ConnectedGroup shares advice on outsourcing and how to test out your potential agency before signing on the dotted line. During the economic crisis, the employer held the advantage in the recruitment process, however now that the economy is slowly regaining momentum, there has been a shift to the employee moving to the driver’s seat. This shift is now resulting in the number one concern for many organisations being recruitment and attracting key talent. Mathew Gollop, Group Managing Director, ConnectedGroup shared his insight on strategies HR managers can use in order to choose the most suitable recruitment agency for their company.
Key issues of recruitment firms
Due to the high turnover rate in the recruitment industry, the feared, ‘Hello, I’m the new guy that will be servicing your account’ comes to mind for many companies. This scenario is a concern because of the amount of information that is lost regarding how to service the account when the recruiter leaves that company. Gollop advised that one solution is to request that the recruitment agency provide a template to their client that serves as a guideline on the recruitment strategies and processes for their particular organisation. This will alleviate the amount of time the company spends having to rebrief every new recruiter regarding the culture and strategies of their business. This template should be easily accessible and updated quarterly to address any potential changes.
Gollop said another problem with recruitment firms are their lack of cohesiveness on how they engage in staff accounts. He revealed that a number of his clients have the common problem where a good recruiter will come and sell themselves on what they will bring to the company but they do not incorporate the broader strategy in the business and what it can bring to their organisation.
Quantity versus quality
The actual quality of the applicants sent by the recruitment firm is becoming a concern for many companies because technology is now enabling recruiters to send more resumes in a faster time period; then they become more focused on how fast they can get CVs to their clients instead of their actual qualifications, which also hinders the recruiter’s ability to consider how the applicants may contribute to succession development for that company. Gollop conveyed, “Recruiting is a sales business and the problem is that recruiters sell and don’t recruit, so if they’re not able to be part of the business and involved in the strategy of the business, then they can’t truly understand a role and how it’s going to benefit a company, so they go out and sell a job spec. They are trying to find people who have the same skills that the job spec demonstrates but what they are not doing is selling the broader opportunity and identifying people who have the skills to take that job to the next level, therefore you’re only ever getting a good match to the job but not necessarily ever getting the best match for that job.”
Get the most from your agency
In order for companies to get a high level of quality from their recruitment agencies, there are a few key strategies that companies can consider and implement within their organisation. Gollop noted that the volume of recruiters that a company employs does not necessarily increase their chances of hiring for that job. If a company engages with five different agencies—don’t expect each agency to provide a different 20%; instead drive accountability through a smaller number of vendors. “Every recruiter goes and looks for the path of least resistance—one where they have a good relationship with the client and more exclusivity,” Gollop informed.
He also advised that clients should tell the recruitment agency exactly what they need in advance, and then the recruiter can spend their time building on those capabilities. He added that it is beneficial when a client who has had problems in the past with finding a particular hire in the market, sits down and shows him where they have already put the effort in, so then he can find out where to spend his time effectively. “The right kind of partnership is one where I can educate the client and say, ‘I don’t think you can find this skill-set in the market, or you won’t find this skill-set for that kind of salary, or you haven’t looked in this place—I will go do that for you’ so it’s a two-way communication,” Gollop disclosed.
Criteria for selecting a recruitment firm
Gollop said that the biggest complaint that he gets from clients is the lack of quality of recruiters therefore he advises that when selecting a recruitment firm:
Choose well
Demand accountability
Promote loyalty
Drive change and development
Go to their office
Validate their information
He stated that when choosing a recruitment agency, about 90% of companies do not ask the key questions for future growth; instead they focus on the past performance and very few ask about the experience level and quality of the consultants who will be engaging in their account such as how many years experience they have, so it is valuable to request that a senior account manager handle the account.
Check their credentials
Many companies also fail to validate the qualifications the agency has listed. “Some companies may claim they have 20 consultants in Shanghai, when they actually have two. If you don’t question or validate that you will never know, so that is why you don’t get the service you’re expecting—there isn’t the capability to deliver what was promised,” stated Gollop.
He suggested that one creative solution to this is to test out who you will be working with first prior to engaging into a contract. He gave an example of a client who narrowed their list of potential agencies down to five and then told each vendor to send their two best candidates for the specified job. The client then rated the agency based on the relevance of the candidates, the quality of the resumes and how they were presented and the speed of response. “Not only were they getting a real life example of how these agencies were performing; they were actually getting their recruitment done in the process,” revealed Gollop.
He added that all though time consuming, one of the most important criteria in ensuring the selection of a quality recruitment firm is to go to their office. He advised, “If you’re outsourcing your talent to businesses that don’t have the capability to deliver, then the cost in the long-term will be significant so the short-term effort of going to their actual operational office, being introduced to their people and talked through the infrastructure that exists, you will gain a huge amount from that process; externally the agencies and service offered all look the same but the nature of each agency will be very different each time so you need to find out which one fits you in terms of your culture.”
After selecting the right recruitment agency, in order to enhance their performance Gollop summarized, “I think this is key-demand accountability. Any portfolios of recruiters that you have if you are a big organisation should have one or two companies that have a broad range of capabilities so that you can leverage cost and their performance because you will become a big part of their revenue over the course of the year.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
