recruitment CASE STUDY
Why businesses need to avoid recruitment agencies
Over 20 years of recruitment experience and lots of exposure to recruitment agencies and how they circle to make a pretty profit from your needs to appoint the right person. I've recruited myself and served as a recruitment consultant and wholeheartedly encourage businesses to avoid the lure of a recruitment agency.
There are some good recruitment agencies out there, but many are just glorified salespeople. As part of my research for Rootmint, I recently applied (under cover) for a warehouse operative role locally. The recruitment agent rang me up keen to fast track an interview even though I did specifically say in my application that I wanted part-time work for 2 days a week. The agent specified it was 4-5 days a week but pushed heavily for me to commit to more hours so as to get me in front of the client as he was obviously desperate to get candidates to his client so they can get their commission.
On another occasion I prepared and sent a CV outlining considerable experience that was suitable to a office-based customer service vacancy. I was emailed to say "sorry, your application was unsuccessful" no reason why, no response to the request for feedback even though the CV was tailored to be the "perfect" candidate that ticked every single box. This was a staggering oversight and incompetent recruiting and poor standards not to respond to the request for any feedback. They also failed to respond when feedback was requested.
Applying for a number of local jobs through agencies and companies directly in order to measure the market, a large percentage didn't acknowledge the application, made no communication and didn't communicate to reject my application. That is poor but sadly it is common place. Every single applicant has the right to know that they have been unsuccessful and they have every right to know why they have been rejected.
Agencies also go out of their way not to reveal the identity of the company they are recruiting for. That is understandable but lacks clarity. The applicant deserves to know the identity of the company so as to be able to do any necessary research on their prospective employer.
I contacted several agencies looking for part-time work and was contacted by four different agencies offering full-time work. Three of these agencies added me to the mailing list without my consent. Having opted out, two continued to mail me! One called three times offering full-time work when I specifically requested part-time work.
What did my research uncover?
Businesses don't have time or knowledge to run their own recruitment campaigns and the easy option is an agency
Agencies do very little preparation. Job adverts are brief, unprofessional and often contain grammar errors and spelling mistakes and mis-sell the company that they are recruiting for
Agencies clearly are on a different wavelength to their client and do not work with their client to establish exactly what the role entails and what type of person the client is looking for
Agencies ignore key criteria such as experience, qualifications and location in order to get a volume of CVs in front of the client. Purely driven by commission
Many agencies have little or no actual experience in recruitment
Agencies will source quantity rather than quality to make it look like they have succeeded in attracting candidates
And the cost to businesses is staggering...
Many agencies are charging in the region of 15% of the recruited person's annual salary so if the candidate was on minimum wage 37.5 hours per week, you pay £3,346. True there are often no upfront fees and that is precisely why agencies are offering a brief, rushed, impersonal, unprofessional service. They have eyes on the prize and because they only get paid for end product, the process is rushed in order to reach a rapid conclusion.
Conclusion...
I have used agencies directly in the past. Not once have they delivered quality. I strongly advise companies who need recruitment assistance to get proper help and avoid the vulture culture of agencies at all costs. Rootmint charge a fee for the leg work and whilst there is a risk that you are throwing money at something for nothing, our approach is far more thorough, personal and we are passionate about recruiting the right person without a focus on commission. That investment could easily be swallowed up in lost hours within your staff writing job descriptions, placing adverts, reading CVs, phoning applicants. We do all of that for you. We are open and honest and will work with you to do whatever is necessary to find the right person or persons to fill the vacancy but even if worst case scenario we was to fail, at least we have covered many man-hours for your business whilst offering expertise at a fraction of the outlay of a recruitment agency.