Finding the best talent requires moving beyond the limitations of traditional staffing agencies. Explore the top 5 things recruitment agencies don’t tell you.
It is an employee-driven workforce in the world of recruitment as the unemployment rate has decreased to 3.5%. This means there are fewer qualified candidates available to fill recruiting demands.
The pressure on recruiters is high, so this makes their job more competitive and may lead to a lack of transparency.
Let’s take a look at the top 5 things traditional recruitment agencies might not tell you and why a contract recruiter may be a better option.
1. They’re in a Rush
In the digital age, recruiting agencies have had to come up with a lot of creative ways to get potential employees’ attention. But, for them to be efficient, they must cast a wide net to meet their quotas as they chase placement fees and commissions.
While technology-based recruiting techniques help them reach more people in the shortest time, the process is often too quick and impersonal. This leaves you with unvetted candidates who may not be qualified for the job.
Hiring a contract recruiter, however, ensures that they will focus solely on your company, with a sharp focus on candidate quality and candidate care.
2. They Don’t Disclose All Reference Details
Even if a recruitment agency does go through the process of checking references, they might ignore or hide bad feedback.
Their policy might be to check two out of the three references but will add the third if they get one bad comment. Or they may ask the candidate for more references to find a positive one.
The agency does not have to disclose its findings to you and can choose to only put the positive references in their portfolio. This habit avoids the tedious effort of starting from scratch and finding another candidate.
One way to overcome this problem is to add a contract recruiter to the team instead of using an agency. A contract recruiter will be part of your internal team, and as such will ensure that references are always checked with the company’s best interests in mind.
3. The Resumes You See From Them May Be Edited
Another tactic used by recruiting agencies to speed up the process and make candidates look more qualified is resume editing. While some agencies may be honest about their resume building as a service to the candidate, most are not so honorable and will alter resumes to make the candidates seem more appealing.
I’m all for pointing out a few spelling errors or typos to a candidate, but I draw the line at making major changes to a candidate’s resume in order to make them appear more attractive. Once again, a contract recruiter solves this pesky problem, as a contract recruiter is an internal part of a company’s team, and has no absolutely no interest or reason to alter candidates’ resumes.
4. Higher Salaries Get Priority
Recruitment agencies tend to give higher priority to higher paying jobs for the simple reason that their placement fees will be larger. There is a common saying in recruitment agencies: “work closest to the money”. Sometimes that means positions that they deem easier to fill, but often times if means spending more time and energy on the jobs that will bring in a bigger payday.
Of course you completely eliminate this concern when you hire a contract recruiter instead of using an agency, because a contract recruiter is part of your team and will work on all positions with equal rigor, since there is no financial incentive to do otherwise.
5. Lack an Understanding of Your Company
One of the biggest challenges with using a recruiting agency is that have many different clients, and thus don’t understand the culture and nuances of your company the way that you do.
Having a contract recruiter on your team, however, will ensure that they truly understand your company culture and branding. So, although they will be dipping into the same candidate pools that the agencies also have access to, they will be far more effective at creating compelling messaging and engagement. Similarly, they are in a much better position to screen for culture fit.
Want A Recruitment Agency To Be More Authentic In The Way They Work For You?
There are pluses and minuses to using recruitment agencies versus contract recruiters. Hopefully I’ve been able to bring to light some of the more important thought processes when considering which route to take.
Contact us today to speak with us and learn how a contract recruiter can solve your hiring challenges.
