Why work with a specialist recruitment agency?

It’s fair to say that businesses sometimes question the value and the cost of using a specialist recruitment agency. 

But recruiting expert people, with the right skills, is critical to the future of your organisation. 

Working with an agency that specialises in the specific area you’re hiring into makes your chances of finding the best candidate far, far greater. 

The benefits significantly outweigh the cost of the recruitment fee. Over the longer term, a good recruitment partner will have an even bigger impact, driving huge returns on those fees.

We should point out here that we are talking about niche market recruitment experts rather than the high-volume, transactional agencies. They have their place of course, but in the middle-senior level world we operate in, having that specialist knowledge is much more important. That’s where the real benefit and value can be felt.

Here’s why.

1) Specialist market knowledge and expertise

A specialist recruitment consultancy works in the market day in, day out. 

They know what salaries or rates different roles command, which skills are in short supply and what projects are trending. They can advise on how attractive your offer is versus your competitors and say how easy or difficult it will be to fill your job.

Then, they can employ the best strategy to find those niche skill sets you’re looking for.

2) Networks, connections and communities

If you’re working with a recruiter who specialises in your business area, you’re opening up the job to hundreds, even thousands, of candidates with the exact mix of skills you’re looking for. Recruiters will have a wide-reaching network of skilled people, at all levels, and can often pull together a list of excellent candidates within hours.

What’s more, having worked with many of their network previously, the recruiter has contractors who are already proven and can demonstrate immediate value.

3) Access to passive candidates

If you’re hiring in-house through advertising, you will get responses from people actively looking for work. But what about the brilliant people who haven’t considered moving lately?

A recruitment consultant can proactively search for candidates that fit a customer’s requirements with tech and tools in-house teams just don’t have. They can cover more of the talent pool, not just those ‘currently looking’. 

Or, they can headhunt to a very specific brief – your competitors, for example!

4) Less wasted time, faster results 

Using a sector-expert recruiter can save your team hours, especially at the beginning of a process.

From writing and posting a job advert and sifting through hundreds of responses, to the time-consuming process of initial telephone interviews and reference checking, using a specialist recruitment agency will speed up your hiring process.

They can spot good candidates more quickly and move fast, meaning you’re less likely to miss out.

Internal teams and line managers can focus on a shortlist of candidates through the interview process rather than get bogged down, without taking time and resources from other projects.

5) An inclusive recruitment process

The recruitment consultant can take a step back and look at the technical requirements of the job, with no pre-conceptions. 

They can think creatively about how to enable talented candidates the opportunity to do the job. For example, is the working environment accessible, can the job be done remotely, outside core working hours, part-time, via a job share? Is the client’s employer brand attractive to working parents, people with disabilities, minority ethnic groups, the over 50s, apprentices? 

A recruitment consultant is able to advise the employer on strategies to attract a wider range of candidates and run an inclusive process.

6) An objective middleman

The recruitment consultant has built rapport with the hiring manager, and the candidates in process. They are in a unique position to be able to ask, and answer, probing questions to find out a candidate’s motivations and aspirations. They can help hiring managers understand the candidate’s story.

When it comes to salary negotiations, the recruitment consultant acts as the middleman, enabling frank and honest conversations with both parties and more chance of a positive result.

7) Due diligence

Getting references, right to work information, checking qualifications and DBS status – all this compliance work can take up a lot of time and effort. 

Recruitment consultancies have streamlined processes and technology to take care of all the administration and ensure the recruitment process is risk and error free.

8) Add-on services and expertise

Do you need to benchmark your salaries and benefits against the competition? Can psychometric testing help with the decision making? Is there a specific skills test you’d like candidates to take? Are you interested in a market trends report?

These are the sorts of additional services and insights that a specialist recruitment agency can offer, some as part of the service.

9) A partner and sounding board

Finally, less quantifiable but hugely important, is the partnership between the recruitment consultant and the hiring manager.

This is a relationship based on trust with a mutual goal – to help build a team of people who can help the business achieve their objectives.

The longer you work together, the more the recruiter will get to know your business, culture, structure, skills requirements, future talent needs. They will be able to take into account internal factors and their knowledge of the market to provide valueable, expert insights and support your long term strategic workforce plans.

It’s here that working with a recruitment partner that specialises in your market sector can really add value. Yes, the recruiter can fill your roles, but they can also advise on a huge range of strategic talent issues. 

They can help build talent pipelines, put together succession plans, staff up a whole new project team, inform the business about new trends and projects that they are seeing. 

They can talk about leveraging employer brand and building an environment that will attract talent for the future.

 

Boston Hale specialises in recruitment for Accountancy & Finance, Data & Technology, Legal Business Services, Procurement and Supply Chain and Strategic Healthcare mid-senior level interim and permanent roles

If you want to know more about the benefits of working with a specialist recruitment firm like ours, get in touch.

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