When choosing among the top recruitment agencies out there, it can be challenging to decide which one will bring the most value to your business.
Since they would be responsible for choosing the people who will serve as the company’s heart and soul, it is important that you know how to choose the right recruitment firm.
Aside from knowing the most important qualities to look for, you should also have a list of the best questions to ask the recruitment agencies you are looking to employ. This way, you would be able to identify if they can provide you with the right kind of manpower you need to succeed in your industry.
What You Need to Ask
While there may be tons of questions you may want to pose to them, you should set those aside for now and realign your focus on what’s most important. To help you out, here are five questions you should absolutely ask the firm you’re working with to know whether they are the perfect fit for your human resource needs:
- How long have you been recruiting?
Experience is a major factor you should look at when determining if an agency can provide the right kind of service. Because of this, it is imperative that you ask them how long they have been bringing talented people and companies together.
And since recruitment agencies have one of the highest turnovers, with an average tenure of 18 to 36 months, it is important that you dig deeper to know whether they are industry experts and have a good work history in the niche.
After that, you can follow up with an inquiry into the number of roles they can fill within their niche in a month. If their answer is around 3 to 6, then they are highly likely to be the company you need.
- How extensive is your reach?
A recruiter’s reach is also a big determining factor in terms of whether they can provide your company with the top talents out there. These agencies should be able to provide a wide array of choices for your manpower needs. This can be determined by their access to highly skilled professionals as well as their capability to gain these people’s confidence in accepting your job offer.
- What is your main strategy in marketing the job opening?
The method through which they are able to attain and maintain a big applicant pool is also a major factor in the success rate of a recruiter. Go for an agency that maximizes the power of the Internet rather than those that limit their reach within the boundaries of old school and potentially ineffective methods, like cold calling and simply having out-of-date CVs in their database.
- Do you conduct reference checks? If so, at what point in the recruitment process do you do it?
References serve as a great way to determine the applicant’s actual performance, which is why these should be included in the hiring process. A good agency should answer “yes” to the first question and explain to their clients that this is done before the applicants are even presented.
The past performances of an applicant will greatly determine whether he or she will be a good fit for your company. Recruiters that verify what they see on the curriculum vitae prove that they have their client’s welfare in mind and will not let you waste your time interviewing applicants who won’t be able to pass reference checks anyway.
- What do you do after a recruit successfully gets a job?
Some recruiters offer career enhancement programs for members of their pool while others keep track of their candidates’ progress in their new jobs very closely. Either way, this simply means that they care for their talents as much as they do their clients by intending to stay updated on how the recruits are faring in the job market.
This can be advantageous for you as it would ensure that the person you hire from the agency is continuously growing in skill and experience. It also shows that the agency is diligent in providing the best highly skilled professionals they could find.
Finding the Best People for the Job
Entrusting your human resource needs to a third-party recruiter has it advantages if you know how to maximize it. Look for recruiters that have the right answers — both literally and figuratively — so that your company can reach the success through the best talents you hire.
AUTHOR BIO
David Mackenzie, a recruitment professional with over 20 years’ experience in the field and a record of entrepreneurial accomplishment, is Managing Director and Head of HR at Mackenzie Jones. As the Group MD, David is responsible for the overall direction of the Mackenzie Jones Group, including Mackenzie Jones, MumsAtWork, MENA Solutions, Simply Digital and ThinkTech.
