The decision to hire a recruitment agency might not be a difficult one. However, the decision on WHICH recruitment agency to hire is usually not as easy. If you hire the right recruitment agency, their help will definitely add benefits to your business. However, if you don´t hire the right recruitment agency it will actually only cost you more money and therefore the decision on which recruitment agency to hire is of significant importance for your business.
So, knowing that, what factors should you take into account to avoid hiring the wrong help and to avoid losing money?
- Focus on specialized recruitment agencies
There are a lot of general recruitment agencies out there that have access to great candidates. However, if you want the best candidates for YOUR business it might make sense to work with a niche recruitment agency that is specialized in your industry or area of expertise. Working with an agency that is not specialized might cost you more money in the long run because it will usually take them longer to find great candidates in your niche and because they don´t have the inside knowledge that specialized agencies do have.
- Build the relationship
The relationship you have with your recruitment agency is an important one, they need to know you well enough to be able to fill your position with the right candidate. Also, in a market where specific talent is very scarce and fought hard over, you need a partner in crime to get that talent to you. So if you hire a recruitment agency that has high internal turnover you might want to consider that this could be the wrong help: if the consultant in charge of helping you changes a lot all the time that will obviously not help your recruitment process and therefore indirectly cost you money in the process.
- Check references
Just like you would check references for a new employee to hire, check references for the agency you are thinking about working with. Check if the staffing agency participates in client satisfaction surveys and how the results are. Or check within your network if someone you know worked with that company and can provide you with some insights on their experience with this specific agency. As a last resort, you could ask the agency for references, however, obviously the references they will provide you with might not be completely unbiased since they are carefully selected by them. But, make sure to not hire the wrong help by checking references.
- Employee satisfaction
Apart from client satisfaction, have a look at employee satisfaction as well because employee insights and their experience with the agency can tell you a lot about working with this specific agency. Again, we can´t emphasize enough how important it is to do your homework to make sure you don´t hire the wrong help.
- Manage expectations
You will have expectations of the staffing agency, but they will also have some expectations on what they ideally need from your side to make this collaboration a success. Make sure to manage expectations from the very beginning to avoid surprises later on in the process (which will eventually only cost you money). Think about factors like how often do you speak during the staffing process, how much time and information will the agency need to get started, how soon can the selected candidates from their side start interviewing with you, what is your ideal timeline? Etc.
These are just 5 factors to take into account when you´re looking to hire the right recruitment agency, are there any other factors that are of significant importance to you when you´re selecting an agency to avoid hiring the wrong one? We would love to read about them in the comments section!
