There are in excess of 15,000 recruitment firms in the UK alone.  So as an employer, where do you start when you need to determine which recruiter is the most appropriate to engage with?

Well, here a few key factors to consider when undertaking your decision making process.

1. Is the Agency REC or APSCo accredited?  Recruitment agencies registered with either the REC or APSCo have to conform to a professional code so generally, you can rest assured you will receive a professional service.
2. Are They Specialists in Your Industry or in the Skill Set You’re Hiring For?  Generalist agencies have a place. They can be useful for an employer who needs to recruit for a wide variety of roles without the hassle of agreeing individual terms of business with a number of different recruitment agencies. Specialist agencies may be preferable however if you have a specific skill set that you need to hire. A specialist recruiter will have a solid understanding of either the niche skill set or the industry sector which you’re hiring for. Typically, specialist recruiters provide their services at a premium.
3. How well do they understand your industry sector?  A recruiter will have a greater understanding of what candidates are appropriate for your role if they understand the industry sector in which you operate and the scope of the role that the candidate would be required to perform if hired.
4. What is their track record?  Promises on what can be delivered may be no more than promises. Although no guarantee of future performance, a good indicator is past performance. Ask the recruiter to provide evidence of successful delivery – particularly with other employers in the same market sector as yourself, or who have sought to hire for a similar role.
5. Can they give you any client testimonials?  It’s very easy to extol one’s own virtues, but there’s a greater degree of significance if a third party sings your praises. Ask the agency to provide testimonials from their current and previous customers.
6. What fee are they wishing to charge you?  On average, recruiter fees can range from 18-25%. Your commitment to providing the opportunity to source volume hires through a recruiter can bring that rate down to as little as 10-12% (depending on how many vacancies you have).
7. Do they have a rebate clause in their contract?  Sometimes, regardless of how thorough the recruitment process is, the person hired does not work out for one reason or another. A good recruiter will acknowledge this and therefore will agree to source a free replacement for the employer should this situation arise in the first two or three months. If no replacement candidate can be found, the recruiter should provide the employer with a rebate of some form. An example rebate schedule is for 100% if the candidate leaves within the first month, 75% if they leave in month 2, and 50% if they leave in month 3. Beyond that, typically no rebate is provided.

As indicated above, this is not an exhaustive list of things to consider, but the items mentioned should definitely be included in your review process.

Good luck in your selection process!

 

Yourpeoplemarket.com is a free to use website that is helping 100s of businesses get the best talent in the market.  Through us, the hire process is often quicker and employers benefit from an average cost reduction of about 40%. Recruitment agencies registered on yourpeoplemarket.com are vetted before being approved onto the service. Employers can easily see a recruiter’s performance track record on the system and their YourRate score – which is an aggregate rating compiled by other employers who have engaged the recruiter in the past. All this helps employers to quickly decide which recruiters to engage with and find their desired talent fast.

 Golden rule number one at this stage of the process is make sure you are ready, willing and able to deal with the response you get.

 

Essentially without “over egging” thing you are now the window into your company and the way you deal with applications will reflect on your company’s brand.

 

First things first - be respectful enough to respond to each and every candidate. 

 

They have after all taken the time to apply for your job.  Even if the response to your job is high, I believe every applicant merits a response, it is simple, common courtesy and you will do your brand and yourself no favours if you don’t get back to candidates.  (Think of all the chasing calls you will get, people grunting in the market how you don’t respond.  Finally remember some of the applicants may be your best and most loyal customers!!).

 

To be clear this response doesn’t have to be anything complex.  For example have ready template letters and auto responders ready on emails etc.  Remember even if they are not right for your business today, you may want them to apply again tomorrow – so tread carefully!

 

Obviously there are many merits in a recruitment marketplace or agency based solution that could be discussed here – but I want to focus on you and your activity within your business.

 

Now when you begin screening the candidate response the first key thing to do is make sure that this time is red penned and all parties are available to feedback as appropriate.  There is little or no point in “teeing up” candidates for an interview by a line manager if they are not included in the selection process.

 

Moving on it is not that difficult to match a CV against your job spec, you know what skills you are looking for and if they are reflected in CV then great!  This said remember the CV is not the person you will interview it is a document!  So don’t rely on the CV – 90% of the people who get the job never look perfect on paper. 

 

So the message is decide on what is your core requirement and go from there.  Think too about applicants from “parallel industries”, they may not have worked in your vertical, but how transferable are their skills, an outsider with a different approach/way of doing things might be just the thing your business needs.

 

Now unfortunately it’s not all as straightforward as it sounds.  The important thing to remember when screening applicants is that they WANT the job – and this may mean that they embellish their achievements and tweak their CV to look just so.

 

As such be ready to pick up the phone and check details with a candidate.  A common smoke screen people put up is their salary – so make them aware that if they are called to interview you might want to see some recent payslips/commission statements. 

