There are over 40,000 organisations that are home to Thames Valley, over 82% of these organisations use recruitment agencies to help them identify the best candidates on the market. In an ever changing, candidate driven market, it is important that your company stands out and that your chosen agency acts as an extension of your brand when talking to candidates about your roles!
Questions to ask yourself?
1. How well does your recruitment partner represent your company?
2. Do they understand your company's values and culture?
3. How quick are they to act on a vacancy coming live?
3. Do they genuinely believe in your brand and are not after a "quick win"?
How to protect your brand
While you may not see any harm in utilising multiple recruitment agencies for a role, it is key to use no more than 3 agencies at any one time, ideally 1 that partners with you and understands the business. We see time after time when a company goes out to more than 3; alarm bells being raised to candidates if there are too many recruiters calling them about the same position and devaluing the opportunity presented to them.
The ultimate position would be to find a recruitment agency that truly understands who are as a company, your values, culture, progression paths and more in order to take a more exclusive approach to your vacancies.
Benefits?
1. Candidates are not put off by multiple calls for the same role.
2. Your brand and culture can be translated to the candidate's most in demand and used as the true selling point it is!
3. Candidates feel a more exclusive approach to the roles is taken and as a result you can access passively looking candidates who may not have otherwise been interested.
4. You can ensure each candidate sent across to you is going to be not only a strong technical but also a strong cultural fit.
5. A smoother and faster recruitment process
How to go about selecting your chosen 3 agencies?
1. Meet multiple agencies
2. Ask them about their own culture and values? Are they on the same lines as yours?
3. Question their market knowledge
4. Question their CV send to interview ratio
5. Are they currently working with any exclusive candidates?
6. Question around their specialisms and if they align with yours
Letting agencies in should not be considered a nuisance or negative thing! They are specialists for a reason. Seeing your chosen agencies as partners will open a wide range of doors to not only accessing the best candidates on the market but also allowing you to achieve a slicker recruitment process!