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Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies

Summary of postings

Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Chantal Bourdais 12 Jul 05
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesNicholas Kellingley13 Jul 05
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesDavid Hay28 Jul 05
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesJulia Fazal13 Jul 05
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesBarry Watson11 Mar 07
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesRolfe Pearce14 Sep 05
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesPeter23 Nov 06
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesRichard6 Dec 06
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesSiobhan9 Jan 07
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesJames10 Jan 07
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesMark Gilbertson9 Mar 07
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencieszoe smith12 Mar 07
Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment AgenciesCraig28 Mar 07

Details of postings

Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Chantal Bourdais 12/07/2005 16:10
I work for a nationwide company with over 2000 staff. As part of a wider recruitment strategy (and to stop those unwanted phone calls) I am keen to put a tender out to a number of agencies to provide us with their services.

This I feel would allow us to make use of our buying power, stop my contract managers from doing their own thing and getting charged extortionate rates and would make the options available to them for recruitment more transparent.

I have a few ideas on what I am looking for:

i.e. centralised service with dedicated account manager to quality control, national presence etc.

However I wondered if anyone out there has undertaken this process and what their selection criteria was.

Can anyone help?

Many thanks

Chantal Bourdais
 
+ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Nicholas Kellingley 13/07/2005 09:17
I would look more to what value add can they bring to the recruitment process?

A national account manager might sound nice but what knowledge do they bring to you of local market variations for example?

What you should be looking for from this process are a group of agencies (including some specialist lists for IT or engineering staff etc.) that will reduce the time taken to recruit, the costs associated with recruitment and improve the quality of recruits.

So you should first take a good look at your current process and identify areas which take too long/cost too much or bring in too many/few candidates or bring in low quality candidates or which you don't need to do yourselves.

Then ask the pool of agencies you intend to invite to tender to submit proposals that would help you solve these problems and what their part would be and then choose from these.

If you put a prescriptive list together of requirements you'll be bound to miss something and you'll lose the best part of what an agency can do for you - reduce your workload and costs whilst acting as a true business partner.
++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies David Hay 28/07/2005 13:46
Or alternatively, agree contracts and SLAs with a single recruitment company, which will manage the entire process, conducting much of your recruitment activity using their in-house resources, and managing agency activity for the rest.

You and your line managers then know who to call when there is a requirement, what performance levels have been agreed, and what it will cost.

You agree to regular reviews and build a relationship.

Also, when you receive agency cold callls, you know where to point them.

David
++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Julia Fazal 13/07/2005 13:39
Agencies are a bain of HR existence however we do need them.

I work for a similar size company and although we use several different agencies for different types of jobs, I would prefer to use fewer suppliers.

I would advise for you to identify the most difficult areas to recruit to identify if they are industry specific or not, if they are you may want to agree a separate agreement with that specialist agency. For roles like IT, Finance, Admin, HR can all be given to one agency. Hays and Reed tend to cover all functions and although they tend to charge a lot more, it might help to bring the recruitment under one umbrella and avoid you dealing with different T&C's. With the company your size it should give you a better bargaining position.

I do agree that having an account manager may not be required as the job could be carried on by HR. It will give you better control.

However, you might want to stipulate that agreement will be subject to review after 12 month period. This should give any agency enough incentive to perform to a certain level.
+++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Barry Watson 11/03/2007 09:34 barry wat@ btinternet com
Agencies are here to stay there is no doubt about that and for some
temps that like junior admin that  maybe not a bad thing.Howeevr
just think what these placement fees are adding to the bottom line of a
business,it doesnt bare thinking about in some cases.What really 
continues to flabbergast me is just how much some organisations have
begun to rely totally on agencies. I have held many recruiment roles in
my 20 years  as a Recruitment Manager both permanent and Interim
and have always managed agency recruitment  to  a minimum,
that which is  absolutely essential,not what I see as a current
trend as the first place to start.  In my humble view,lots of
agency input usually means either extremely hard pressed HR or just
lazyness to do anything else.There is also the perenial problem of
hiring managers wanting to do their own thing and that mans talking to
agencies,for many dont know any better. I once had to fight a 
long rear guard action in a major corporate I worked for when a new
director of HR wanted everything to go the agency route first thing
despite my agency costs being less than 10% of total recruitment
budget.Thankfully I and my clleagues won in the end but only with top
management support. Keep agencies under control and only when
absolutely necessary when all other channels have been exhausted.
+++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Rolfe Pearce 14/09/2005 21:30
It is important to ensure that the contract you have with the agencies is geared to employment businesses not supplier/agencies or any other vague term.
1. make sure you have a full contract and SLA before setting up a tender.
2. ensure that the agencies who you see fit fully your criteria before you see anyone.
3. Ensure that ALL claims in their literature are fully justified, ie internal and external quality checks.
4. Audit the supplier without giving more than a days notice to ensure compliance with operational quality procedures.
5. Ask to take references from any one of their clients not just the ones they place forward.
6. Ask to speak at random to their temporary staff to assess their commitment to their workers.
7. Ask for proof of their antidiscriminatory practice and monitoring evidence.
8. Ask them to have access to all files at any time on any site to check quality and ensure you check.
9. Ask them for evidence of their environment and social policy commitments
10. Ask then for a presentation and document set out clearly on your terms and answering questions specificaly crafted by you relating to the service you want in clearly numbered terms with limited space for a reply. This will give you a flavour of their commitment, and an easily useable raft of documents to compare like for like.

