10 Benefits of Using a Recruitment Agency to Hire

Benefits of Using a Recruitment Agency

 There are many benefits that come with using services from a recruitment agency.

Some of the main reasons why organisations are now developing “partner” relationships with recruitment agencies are:

1.       Access the Best

If you use a recruitment agency you’re statistically more likely to access the best job-seekers on the market (both active and passive).  People who are actively looking for new positions are more likely to register with agencies. In addition, most recruitment agencies will position their roles on a range of job boards, and they should understand what it takes for that advert to rank highly in candidates’ job searches.  All of this is knowledge that you only get from working in the sector.

2.       Specificity

When your requirements are specific you need an expert who understands the candidates in your niche and has a database of them to call upon.  In this instance, using a recruitment agency means that only candidates who are qualified for the role will be shortlisted for the position.  Not only that but an experienced recruiter will look for more than qualifications on paper, they will also consider cultural fit, the candidate’s outside interests and a range of other qualifying traits that can’t be found on a CV. A recruitment agency will manage the process for you, rejecting any unsuitable candidates and managing any queries about the role, which leads to point 3:

3.       Speed

Using a recruitment agency will reduce the time and in-house resource that you need to dedicate to recruitment.  It should also lead to a quicker turnaround on filling the vacancies, which in turn leads to increased efficiency of the organisation. Recruitment agencies will ordinarily only shortlist the correctly qualified candidates, meaning that you don’t have to.  Again a huge time saver.

4.       Expert Sector Knowledge

If as a hiring manager you need to get expert opinion about and knowledge of current recruitment legislation, you could make the recruitment agency your first ‘port-of-call’.  The agency should know all the relevant requirements and legalities surrounding the industry they’re in.

5.       Seasonal Demand

Another great reason to use a recruitment agency might be to give you flexibility in your recruitment planning to meet cyclical / market demand e.g. having key people in place to cover busy times such as Christmas. 

6.       Access to National Job Boards

A recruitment agency will improve the efficiency of a company’s recruitment process through direct access to national job boards.  Negotiating your own job board contracts can be costly and time consuming, so utilising the right agency’s access to job boards will put you in front of the best candidates on the market.

7.       Expert Sector Knowledge

If as a hiring manager you need to get expert opinion about and knowledge of current recruitment legislation, you could make the recruitment agency your first ‘port-of-call’.  The agency should know all the relevant requirements and legalities surrounding the industry they’re in.

8.       Salary Benchmarking

If you’ve got a role and you’re unsure what the correct salary is for the position, the recruitment agency is ideally placed to give you an accurate market rate using salary data and local market knowledge.

9.       Back Up if Something Goes Wrong

For many companies, the most important advantage of using a recruitment agency instead of in-house recruiters, is that recruitment agencies offer additional security when it comes to new hire retention. All the best recruitment agencies offer guarantee periods. This means that they guarantee your new hire for a certain period of time (usually 3 months). If your new hire is terminated or leaves before the expiry of a guarantee period, recruitment agencies will give you a full or partial refund or find a new replacement candidate

10.       Representing your Brand in the Best Light

Your recruiter will be committed to representing your business in the best light. By using a recruitment agency you are limiting the amount of times your company name appears on job sites which is particularly important for a role that you have had difficulty filling or have had to fill a number of times in the past. This can be a red flag for candidates and would prevent candidates from applying for the role in question. Your recruiter can dispel any concerns they may have and highlight all the reasons they should work for your company which can do wonders for your company’s reputation and overall image

In short, choosing the right recruitment agency can help you recruit and retain the right people faster and even cheaper!