 

Make them aware before they enter the interview process you will (where appropriate) be doing some or all of the following:

 

1)     Confirming qualifications

2)     Taking at least two employer reference – follow these up properly!

3)     Conducting the appropriate Legal checks and Right to Work checks

4)     In a client facing role asking to speak to at least two of their clients

 

Additionally it is worth using the web to check out a candidate.  I without fail, when I have an initial sweep of candidates who I like to the look of on paper, take the time to put their name in a search engine and see what comes back!  I stress here do not put too much emphasis on this – but rest assured it will help stop you making the odd howler here and there!

 

Now when you have selected your shortlist to invite to interview make sure that you are ready for them to come in.

 

1)     Red pen “interview time” in all the relevant parties diaries

2)     Red pen “feedback time” where you get everyone’s thoughts – my view strike while the iron is hot within 2 hours of the interview

3)     Make sure you have the right environment available for the interview to take place

4)     Ensure without fail the candidate knows what you are expecting from them on the day, if you want them to bring examples of work along etc let them know – don’t just assume!  If it is a four part interview with tests – let them know at the outset!

 

Finally, do not invite the world and his wife for interview – time is one of most valuable currencies spend it wisely!

 

This is the third in a series of “common sense” recruitment tips.  Next time we’ll be looking at the interview process itself.

Did you miss the first two articles in this series? The first article outlined how to make time to properly define the job role, then in the second article I shared some experience on where to post your vacancy. Please have a look if you missed them when they came out.

 

Chris Smith is the founder of yourpeoplemarket.com a game changing, free to use, fixed fee recruitment marketplace – where you can engage with agencies at a fee you set or less and only ever pay on success.

Before this Chris was Joint Founder of ecrmpeople, which over a seven year period he took from being a start-up to a £12m company.

 Now that you have your job description nailed and you know exactly what you’re looking for...the real work starts!

 

The first thing to remember is that from here you start paying. 

 

So before you get the cheque book out ensure you give your job the utmost exposure through any and all free means you have at your disposal.

 

A quick checklist here should include:

 

1)     Communicate to the people in your business that you are in the market for new staff and be clear on what you are looking for.  Be this through a staff meeting, a noticeboard or intranet – make sure you have your company on the lookout for you – you will be surprised how many of your employees know people who are looking, but unless prompted would not prompt their connections to apply.

2)      Use any and all social media channels that your company employs to get the message out – put it out there on, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and any other network you engage in.  Don’t forget that if you do use these channels to keep them updated as you progress – there is nothing worse for a candidate than applying for a job that has already been filled.  Remember, if this happens then the next time you’re looking they might not apply and they just might be perfect!

3)     Obviously (but often forgotten) use your own website and if appropriate any other external communications you have e.g. newsletters, expos etc. 

 

Now you have these boxed off, you may if timescales permit, want to draw breath for a while and see what traffic comes through.

 

If you are not lucky enough to have relevant response from the above then the next step you need to take is to go “external”.

 

Before you do anything here it is key that you think about what your budget is to recruit as this is where simple mistakes can prove costly.

 

When you’re deciding on where to feature the advert, there are several factors that you can take into account to help you find the best medium through which to communicate the advert.

 

Firstly, look at the job description that you have written.  Where is the ideal candidate most likely to look for a job?   If you’re advertising for a marketing director, it’s probably not the best idea to advertise in your local newspaper.   Likewise, if you want a part-time receptionist, advertising in The Guardian might be over-the-top!

 

Think also about job boards, take time to research them properly most will promise much and deliver little – this is not to say that there aren’t some really great job boards out there, but they are only going to be as good as the candidate traffic they deliver to you so do your homework.

 

By this I mean you are better off with ten well qualified responses than a hundred responses from people who “just liked the look of the job”.  At this point I’d remind you again that the cost of advertising is only one component of your overall recruitment cost – you need to be set up to quickly and slickly deal with candidate traffic.  As such, it is vital that you have proper channels set up for all respondents – this is simply common courtesy and the minimum you would expect yourself if you applied for a job.

 

It is also worth thinking about recruitment agencies – if you choose this route go for a specialist and look at track record.  Again hidden costs hide down this route such as the time spent agreeing terms of business, educating them as to your needs etc.  Unless you have experience of using an agency it’s all too easy to accept the first deal offered by them – NEGOTIATE, never accept their first offer on a fee and aim to pay on success only – the market is still very much in your favour. 

 

Finally there are also recruitment marketplaces – the benefits of these services are numerous and include engaging with multiple agencies on a single TOB, you pay a fee your budget can afford and in general terms they are free to use and pay only ever pay on success.  The downside is that even though you are paying a lower fee to an agency you are obviously still paying a fee to recruit someone. 

