Picking a recruitment firm/agency to work with can be difficult as the options seem unlimited at times. Everyone says they’re the best and that they can help, but how do you determine which is right for you and your company?
Below are four main categories that you should consider when deciding on a Recruitment Partner and how you and your team can determine which is right for you.
1. Experience in Recruitment
Whether you are a manufacturer, engineering services, or consulting firm, the type of roles that a recruitment firm specializes in recruiting for will dictate how well they know your industry and the candidates within that field. You want to choose a firm that has experience recruiting for similar roles in related fields to your own company.
For example: If you’re looking for a Plant Manager who possesses 10 years of automation and manufacturing experience with an engineering degree, which type of recruitment company would be right for hiring for this position?
- A Recruitment Agency that focuses on a variety of office administration, bookkeeping or general labour positions, OR
- A Technical Recruiting Firm, like Expand Reach, that focuses on engineering and technical searches.
For this position, a technical engineering recruiting firm would be your best option in this case. This search requires specific education, and industry experience that only an experienced team of technical recruiters will have a network of candidates who have the potential to make a match.
2. Communication
Communication is a large factor when choosing your Recruitment Partner. There needs to be clear and consistent communication between the Account Executive/Manager from your Recruitment Partner and your own HR/Hiring Manager to successfully fill the team’s openings. They can clearly communicate their process and how they would approach searching your job opening based on their experience with similar searches.
A good Account Executive/Manager will keep communications open throughout your relationship, and especially so during searches. They will provide updates and follow up for feedback in a timely manner. And at the beginning of each search, they know that preparation will be key and will ask all the necessary questions to know what they need to search for. For example:
- Skills, tools. And experienced required (must-haves) and other “nice to haves”
- Vacation, benefits, bonuses, or other compensation offered to match what candidates are looking for
- Soft skills / traits / characteristics of a qualified candidate
3. Trust
For any partnership to be successful, there must be a great deal of trust between the parties. With your Recruitment Partner, you must trust in their abilities to understand exactly what your company needs in a particular role to be able to find what you’re looking for. If they are unclear on what they’re saying, or they are unable to answer basic questions, that can be a red flag. Below are a few questions that you can ask:
- Have you recruited for similar roles in the past and if so, can you provide examples of them?
- Are you able to share examples of candidate profiles that you have in your network that you believe is a good match to our job opening?
Again, if they’re unable to provide examples of past instances when they have recruited for similar position or the resumes sent do not match what is required for the position, there is cause for concern that they do not have the ability to find candidates you’re looking for.
4. Ability to Build a Long-Term Partnership
Choosing the right Recruitment Partner stems from what your company wants out of this relationship. Is it simply transactional and it doesn’t matter who does it so long as they find candidates quickly? In this scenario, we see companies engage multiple recruitment firms / agencies and it becomes a free-for-all and candidates get contacted by multiple sources for the same opportunity. Sometimes there becomes confusion between the candidates, the recruitment firms / agencies, and it also causes them to forego quality for speed to submit candidates before others do.
On the other hand, you may be looking for a long-term strategic Recruitment Partner that can help with your team’s growth over time. In this case, you may want a partner that focuses on quality, has a through screening process for candidates, has relevant experience in searching for similar positions or industries.
Choosing the right Recruitment Partner can be made easy if you follow the few simple tips above. When making you selection, make sure to ask the right questions to determine what strategic recruitment partner is right for your needs.
If you’re look for a technical recruitment firm that specializes in Engineering, Manufacturing, IT, Architecture, and Construction, then Expand Reach will be your best pick. We work closely with our clients to help them build their teams with the right mix of experience, talent, and personality.
Contact Us today to speak with one of our Recruitment Specialists and let us help you make 2022 a year where build your team with stronger talent!
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