I’m hiring a recruitment company – what expectations can I have?
There are three situations in which a recruitment company is normally used:
- You need a high quality recruitment process with guarantees for the new role you are looking for.
- A recruitment project has already been started using the employer’s internal resources, but the right candidate could not be selected or there were not enough candidates.
- The recruitment project was carried out by another recruitment company, but the company was not properly selected and did not meet expectations.
In all three cases, whether the search is for a professional or for an executive search and selection firm, the expectations must be the same. So what can you expect when hiring a recruitment company?
A fast selection process
A recruitment company has all the tools it needs for both specialist and executive search projects here and now. It manages all publicity channels, has an up-to-date database of candidates, has the right recruitment project managers for the area of work of the position being sought, etc. By managing all these resources, the recruitment process is often up to twice as fast as the usual internally-managed employee search
Maximum number of candidates
The goal of the recruitment company in a recruitment project is to screen the entire long list of candidates. An important difference from an in-house executive or specialist search is that the recruitment company manages candidate databases covering the entire labour market. This is why the long list includes all potentially suitable candidates in the selected search area. Combining these advantages results in the maximum number of suitable candidates for the employer.
Guarantees
A recruitment company that is confident in the work it does will normally provide a guarantee to the candidate recruited. This way the employer can be assured that not only has it recruited the candidate, but that the candidate will have to pass a probationary period and that if the candidate does not perform well, the employer will be able to call on the guarantee and replace the candidate with a suitable candidate.
Preparation of the job offer
Many employers can provide requirements for the position they are looking for, but the provision of requirements is a far cry from the preparation of a proper job offer, which must not only attract the right candidates, but also convey the right employer’s message to the labour market and build the employer’s image.
Checking candidates’ references
The recruitment company’s specialists will prepare all the content needed for the recruitment process, such as the job advertisement, sales messages to candidates, social media posts, etc., after having taken a closer look at the employer’s expectations.
Establishing a salary budget for the position
In both the search for a specialist and in a critical executive search project, it is very important to provide appropriate salary ranges to be presented to the selected candidates. A recruitment company that keeps detailed salary statistics can be particularly accurate in indicating what salary thresholds will be competitive, and at the same time optimise the employer’s budget for finding the right candidate.
Execution of a complete recruitment project
Every executive search or specialist recruitment must have a selection project plan, which consists of preparing for the recruitment project, drawing up a long and short list of candidates, checking the candidates’ references, testing the candidates, negotiating with the selected candidate and preparing and presenting a job offer to the candidate. All these steps must be clearly planned and executed to a high standard. By hiring a recruitment company, it is possible to simply outsource all of these steps and wait for the right candidate to arrive, by being present and monitoring their execution.
