Now that the job market is slowly beginning to improve across the UK, it’s quite surprising to see recruitment agencies thriving in a recovering market. In fact, recruitment agencies hardly noticed the decline in employment in recent years, with some agencies publicly announcing that more vacancies were being advertised than before.
What is a recruitment agency?
An employment agency is a company that aims to provide its clients (companies/organizations) with qualified and experienced candidates. They handle the entire recruitment process, which may include job announcements, headhunting, phone interviews, face-to-face interviews, and candidate screening.
From a companies point of view, using a recruitment agency is beneficial because they do not need to hire internal teams of recruitment specialists and HR teams.
How Agencies Can Help You Find a Job
Because agencies work with multiple clients, they often post multiple openings in multiple market sectors. This is particularly ideal for candidates who have a wide and varied skill set and may be suitable for different job roles.
On top of this, because agencies typically specialize in specific job markets, they often only work with companies that hire within their markets. For example, a specialist call center recruitment agency would only work with call centers.
This can be extremely beneficial for candidates who have a specific skill set and are looking for a niche job opportunity. Candidates who specialize in a technical job role (such as information technology) often have a hard time finding employment because local companies aren’t always hiring.
This is where recruitment agencies provide a unique and personalized service to candidates. Candidates can not only immediately apply to the recruitment agency for any advertised vacancy, but the recruitment agency will also be able to directly approach clients who may not even be advertising. Because employment agencies earn a retention fee on each successful placement, they are often serious about placing candidates, and this can be very beneficial to qualified candidates.
In this situation, agencies will employ sales techniques to approach employers who operate within the candidates’ field of expertise. From there, they will sell the candidate’s qualifications and experience and try to persuade the company to hire the candidate immediately or in the near future. Over the years, this method of employment has proven to be extremely successful, especially if the agency has positive prior experience with their clients.
Finding a job can often seem like a difficult task, but it is always beneficial to check with local recruitment agencies. In short, recruitment agencies make money when candidates are given a job, so they always work to the mutual benefit of the candidate; making the job search a little easier.