What to look for when choosing a recruitment agency?

In the case of dynamic development of the company, and often when our internal HR department is unable to cope with the number of vacancies needed to fill vacancies or there is simply no time for it, it is worth considering cooperation with an employment agency, commonly known as a recruitment or headhunting agency. By establishing such cooperation, we can gain many benefits, e.g. save the time of our employees who will not be involved in the recruitment process. According to research by the Saratoga Institute, leaving a good employee and replacing him with a new one can cost the employer the equivalent of his annual salary. If you want to reduce these costs, it is worth contacting a professional employment agency. But what should you pay attention to when choosing an agency?

1. References

An important thing is the references that the agency has from its clients, but also from people who found a job thanks to the agency's help. It is worth asking for such references at the very beginning of cooperation. Thanks to this, we will know if and what clients the agency has and how the candidates actually speak about the company. It is also worth asking for the opportunity to talk to the person managing the agency, who will explain how the agency works and what its mission and goals are.

2. Specific specialization

The key factor determining the decision to start cooperation is a narrow specialization. If an agency specializes in everything, it may mean that it specializes in nothing. A much more comfortable situation is establishing cooperation with a company that has a narrow specialization (e.g. Talentica.pl has a narrow specialization - IT). Lack of specialization also often means lack of competence of people involved in recruitment projects carried out as part of the agency's activities.

3. Duration of the process

Before starting cooperation, it is worth finding out what is the delivery time of the first, fully checked and verified candidates. If this time is longer than 30 days, it may mean that the agency has its hands full and does not treat clients individually. Of course, there are quite specific positions that require a longer analysis of specific project assumptions, but 30 days is a sufficient period in most cases to find the right people. In addition, if the agency makes us wait so long, it may indicate that there is a mess there and there is no time to focus 100% attention on a single client.

4. Ratio of positively considered applications to those sent

It is also very important how many candidates the agency provided us with and how many we are satisfied with. If this ratio oscillates between 70-100%, we can be satisfied (satisfaction in this case is the initial acceptance of the candidate and the willingness to meet him). If it is worse, it often means that candidates are not verified, but only sent straight from the candidate database of a given agency after the candidate's prior consent. Cooperation of this type does not give us any value, but only consumes energy and time.

5. Warranty

An important factor and a mandatory provision in the contract between the parties is the provision on the guarantee and the method of its implementation. Each self-respecting employment agency provides a several-month guarantee for each candidate presented, which is implemented in the event of dissatisfaction with the employee hired thanks to the agency. Dissatisfaction can be interpreted in different ways, but in practice it means that the employee constantly neglects the duties entrusted to him, does not do the job properly, is late or works less than he should. There are also known and common situations when an employee simply does not show up for work one day without giving any reason. This is especially the case where employees are confident in their skills and have no problems finding a job. The guarantee itself is usually carried out on the basis of a free recruitment process for the client.

6. Price

Often companies pay attention mainly to the price of the service provided. This often turns out to be a reflection of the quality of the recruitment process. Quality costs and must cost, these are natural market and economic conditions. On the market of recruitment and personnel consulting services, there are many entities spoiling the market by providing low-quality services at very favorable prices. Cooperation of this type usually ends with one completed recruitment process together with the client's willingness to carry out the guarantee. Therefore, it is worth to be guided not by how much we can save at a particular moment, but by how much we can lose in the future.

7. Building the image of the employer and a professional approach

It is the duty of each agency to take care of the employer's image and a professional approach both to him and future candidates applying for a specific position in his organization. Agency consultants must be characterized by high empathy, understanding the needs of the client and the situation in which he is. Only in this way is the agency able to provide the right people for work. In addition, a good agency is a self-learning organization, an intelligent organization that can manage knowledge and its assets. Thanks to this, its employees share their knowledge with clients and analyze the recruitment process at every stage.