Advice for Businesses

At what point should your business start using recruitment companies?
Written by Caroline Swift

The world of recruitment changes from minute to minute. Two years ago there was an international shortage of decent candidates in most markets, resulting in huge increases in contracts being offered to some staff. Now things have changed. As a result of the financial crisis, far more people are out of work and a growing number of highly skilled candidates are entering the market.

So when does a business need to start using recruitment companies to help find staff? Luckily this decision is increasingly being made easier to decide, through the over-abundance of recruitment companies looking for jobs to fill. A recruitment company will ask for a percentage of whatever the candidate they are finding you is paid. Currently this figure is -in my opinion- at an all time low and can result in finding screened, skillful candidate for an excellent price.

Things to consider: ecruitment consultants are specially trained to avoid the pitfalls of finding staff. They will more than likely spot a trait in a candidates' record that may elude you and become an issue later in the recruitment process. As you will probably be paying a fixed fee of delivery of suitable candidates, any expenses incurred will be paid for by the recruiter.

Can you afford not to find a candidate? If you are losing money because of lack of suitable staff it is probably time to make an investment in outsourcing the process. Finding decent staff can take time, advertising on job boards/papers etc, phoning candidates, interviewing. After all this, things can still go wrong when a candidate you have offered the job to decides to reject it.

Is the fee that you are paying the recruiter in excess of the money that you will make back through their employment. Is the recruiter offering value for money? Some may charge very little for advertising your job but generally you can pay slightly more and have a company provide selection services also.

Some consultancies are specialised in a certain area and may be able to find loop holes in your current recruiting technique.

Contractor or Employee?

Sometimes you may have to employ staff on a contract, short-term basis. For this, some recruiters will offer services that will enable them to act as the contractors employer, dealing with all administration related to their employment. This can save you time and money, if you have any issue with the candidate you can ask for the recruiter to find you a new one at no cost to you.

You may have to pay more for this service as it will probably be charged per hour but it generally removes risk from the process and increases the flexibility of your workforce. This type of employment service is otherwise known as acting as an 'umbrella' organisation for the candidate.

Finally.....

As the market conditions have changed, so have the chances of employers to find their own staff. There are more highly skilled employees currently out of work than there have been for the last decade making it far easier to source employees cheaply. This has had the knock on effect of forcing recruiters to drop their fees. All in all it is a good time to be looking for staff, whether you wish got it alone of employ someone to do it for you!