Calling All Clients – How To Choose Your Agency

This week we have been delighted to welcome our new Business Development Manager, Aliesha Jones, to the growing Australasian Recruitment Company team!

Aliesha joins us having spent the last 14 years of her career with Air New Zealand, gaining global experience across Leadership, Sales, Account Management and Operations.

With that appointment in mind, what should a prospective client like you really look for in a recruitment agency when needing support in procuring best-fit talent for both your organisation, and for the role for which you are recruiting.

Here are our top 10 tips:

Look for a Specialist

What you need is an Agency that can give you access to a pool of candidates who you cannot otherwise find through your traditional channels. Look for “inch wide, mile deep” agencies who have spent years building relationships across a specific discipline – who know hundreds of candidates who can, have, and will do the role you are seeking to recruit.

Check your Recruiters’ Remuneration

How do they get paid for the job they do? If they are paid commission to find you someone, will they have your long-term interests at heart? Will they be able to leverage the team’s knowledge? Or will they be thinking more about their personal commission if they can place a candidate? If they are on commission, check their after-sales service levels for both you and the candidate.

And Speaking of the Long-Term…..Look For Agencies With Low Staff Turnover

Agencies who stood by their recruiters during the pandemic, who provide career paths, who provide incentives to stay with the Agency for a number of years. Why? They’ll be better networked, and they’ll have that in-depth Market knowledge that will give you an edge when finding and indeed securing that candidate you can’t find by yourself.

Look For A Recruiter Who Understands Your Sector

Someone who has an overview of the Marketplace relative to your competitors. What are your competitors paying for roles like this? Who are they looking to hire? How are they solving similar hiring challenges? How can you get first-mover advantage in your sector for the best talent, in a world where employers are suddenly struggling to achieve that goal?

Find a “Multi-Skill” Recruiter

A Recruiter who understands that successful matches need an appreciation of both technical, and soft skills. A recruiter who interviews candidates with a holistic methodology and who…..

Gets your Culture and Your People!

Who understands that just matching a CV to a Job Spec simply isn’t good enough, and that it is very unlikely to prove ultimately successful. That recruitment is instead centred around finding the right people for the available opportunities.

Find a Recruiter You Can Get on With

This should be the start of a long-term relationship, where more time spent discussing future roles only builds the understanding both ways to the point where you know that every candidate submitted will be worth interviewing, and probably offering.

…..And Who Saves You Your Most Precious Asset – Time

Agency Recruiter nirvana does actually exist – a relationship where before you’re even looking, they have anticipated what you’ll need. They’ve analysed the hiring patterns over the years, they know who has, and who has not proved successful – and why. They can often know your Company better than you do – because they have been recruiting for the Company longer than even you have been there.

Which Means…When You Get to Your Own Next New Company…

Find out which agencies your new Company uses (they may have one of the above that you can get on with and who is an automatic godsend) and absolutely take your old recruiter with you. Compare the two. One or both could square the talent circle for you, making your life immeasurably easier, and your team immeasurably stronger.

And Finally – How to Find This Elusive Recruiter?

Ask your team members, ask those people working in the role already which agencies, and which specific consultants, they recommend. Candidates have been through the process, they’ll know who made them feel like a number as opposed to those who listened to them with their interests truly at heart, making every effort to find a great opportunity match. They may not perhaps highly recommend a recruiter very often, but when they do, they may well be giving you an invaluable short cut to an infinitely easier and more effective recruitment relationship with delivery outcomes that you hadn’t thought possible.

If you are a hiring manager looking for your next business support team member in London, please contact us at ARC so we can help you with your search on 0207 625 3300 or hello@australasian.co.uk