you know what you need to do before hiring a recruiting agency. You also know how to determine which recruiting companies are best placed to find the talent you need for your business.
Use this information to first review the recruiting agencies you currently use and decide whether you will continue to use their services or start looking for better partners. You also know what questions to ask and what results to expect. Good luck with your business.
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