Evaluating recruitment companies – how to choose the right one?

With more than 50 recruitment companies in the Baltic States, the choice seems wide. Even if you select 10 recruitment companies in one market, e.g. In a recruitment market like Lithuania, it would take several days to talk to and evaluate all 10. So, to avoid wasting time in the selection process, you need to have a set of criteria for recruitment companies. Similarly to the criteria for candidates, these criteria for a recruitment partner will help you narrow down the long list of companies to a few that can be evaluated qualitatively without wasting time. The most commonly used criteria are 3:

1.Criteria for existing selections of the recruitment firm

This criterion is like a mirror that shows which positions searchers prefer a particular recruitment agency to fill. If, for example, an agency has only a few IT recruitments and all other recruitments are in sales, then when looking for, for example, a computer programmer, one should look for a recruitment agency that has a solid IT recruitment track record. The same goes for executive search projects – if the recruitment firm has only a few, then the partner should be selected for lower level positions. In this case, it is better to outsource the executive search to a more established recruitment agency. This indicator gives a good indication of where the recruitment firm is valued and where its services still need more quality.

2.Recruitment agency pricing and guarantees

Although a large proportion of recruitment firms do not make their pricing public, it is necessary to anticipate what pricing is appropriate. All recruitment companies will provide information on their pricing by email or phone, so you don’t have to waste time in long conversations later on when you find out that a prospective partner has the wrong pricing model. Recruitment agencies charge different levels of upfront payments, with the success fee sometimes being one per candidate recruited, but sometimes the success fee includes the fact that a certain number of candidates have been offered. The guarantee can be the same, lasting 3 or 6 months, and can include both compensation and a free re-selection. So, with the right guarantee and pricing model, you can only interview with recruitment companies that have already been selected and get suitable offers.

3.Recruitment company’s visibility criteria

If the recruitment company is not well known, it is unlikely to be known to the candidates. This is a big risk, as candidates value their confidentiality and are reluctant to be recruited by a recruitment agency they do not know. This parameter is the most difficult to measure, but it is certainly worth noting how visible the recruitment company is on news portals and how much information about the company is publicly available in general. It should be appreciated that the recruitment agency will represent the employer, so its public image and credibility will be linked to that of the employer of the hiring business. Thus, although this criterion is often not taken particularly seriously, it is as important as the other two.