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Reasons why you should use a recruitment agency

Opinion & Analysis
File pic: Employee

Recruiting new employees can be a costly and time-consuming process for organisations. Recruitment agencies are essentially workplace matchmakers. They connect organisations that are looking to hire with talented professionals who are considering a career change, working closely with both sides to ensure desires and requirements are met. Using a recruitment agency to identify and attract talent and negotiate terms, can relieve a huge amount of pressure. So what exactly are the benefits of a recruitment agency to organisations?

What is a recruitment agency?

Recruitment agencies are external firms that find suitable candidates for employers. They are tasked by employers to find candidates for vacant positions within their organisations to save time and money and access the extended candidate net that a direct advertisement and company network cannot reach. Recruitment agencies are job-hunting experts contracted by companies looking for qualified candidates, recruitment agencies will match you with your dream job at no cost.

How do recruitment agencies work?

A recruitment agency’s purpose is to find the right candidate for your company. Most agencies are able to do this because they have built networks of highly qualified professionals in the industries they cover. Recruitment agencies often know what tempts passive job seekers to apply for roles, and have existing networks of professionals in your industry. Once they have found a new team member and you successfully hire them, you will pay a fee. That amount will equate to an already-set percentage of the employee’s salary (but it’s not deducted from the person’s salary, the figure is just used to calculate the cost). But they don’t just find you one person and then move on to the next assignment, they  foster long-term relationships with hiring businesses and talented professionals so that they cultivate a strong list of contacts.

Recruiters will save you time, energy and stress

Recruitment agencies help you find a job faster by getting your foot in the door, as well as reducing the amount of work, time and energy you have to devote to sending out applications. To register with a recruitment agency, you only have to fill one application form. After that, recruiters do the work for you, so you don’t have to worry about searching for jobs and making individual applications for each employer.

It is not only about cost efficiency, the management has access to all the candidates which makes it the preferred choice for most employers. HR and recruitment co-ordinators will use an agency to get the best value and best candidate on the market, thereby having an edge over their competitors.

Recruiters have the ability to identify talent

The benefit of using a recruitment agency is that it works with both employers who are searching for talent, and professionals who are on the hunt for career opportunities. As such, they are better placed to be in the know and operate as an intermediary between the two parties. The knowledge recruitment consultants possess about how to avoid hiring a bad candidate can be extremely valuable; they know who is looking for work, how capable they are, and what sort of salary expectations they have.

 A recruitment consultant has strong networks and a clear idea of where to find certain individuals. Another benefit of using a recruitment agency is their extensive knowledge about segments of the job market and the talent that is available in particular localities.

You will be choosing from candidates, not applicants.

The attention is always aimed at attracting applicants, whether they actively responded to an advertisement or through your website.

If the majority are not good matches for the position, then a lot of time will be invested in filtering, assessing, and matching the role with them.

Through the help of a recruitment agency, you will be able to reach candidates who are true job seekers and who have been pre-selected to meet all the criteria and demands that you have set.

You know that based on their extensive experience, the candidates will be eligible for an interview.

Recruiters have industry insight

Another benefit of utilising a recruitment agency is that it spends all day, every day, working to provide staffing solutions to organisations across a range of sectors such as finance and accounting, financial services, interim management, technology and office administration.

As such, they have significant expertise and job market insight, internationally, nationally and locally, which employers can tap into when they want to recruit.

Recruitment consultants understand employer needs, candidate expectations and the relationship of supply and demand on the job market. This means they are best suited to help employers make informed decisions, which have a positive impact on the bottom line.

  •  Emmanuel Zvada is a human capital consultant and international recruitment expert 

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