Is there value in using a recruitment agency?

When I started working in recruitment several years ago, my mentor explained the value to me.  His exact words to me were: “Landry, your biggest tool in recruitment sales is showing the value of your service”.  The more I sell, the more critical this becomes to me. In recruitment I’ve seen so many instances where the absence of value – real or perceived – has caused us to do many things to try and remain credible in an ever changing economy.  Today, I decided to pen these reminders.

What is in a name?

I meet a lot of people in our industry that use different titles, from Talent Acquisition to Human Capital, or just Consultant. These are some terms that are widely used instead of the title “Recruitment Consultant”.  Although I get strange looks when I tell people I’m a recruiter – since the title is so yesterday – I believe that changing your title from Recruitment Consultant to Human Capital Specialist doesn’t make you a better nor worse recruiter. The value of our work lies in our collaborative partnership with our clients and how we can give them the competitive advantage they require through the people they recruit and retain.

Will internal teams replace us?

Whenever I meet a prospect I always tell them: “If we can’t find candidates that you and your internal teams can find yourselves, you shouldn’t be using us”.  Recruitment services don’t come cheap and therefore recruitment consultants shouldn’t be used as administrators, but rather strategic partners that ensure your long term objectives are met by successfully attracting and retaining the best available talent in the market.

Will technology replace us?

With automated video interviews, screening bots, and endless algorithms already available in the market, it’s hard to not wonder if one of those bots will replace us soon.  Ultimately we can never be 100% sure what will happen in the future, but once again, the value we give to our clients is more than matching and screening – they are capable of doing this better than us – the value of our service is in understanding who they require beyond a job spec and not just for the short term, but long term too.  We use technology to help solve recruitment challenges because we’re a recruitment company that uses technology, not a technology company in the recruitment industry.  It seems Oleg Vishnepolsky (Global CTO at DailyMail Online and Metro.Co.Uk) says it best; “The hiring decisions will still be made by humans.”

Bringing it all together

Regardless of what we call ourselves, we believe our value to you should be clear.  We provide industry expertise, strategic foresight and most importantly, we save you time and ultimately money by simplifying the recruitment process and finding candidates you can’t access yourself.

When reviewing whether to use a recruitment company or not, consider a few things:

1. Can we source the best candidates on our own?  (Remember, the best candidates aren’t always those knocking on your door)
2. What are our competitors doing with regards to finding the best candidates? (Remember, you don’t know what you don’t know – find out!)
3. What is the cost of hiring the wrong candidate?  (Remember, the costs of hiring the wrong candidates usually outweigh the cost of working with a recruitment partner.)