Continuously Changing Recruitment Trends

Continuously Changing Recruitment Trends

Published on Wednesday, 14 December 2011 10:32

	By Mark Stephens Follow @MStephens21

The recruitment industry has undergone significant changes over the last 20 years as it has embraced the advancements in technology and adapted to changing behaviours influenced by the ever evolving digital space and the economy.

The essence of recruitment services remains the same though, it’s just the way that we do it, in order to achieve the desired results.

One of the biggest and most rapid changes in recent years has been a mindset change by the client, influenced by the economic downturn to look inwardly at how and where the company can save money or reduce costs.

When you add into the equation the ever increasing number of online tools available to the client, it is easy to understand why such a rapid paradigm shift towards bringing recruitment back in house is taking place.

Currently, the three most popular options available to companies are the ‘Traditional Agency’, the ‘Modern Fixed Fee’ and the “Advertise Only - Online Recruitment” model;.

The Traditional Agency

Recruitment Agencies often specialise in specific industry sectors and operate by providing a shortlist of candidates to an organisation based on the people registered with them. The agency will effectively manage the candidate element of the recruitment process from sign off through to offer. Upon successfully providing a candidate to fill a vacancy, the agency usually receives a percentage of the candidate’s annual salary.

Advantages:

• A recruiter does this full time and takes every precaution to protect the outcome of the campaign that they are working on.
• If they specialise in a particular Industry, they will potentially have access to the right skills and experience
• The recruitment company will usually have access to a number of candidate databases and will have the tools and resources to find suitable applicants
• Flexibility to recruit temporary workers as well as permanent
• Most agencies operate on a no win no fee basis, so you only pay if you are happy

Disadvantages:

• To recruit via an agency can be very expensive, in some cases an organisation may have to pay an agency up to 30% of the employee’s annual salary.
• Agencies can operate from a pool of candidates as opposed to sourcing fresh applicants, unless the agency is an executive search operation.
• If multiple agencies are used on a contingency basis, this can encourage malpractice.
• The amount of time and effort dedicated to your campaign is likely to be commercially driven.

The Fixed Fee Model

Over the last few years, agencies have started to offer clients a fixed fee solution. Fixed Fee recruitment is a service which is provided to clients for a pre-arranged set cost; thus ensuring that the recruitment process will always remain within a client’s budget. The Fixed Fee method usually allows companies to employ an unlimited number of candidates sourced by the campaign at no extra cost.

Advantages:

• No hidden costs and potentially lower cost per hire
• Dedicated time allocated to your vacancy by the recruiter
• Make multiple hires for one fee
• Specifically designed advertising campaigns to attract fresh and relevant applicants

Disadvantages:

• May struggle to fill vacancies in niche employment sectors.
• Many lower cost, fixed fee models are just a scaled down version of the contingency process, so you can end up with a junior recruiter working your vacancy, in order to make it commercially viable.

The Advertise Only – Online Recruitment model

Many companies have decided to bring their recruitment back in house, for either all or part of their recruitment needs. The advertise only option is by far the cheapest route to go, if you have the resources in house to manage the response and co-ordinate interviews and offers.

Advantages:

• Ideal for low salary or mainstream positions where there is not a skills shortage
• No hidden costs
• Lowest cost per hire
• Make multiple hires for one fee
• More control over which candidates are considered

Disadvantages:

• More of the process may need to be managed by the client
• May struggle to fill vacancies in niche employment sectors

The Summary

The essential elements to consider when you are comparing different recruitment options is that of value and whether the solution is the best solution for your vacancy.

Personally, I would split vacancies into the three categories based upon the following criteria. However, for those boarder line cases, you can always consider running with the fixed price or advertise only solution in the first instance.

Use a specialist recruitment agency if:

• The role is specialist or requires a blend of rare or difficult to find skills
• The role is high salary and the hire is critical to the outcome of projects or business commitments
• Where the successful candidate is almost certainly going to be working for a competitor

Opt for a fixed price solution when:

• You have an agency that you trust you can work with exclusively
• When you want to budget a fixed price for the service
• When you want to ensure that an agency dedicates sufficient time to your campaign

Choose an advertise only service when:

• You have the internal resources to manage the applications yourself
• When the hire is either non critical or low salary or for mainstream skills
• When the recruitment budget is limited
• When there are multiple hires for the same role

Choosing the right service for each campaign seems both logical and common sense, but the majority of companies still tend to have their preferred route to go down when hiring staff.

Companies should consider that there are many options available to them when hiring staff and the appropriate solution should adopted on an ad hoc basis.

I am always interested to hear what companies and hiring managers think about the ever evolving recruitment industry in general and would welcome anyone that wishes to share their experiences or ask any questions.

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