In short keep them on their toes, don't let them stay in their 'Sales' comfort zone. The tender has to be on your terms. Don't forget they are a key part of your operation they must be the right choice.
++++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Peter 23/11/2006 10:09

Chantal,


I echo the comments of other commentators on your topic. The two major problems we found were the temptation by the agencies we used to pass the CVs they have with insufficient quality control and  having "in-house" assessments done on the candidates. The first point was addressed by generating a Competency checklist that the agency needed to complete on each candidate to justify why they were passing the CV and the second point was addressed by appointing local assessors who were totally independent of the Agency and who completed Psychometric and ability tests on the candidates prior to interview.


Good Luck


Pete
+++++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Richard 06/12/2006 17:24

Pete


You seem to have reignited a year-old string(?) but I'd bet the same problems are still out there today. What are your views on direct recruitment to beat the "bain" of HR's existence?( as one of the earlier networkers in this string put it).


Be interested to see your views.


Richard
++++++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Siobhan 09/01/2007 14:02

Chantal,


 


I would like to introduce PPS, the HR Outsourcing and Consultancy arm of Badenoch & Clark.


 


Outsourcing the management of agencies to a managed service provider is a route many of our clients have opted for to tackle the issues you have mentioned. PPS act as a single service provider to deliver managed service agreements for a number of clients in the public and private sectors which have resulted in improved quality and coverage of their existing provisions, reduced recruitment costs and a complete stop to those unwanted calls. These agreements feature the ideas you mentioned – a dedicated account manager (who can be based on or off site) and detailed quality control procedures.


 


However the managed service option is one amongst many solutions available to you. If you would like further details please feel free to contact me on siobhan.dennehy@ppsworks.com


 

Regards
+++++++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies James 10/01/2007 23:31

I echo an earlier option, I have found that using different agencies with different specialities for each business group at the right rates is most effective.


As for agency cold calls, employ a "poacher turned gamekeeper". I have found my initial sales training as a recruitment consultant in a previous life very useful in rebutting the cold caller.


Also bear in mind that a cold call is the time where you are in the best negotiating position.
++++++++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Mark Gilbertson 09/03/2007 10:44

I think it is worth considering a move to a direct recruitment strategy, as I think one of the earlier posters mentioned. My role has been as Head of Rec for a number of organisations and on taking over the reins always switched to an e-enabled operation that allowed the organisation to go to market itself, rather than using 3rd party suppliers. At Cable &Wireless  for instance we cut agency hires from 82% down to 23% in 4 months, with no drop off in hiring or quality. That then allows you to have good relationships with a FEW suppliers who will always cover the niche or difficult areas.


If you are not sure, give it a go. There are a number of well known job-boards out there – post a vacs and see what the response is like. Word of warning through – make sure you are set up to handle the response!


The other way is to set up a Master Vendor or Managed Service operation using a 3rd Party – again fairly common although you need to choose your supplier carefully.


A tip on managing suppliers is to use the same Performance Management system/process that you would use with your own people. Set out the targets, have regular two way reviews, give a warning, drop those that do not perform and reward those that do.


hope that helps


Mark


(mark.gilbertson@peaktalent.co.uk, www.peaktalent.co.uk, HR Search & Selection)


 
+++++++++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies zoe smith 12/03/2007 14:42

I have worked as a manager of a non recruitment related business, as a recruitment consultant fr a multiple agency and for a sole agency.


I believe agencies do have a place as they can save you time if they do there jobs correctly however you do need to be careful which agency you choose.


Go for an agency that really cuts your time down by:


Getting the right candidates over to you not just sending over every application for you to source through. Make sure they discuss the role etc with the candidates and check the candidate is right for your business to.


Honest recruitment agencies are out there!


Yes i know there are agencies that charge high fees however negotiate - if it is a specialist role that is harder to fill then 18% is fair if you are a one off user, however if you recruit quite a few times a year or if it is a general role then providing you offer the oppertunity to the agency each time to fill the role they should neg a lower rate.


Make sure you choose wisley.


It may also help to know if they are group connected for example the company i now work for is general however we have sister companies that deal with HSQE, Teaching, Nursing, HR specaists etc so if i negotiate an agereement for HR roles i will tend to agree this also with the HSQE specalist companys etc to so if a role comes up it is under the same agreement.


and lastly, why not meet with the agent in person - not only is it better for you as you get to know the agent who you will be working with to see if they are the right person  but if the agent sees the working environment then they can also match on personality to fit the company and department too.


 
+++++ Re: Assessing the Effectiveness of Recruitment Agencies Craig 28/03/2007 11:09 cmurtagh@ sdhglobalsource com

Hi Chantal


I appreciate you may not be working for the company you mentioned here now or you probably have the recruitment sorted now but if not and you are potentially still interested in looking at other Recruitment Agencies then I would be very interested in finding out more on what your company does and the types of staff that they would require help in recruiting for. I work for a specialist R.A and we can provide contract or permanent staff at very competitive market rates. Should you feel this opportunity could be useful to you then please reply to this board.


Many thanks


Craig

 
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