How to work with your recruitment agency to achieve the best possible outcome

It is a common complaint of HR managers that they don’t get all they expect from their external recruitment supplier, that agencies are full of talk about high levels of service, getting to know you etc etc. without actually delivering on their promises. As usual though, when a relationship doesn’t live up to expectations, there is likely to be fault on both sides.  It is very difficult for an agency recruiter to get a really good idea of what you’re looking for if you don’t tell them. Recruitment via ESP isn’t really feasible, is it?

With this in mind, I’ve put together a few thoughts on things that can be done to improve communication and to increase the likelihood of a successful recruitment outcome.

• Provide a job description that actually matches the job. Often we receive job descriptions that are several years old or which were originally written for another position entirely. Remember that the job description is what the recruiter and the candidate take to be your requirements – if you ask for the wrong thing, you’re going to get the wrong thing…. Allowing the recruiter to speak to the current incumbent or the line manager is also very helpful in getting a feel for what the position actually entails.
• Be clear about what you actually want - provide specific requirements, not general concepts. Think about what you actually mean by “good communicator”, “flexible approach” and where you can, give more detail. One person’s flexible good communicator is another person’s inflexible brick wall.
• Meet your recruitment consultant! Many HR Managers don’t want to waste their precious time meeting their recruitment consultant face to face, but if you think about it, without seeing the place where a candidate will be working, meeting some of the team and getting a feel for the company ethos and culture it is very difficult to know what sort of person will best suit the vacancy. Expecting a recruiter to find you the perfect candidate without giving them any information about the company is like asking them to swim the channel with one arm tied behind their back!
  
  
• Offer a realistic salary and benefits package. Ask yourself if you would move from your current position to another company for less money than you’re on now. Of course you wouldn’t, so why expect anyone else to? Take advice from the recruitment consultant if you’re unsure of the market rate – they are the ones dealing with it every day and generally have a pretty good idea of what is feasible. And remember – paying peanuts gets monkeys.
• Move fast - don’t waste valuable time waiting for weeks before booking interviews – even in a depressed market the best candidates will get snatched up while you’re cooling your heels not bothering to move. Also, long delays before interviews tend to give a bad impression of your company and your HR processes – the best candidates will simply go to someone ready to act quickly and treat their application with respect.
• Sell the job and the company to the candidate. An interview is a 2 way street – the candidate is there to sell him/herself to you, but he/she is also there to find out more about the company and the role – you’re both in the spotlight so be prepared and make sure you present yourself in the best light.
• Trust the recruitment agency to manage the offer negotiations – this is the stage at which a third party can give valuable distance to allow honest discussion to take place.

• Once an offer has been made and verbally accepted, send the offer letter and contract as soon as possible. Delays in sending the contract will certainly result in delays to the start date and may well result in the offer ultimately falling through. If you can’t get a letter out the same day, at least try for tomorrow.
• Above all, TRUST your recruitment consultant – they are only going to get paid when you’re happy so they really do want to work with you to achieve a good result, not against you.

Comments

[Dave Thomas]

As a candidate I take this article as a breathe of fresh air - or is it just telling employers what the already knew but couldn't be bothered to do?
Over the past 6 months I have applied for jobs where my experience/cv would appear to have been written for "that job". (Yes, I do reword my cv/covering letter to reflect the job being applied for - without telling any lies) So often I have been told I don't have the right experience, the client has changed his/her mind about the role/job description etc. Surely this should have been done before advertising? Then I see the job re-advertised by the agency without any changes to the criteria and wonder who is leading whom! Attending an interview I was told the job had been altered making it totally unsuitable for me and I spent the whole interview wondering why I was there.
Perhaps HR Managers don't get what they want, but do get what they deserve - a longer, more fraught recruitment process that will probably cost them and all others in the process far more than was intended.