Recruiting agencies have quickly become one of the most common channels through which employers and candidates alike find what they need. While recruitment agencies have been around for some time, the role they play in the hiring process has been increasing significantly in the last decade. In the United States, for example, staffing agencies are responsible for finding employment for two million people a day.
Understanding the role of the recruitment agency in this context becomes crucial, both for companies that might need their services or candidates who need help finding employment.
What Is a Recruitment Agency?
A recruitment agency is a firm that assists in different stages of the hiring process. The services of a recruitment agency can be solicited by companies looking to recruit new employees or by individuals looking for work.
Recruiters make it their job to keep up to date with the latest employment trends and industry fluctuations. An agency operates as far more than just a facilitator for employment. Instead, recruiters are some of the people most connected to what is happening within the labour market. Working with a recruiting agency, where you’re an employer looking to solve staffing problems or job seeker looking for work, means gaining access to recruiters’ body of knowledge and connections.
Are All Recruitment Agencies the Same?
When choosing a recruitment agency to partner with, you’ll notice that there are quite a few to choose from. It’s important to keep in mind that not all agencies are the same. For example, some agencies have specializations, meaning they work exclusively within a specific industry.
For companies working in skill-intensive industries, working with a recruitment agency that has a specialization can be a big help. You’ll be looking for candidates with a very specific set of skills, and a recruitment agency that works within a niche will be able to find you those candidates. Similarly, if you are a job hunter with a specialized set of technical skills, you’d do well to seek out an agency that can represent those skills properly.
Executive search firms refer to recruitment agencies that work exclusively within senior-level management. Unlike other agencies, they don’t take on candidates. Instead, they are hired by companies to act as headhunters for top roles.
Finally, some agencies work extensively in temporary or contract work. If you’re in the market for temp work, or you’re looking for temp work yourself, then an agency that has experience in this field can be useful.
How Does a Recruitment Agency Work?
When a company enlists the services of a recruitment agency, it pays a fee for that service. This fee covers everything from the initial search for candidates to the onboarding that takes place once someone has been hired.
For the job hunter, working with a recruitment agency is always free. However, this doesn’t mean that an agency just hands out jobs. Once you’ve signed up with a recruitment agency, its recruiters represent you to potential employers. That means their reputations are at stake as well because they are tasked with finding highly qualified candidates for their client companies. As a result, they have a process for admission in place. You’ll need to start by submitting an application and a copy of your resume. After this has been approved, there will generally be an interview and a series of qualifying tests. Finally, an agency may offer you additional training, if necessary.
While this process might seem overwhelming, there are a lot of benefits. An agency can open a lot of doors for job seekers that they wouldn’t be able to access on their own. The training they provide, like the service in general, is free. The benefits for a company are equally as great, as the agency alleviates the labour involved with finding new employees while also delivering top-quality candidates.
