Where do recruitment consultants add value? Part 1
Where do recruitment consultants add value?
One of the biggest challenges facing business in the next 5 to 10 years is recruiting and retaining talent, and from my experience the shortage of staff with key skills, particularly in unusual sectors is happening now. It will only get worse. However, in this increasingly easy digital age, with its plethora of disruptors and online recruitment sites and tools it is easy to forget where really good recruitment consultants can still add value, rather than be seen as an un-necessary cost.
I asked Maureen Blenkharn of McAdam King, our recruitment partner, for her insights into where recruitment consultants can add value:
Why should I use a recruitment consultant, why don’t I just post the job on LinkedIn?
High quality recruitment consultants don’t just post jobs online and process CV’s. Targeted candidates are vetted to ensure there is not only a match for what our client demands, but that it meets the motivational factors of the individual, i.e. salary, career aspirations, industry sector, location, culture and environment. Linkedin (and similar online postings) are geared towards making it simple and quick for anyone to apply, this boosts responses which is only a benefit to the advertising mediums marketing and sales departments. Quality is not filtered.
Some of the key filter criteria can only be established at a face to face interview resulting in rejection from both parties and a ‘sour’ taste left for time wasting. Good candidates are also valued by their current employer and it takes sensitive and detailed managing to divert a possible counter offer or any small miscommunication that could result in either side withdrawing from the process in error. We are not interested in just placing a candidate; we are interested in ensuring that the candidate is a good fit for both parties and building long term relationships with clients.
Don’t you just pull CV’s from your database?
Well actually that is one of the advantages of using a good recruitment consultant. We speak to both clients and potential candidates on a regular basis, so may be aware of both positions not yet advertised and candidates passively looking for new challenges so the answer is yes and no. We have an established and extensive Database built up over 20 years, complete with details of motivational factors. We also have many potential candidates that are not ‘active’ in the market but rely on us to inform them of potential roles that we know are a good fit for their career progression plan, having already previously discussed aspirations with them.
Our huge database is just one tool in our large toolbox. An advert placed by a client relies on a certain candidate being on the job market at that precise time that also matches all our clients advertised criteria, and this requires a great deal of luck. Our database is always ‘live’ and candidates are proactively approached, interviewed for the specific role and only if there is a match are they submitted to our client. We only add candidates to our database that we are happy to represent.
Geared Logic provides Recruitment Consultancy services to enable SME’s to flourish and grow. Maureen Blenkharn is Recruitment Director at Geared Logic as well as Managing Director at McAdam King.
Justin Grace
