How to work effectively with your recruitment consultancy partner

Recruitment consultancies play a huge role in helping businesses find, recruit and retain the people they need to meet their goals.

To make the relationship as effective as possible, there are things you can do to ensure things progress quickly and smoothly.

Here are six ways to help maximise your recruitment agency partnership.

1) Provide a full brief

For a recruitment consultancy to put the best candidates in front of you, you first need to tell them exactly what you are looking for.

This is a critical part of the process, so you need to take the time to outline everything relevant to the role, such as:

• Wider business objectives, your vision
• Context for the role, why are you hiring?
• Key projects, objectives and deliverables of the role
• How they will be measured and rewarded
• Qualifications and skills needed to deliver
• Team structure and where the role fits
• Background on the line manager and direct reports

If you have a budget for the role, or critical deadlines, these will also have a big impact on the project. It’s essential to outline these at the outset.

2) Focus on the benefits

As part of the brief, the recruiter will want to know how they can leverage your employer brand to attract candidates into the process.

What is great about your company and the role? Why do people stay with the organisation? What can you offer to employees over and above the competition? 

Armed with this knowledge, the recruiter has what they need to ‘sell’ the job, and company, to candidates. Things like:  

• Company culture – what’s it like to work there?
• Business performance and strategy 
• Insight into the leadership team 
• Hybrid, flexible or remote working practices
• Learning, training and development support
• Diversity, equality & inclusion initiatives
• Benefits, renumeration, performance bonuses
• Rewards and recognition
• Career development and progression opportunities
• Employee engagement survey results

And remember, no company is perfect. It’s better to be honest and show how your company is striving to improve than to overpromise. 

3) Listen to the recruiter’s advice

OK, once the brief has been established, the recruiter will start to develop a hiring strategy.

A specialist recruitment consultant operating in your specific market will know that market sector inside out.

They can provide insights into the wider market and determine how competitive your offer is, such as:  

• How big is the talent pool for the role? Is it easy or hard to find candidates?
• Is this skill set in demand – will you need to move fast to secure good people? 
• Can you achieve the desired outcome within the budget?

Your recruitment consultant will advise on ways to widen the talent pool and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds or industries to apply.

For example, offering hybrid working may attract more people to the role, opening it up to people with a longer commute time or caring responsibilities. Can you consider offering a relocation package to attract talent from even further afield? What does your company do to support people with disabilities? How accessible is your workplace? Adding part-time or 100% remote working can broaden the talent pool still further. 

Is the list of ‘essential’ skills or market experience for the role really ‘essential’? Are you putting off people from outside the market? Instead, can you focus on outcomes and transferable skills rather than previous industry experience to widen the talent pool? 

There are many ways to attract a diverse range of experienced, qualified candidates. Work with your recruitment consultant to define your offer. 

Listen to their advice and be prepared to compromise or think differently in order to achieve the best results.

4) Design the right interview process

It’s a good idea to discuss and plan the interview process with your recruitment consultant. What is an effective and relevant interview process for the level of role you’re hiring for?

Too few stages could lead to poor decision making. But, too long a process can mean frustrated candidates and increased drop-out rates. 

Think about who in the business needs to be involved, at which stage. If it’s a senior role, are their stakeholders from other areas of the business who should have input? Will a presentation stage add value, or put good talent off? Do you need to include skills assessments for technical roles? 

Utilise your recruitment partner where you can – for example, are you happy for them to perform initial interviews by phone or video? 

And, be prepared to set time aside in diaries for the interviews. A good tip is to ringfence slots in advance, in conjunction with the recruitment consultant. Providing a list of times will mean the recruiter can go ahead and book meetings without endless back and forth emails about scheduling.

5) Communicate effectively

It’s impossible to have a productive working partnership with your recruitment consultant without good communication. 

For the relationship to work, both sides need to be honest, clear, specific and constructive when it comes to communication throughout the process. 

• Provide feedback on CVs and after interviews quickly. This will maintain momentum and help avoid losing good candidates.
• When providing feedback, be honest and use specific examples where possible. This will help the recruiter to refine the search criteria and provide meaningful feedback to the candidate.
• Have clear lines of communication through one point of contact – on your side and the recruiters - if you can. When too many people get involved, clarity can disappear and decisions can take much longer.
• Raise issues quickly – if the CVs are missing the mark, the recruiter can only put it right if you tell them why.
• Be transparent if you are working with other agencies and have other candidates in process with them. There’s nothing worse than approaching a candidate, only to find out they are already in the mix – it will reflect badly on your business.

6) Make it exclusive

One way of avoiding an embarrassing situation, like the last point above, is to consider working with an agency on an exclusive or retained basis.

There are several benefits to this.

• Guaranteed allocated time and resources. If there is no competitor at play, the recruiter can spend more time on the project, knowing that the fee is secure. 
• Cost-effective. With retained projects, the recruiter can structure a payment plan to offer maximum value, particularly with multiple hires.
• Account managed. A dedicated team member to manage the whole process, ensure it is on track, co-ordinate, communicate and iron out issues quickly.  
• Wild cards. The recruiter can introduce strategies and candidates that are outside the parameters of the brief to challenge thinking and broaden the talent pool.
• Long term planning. Working with a recruitment agency on an exclusive basis, over the longer term, will yield better results. They will get to know your company, culture and requirements in more detail, meaning they can introduce better candidates, faster.

Effective working means better results!

Establishing an effective working relationship with your recruitment partner will mean you get to meet a better calibre of candidate.

You’ll see passive as well as active candidates, secure talent before they are swayed by other offers, hire more quickly, avoid costly hiring mistakes and forge a partnership that continues to deliver ROI over the long term.

You’ll help to boost your business employer brand too. First impressions count. Candidates will form an opinion on you through the recruitment and onboarding process. 

Running an efficient, seamless recruitment process is the first step to ensuring you attract, hire and retain the best talent out there.

Talk to us about how we develop effective partnerships to support recruitment goals.

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