Is your company planning to hire in the near future? If so, the time to partner with a recruitment agency is now. It’s common that companies approach recruitment agencies at the last minute, when the need to find a candidate is urgent, and they’ve already burnt through time and money without the desired result. However, it’s far more sustainable for you as a company to have a contract with a recruitment agency ahead of time.
It’s important to know that this doesn’t actually bind you monetarily in any way, unless you have requested help to fill a role, and the agency successfully places a candidate. It’s a misconception in the industry: some companies are under the impression that they pay for a recruitment agency’s time from the get-go, but this usually isn’t the case. Instead, an agency will work diligently to source a range of high-quality candidates, and eventually place the one with the best chance of success at your company.
Let’s take a look at 5 reasons why partnering with a recruitment agency early is better for your business.
Reduce your costs and time to hire
Businesses are on a mission to save money and time—especially during periods of economic uncertainty. Far from being an ‘unnecessary’ cost, working with a recruitment agency can save you these vital resources in the long run. Depending on the agency, recruitment partners will source candidates, check CVs and references, and conduct initial interviews, meaning your company only sees candidates that are a good fit for the role. Compare this with recruiting in-house: your HR manager will need to sift through potentially 100s of CVs, missing top talent, and spending valuable time downloading and reading cover letters. Instead, bring in the experts, and save yourself time and money. And once again: you don’t pay unless the recruitment agency actually places a candidate with you!
Get access to a larger talent pool
It’s not always easy to attract the best candidates. Recruitment partners have ongoing access to a large pool of pre-vetted, talented applicants who could be a good fit for your company. So not only are you getting more applications—they’re higher quality, too. Marketing your open roles is a time-intensive task, and it’s easy for top talent to miss your posting, especially if it isn’t optimised by experts. Working with recruiters will ensure you’re able to get access to the best of the best, reducing pressure on your in-house marketing team to shout about available roles. Again, you’re bringing in experts to free up your team’s time to focus on what they’re best at.
Implement a more efficient recruitment process
There are so many different parts of the recruitment process to consider. Once you’ve identified the need for a new role (or have an opening after someone’s left your company), you’ve got to decide the title, the benefits package you’ll need to offer to attract top talent, create the job listing, sift through applications, conduct interviews, and negotiate with final offer-holders. Recruitment agencies are experts at navigating every part of this process, and can advise you on the best strategies to find the right talent for your company. This can speed up the entire process for you, and also ensure everything is more efficient.
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Benefit from specialised knowledge
Depending on the role you’re looking to fill, you may benefit from partnering with a recruitment agency with specialised knowledge and expertise. This is particularly true if you’re looking to fill roles with temporary contracts, multilingual employees, or talent with niche technical skill sets. It can be difficult to find the right type of applicants. You’ll also need to ensure you’re following local laws when it comes to things like visas and benefits. It’s not always the most simple process, so a recruitment agency with specialised knowledge can take some of the load off your shoulders.
If your company has recently opened in a new country, a recruitment agency can ensure your applications are correctly localised, and that you’re able to attract good talent despite being less known in this geographical territory. Recruitment agencies have many years of experience, and know the ins and outs—and challenges—that come with hiring in your specific region. Take the Netherlands, for example: from salary benchmarking to navigating the famous 13th month, there are lots of things for employers to consider when hiring. A recruitment agency can take the stress and guesswork out of this process for you, leading to a smoother experience.
Improve the candidate experience
Speaking of smoother experiences, this goes two ways. Candidates will gather a long-term impression of your company from the experience of going through your hiring process, whether or not they land the role. It’s important to provide a good first impression by ensuring their process is as smooth and efficient as possible, so they don’t feel like their time has been wasted. Recruitment agencies provide the perfect middleman who can coordinate with and advocate for both the company and the candidate. They can also advise companies on best practices when it comes to the candidate experience, ensuring they go away telling everyone they know how smooth the process was.
The recruitment agency will usually conduct the first stages of the process, including sourcing talent and conducting initial interviews to ensure a good fit, so it’s also key to choose an agency you feel will represent your company well. Done correctly, a good partnership will ensure your company can just jump in at the interview stage, with a group of highly qualified candidates to choose from. The candidates will (hopefully) also have benefited from an efficient and stress-free initial screening process, once again cementing their impression of your company.
Final thoughts
Recruitment agencies know that hiring can be a stressful process for companies, from everything you need to navigate, to the sheer amount of work that comes with reading through CVs and application letters. Agencies are experts at what they do, and can be trusted to provide a helping hand for the most complex parts of the process, leaving you to focus on the crucial interview stage. You’ll benefit from an expert team and recruitment consultants, who’ll help you find your company’s next superstar, with zero upfront cost. What’s not to love?
Partner with Adams Multilingual Recruitment to streamline your search, save time, and ensure your company’s continued success.
