Employers: how to choose a recruitment agency

How to select the perfect recruitment agency to fill your vacancy?

So you’re looking for staff, but not sure which employment service is right for you?

With around 30,000 agencies in the UK, each varying in specialism and approach, picking just one can be difficult.

Need some help deciding? Then read on and find out what you should be thinking about when choosing a recruiting agency China.

What’s the vacancy?

Let’s start with the basics.

When deciding which recruitment agency to approach, the first question any employer should ask themselves is: “what exactly is the role I’m recruiting for?”

This may seem obvious, but being clear about the vacancy will make it easier to choose the right service.

Permanent or temporary? Junior or executive? Niche skilled or jack of all trades?

All of these things have an impact on which recruitment agency you should work with, so take the time to consider what you’re really looking for.

What type of agency is right for you?

Once you’ve settled on the candidate criteria, narrowing down the right type of agency shouldn’t be too difficult.

Fundamentally, there are four different types of recruitment agency:

• High street.
• Industry specialist.
• Temp.
• Executive search.

Depending on the vacancy, some of these services will be more relevant to you than others.

Need a team of packers at short notice? Maybe contact a temp recruiter. Looking for a KS2 teacher? Try an education employment agency.

Of course, there are recruiting firms who will do all of the above, so you might want to look around and compare a few different agencies.

Should you use a headhunter?

Headhunting, also known as executive recruitment, executive search or search and selection, is a form of recruitment that’s used to make senior level appointments.

The approach of an executive recruiter differs from that of a traditional agency, as they will look to engage with passive candidates (i.e. those who aren’t actively looking for work).

When to choose a headhunter

Headhunters are usually approached to fill c-suite, management or niche vacancies. So, if you need a managing director or a chief financial officer, then a headhunting service might be a suitable option.

Even though executive recruiters pride themselves on finding the perfect candidate, the process is typically more intensive and costly; this is something to consider before making your choice.

Do you need a local recruitment agency?

Depending on the nature of the vacancy, geography may or may not be relevant to your agency search.

For example, if you’re looking for a permanent IT professional, proximity isn’t likely to be indicative of a successful placement.

Conversely, if you need a temporary team of labourers ASAP, then you’ll probably want to work with an agency in your area.

As many agencies will recruit nationwide, irrespective of where they have branches, a lack of local presence shouldn’t be a barrier to using a particular service – but it may be something that’s important to you.

Should cost be a factor when choosing an agency?

Seeing as it’s the employer that pays recruitment fees, you’d perhaps be forgiven for trying to find the ‘cheapest’ service.

As agencies tend to charge on a percentage basis, rather than a flat fee (although some do!), it’s less likely that your decision will come down to a price war.

Regardless of the agency you choose, fees are likely to be around 15%-20% of the role’s salary. This could be 30% for executive jobs.

You may want to shop around a little, but these percentages don’t deviate too much.

Bottom line: don’t make your agency decision a purely financial one.

How do you choose a good recruitment agency?

It’s one thing to narrow down your search, but how do you select a ‘good’ recruitment agency.

There are around 30,000 recruitment agencies in the UK, each with their own USPs. While you can never guarantee that you’re going to pick the perfect service for you, there are a few signs that you should be looking out for.