 

On balance the most successful companies tend to take a blended approach from the above and remember the more organised you are in terms of your resource plans – then the more likely you are to find people at the lower price points!

 

To recap though be mindful of your company’s brand – it is all too easy to damage it through advertising in the wrong place, not being set up to effectively process applicants in a considerate manner and time is always of the essence – if a great candidate has applied to you then odds are their CV will also be with your competitors, be ready to move fast.

 

Finally, remember that you are the one who will be writing the cheque at the end of this - so which ever channel/s you use (be it the local paper or a boutique head hunter) you are entitled to demand satisfaction!

 

This is the second in a series of “common sense” recruitment tips.  Next time we’ll be looking at the CV review and interview stage.

The first article was on making time to properly define your job role. If you missed it, please have a look.

 

Chris Smith is the founder of yourpeoplemarket.com a game changing, free to use, fixed fee recruitment marketplace – where you can engage with agencies at a fee you set or less and only ever pay on success.

 

Before this Chris was Joint Founder of ecrmpeople, which over a seven year period he took from being a start-up to a £12m company.

 Before you do anything – STOP!

 

It is vital that before you start you know EXACTLY what you are looking for and that all the stakeholders involved are on the same page.

 

So quite simply the first thing to do is.... invest some quality time up front on defining an accurate job description and a clear “skills profile” for the person you are looking to recruit.

 

It may sound like the most obvious thing in the world but it is absolutely vital to allow you to look and find the right qualities in your candidates, and importantly the candidates know exactly what they’re applying for.

 

Spending a little longer on a job description and “skills profile” will save you hours sifting through unqualified applications, interviewing the wrong type of candidates and disagreeing with other interviewers on who best fits a loose, hastily thrown together job description.

 

So what is the key to a clear, meaningful job specification and what should you cover?

 

Job Title

This may seem like stating the obvious, but avoid “in house” terminology.  If you have “Client Development Managers” in your business, but the rest of the world calls them “Account Managers” then for the purposes of attracting candidates use the terminology that’s recognised.

 

Location

Remember where a role is based and where the candidate will be working can be completely different – be absolutely clear, in so far as you can, as to what the split of a candidates time will be across locations.

 

Reports and line managers

Get this nailed down, as this will also define who the key stakeholders are in the interview process.  Ultimately this will also define who should be given most counsel in the final recruitment decision.

 

Role Summary

There is a temptation here to over expand what the role is.  The vacancies that attract the best candidates are those that are the easiest to communicate.  It is quite a challenge, aim to keep this to one crisp sentence, as a maximum no more than two.

 

Key Responsibilities

This is the most important part of the job description, not only for the candidate, but also for everyone in the interview process.  (Remember though there is no point re-inventing the wheel, so if you already have standard job descriptions for common organisation roles don’t stray too far from these). 

 

If you are starting from scratch then go through the following process:

• Brainstorm just about every aspect of the job you can think of, consider any and all of the following – and remember this is an indicative not an exhaustive list: inputs/outputs, staff, qualifications, territories, processes, planning, managing material and financial resources, 360 degree communication, people management, product knowledge, premises, equipment, who they are engaging with internally and externally, deliverables, time.

 

• Now group these up into key responsibilities – realistically unless it is a senior role you should end up with no more than say 8 bullet points

 

• Now rate and rank these in order of importance.  Again it is key that all the right stakeholders within your business are in agreement here.

 

•  Importantly if you have someone who is already performing a similar role well then get them to take time out to “review and red pen” the role for you.

 

• Finally, draw breath one more time and review what you have.  Is everything on the list that should be, don’t clutter or puff it out with things that are not genuinely important to the role.  Also ask yourself the question is the role set out achievable?

 

With more senior roles its worth breaking the key responsibilities into functional areas eg Operations, Management, Organisational etc. This said even with the more senior roles try to keep this to no more than 12-15 bullet points.

 

Finally, remember with regards to targets if you are going to include them then be very specific – a target is simply an output of everything else you have put in the job description.  Remember the job description must stand on its own merits to describe the activities required to ensure that the target will be hit!

 

To restate time spent up front getting this first step right will repay you fourfold further down the line.  Even more importantly it will help sharpen your ability to spot the right candidate when they walk through the door - you will have an objective and practical yardstick to compare people by and without fail even the unsuccessful candidates will respect you and your company for that!

 

This is the first in a series of “common sense” recruitment tips.  Next time we’ll be looking at where to place the job advert to attract the best candidate traffic for your vacancy.

 

Chris Smith is the founder of yourpeoplemarket.com a game changing, free to use, fixed fee recruitment marketplace – where you can engage with agencies at a fee you set or less and only ever pay on success.

Before this Chris was Joint Founder of ecrmpeople, which over a seven year period he took from being a start-up to a £12m company.