A Recruitment Consultant's perspective

bargainbetty

When I hear someone from an agency say they don't have time to read CVs to check the candidate has the skills I want as an employer, my response is simple. That's what I'm bl**dy paying you for.

Yes, make money by all means - by providing a service. If I receive more than five inappropriate CVs from an agency, I'll take the job elsewhere, because it's obvious they don't know what they are doing. If I'm job hunting and I receive more than three inappropriate roles from an agency, same thing applies - I won't go back to them.

Oh, and for the love of sanity, stop sending speculative emails saying 'Person A has just walked in and is wonderful - she/he can type, file, do accounts, etc, they would make a great addition to your workforce, would you like to see the CV?'

Umm. No. If I had a vacancy for someone, I would have done something about it.

scooby088

Loanranger wrote: »

A great many companies circumvent agencies and continue to advertise on the company's own website.
Jobseekers should always look at a firm's website. It's pure laziness to rely on agencies.

From my experience some companies websites aren't updated on a regular basis.

cazziebo

Someone said that it's the job of the consultant to read CVs. I disagree. I've also worked on both sides of the fence.

I pay agencies to find me a shortlist of suitably qualified staff (usually specialist skills). A good recruitment consultant will find the most effective way to do this and if that means using whatever technology is available then i don't care, as long as I get a good selection of candidates that meet my specification. If they don't do that, they don't get paid and I don't 'use them again. I have about three agencies I use (we do a lot of project based work) and they understand my requirements so well, enabling me to focus on my core business, that I don't grudge them the fees at all.

And for the record, the fee doesn't "come off" what the temporary or permanent member of staff gets paid. The fee covers the service delivered.

Marie88_2

cazziebo wrote: »

Someone said that it's the job of the consultant to read CVs. I disagree. I've also worked on both sides of the fence.

I pay agencies to find me a shortlist of suitably qualified staff (usually specialist skills). A good recruitment consultant will find the most effective way to do this and if that means using whatever technology is available then i don't care, as long as I get a good selection of candidates that meet my specification. If they don't do that, they don't get paid and I don't 'use them again. I have about three agencies I use (we do a lot of project based work) and they understand my requirements so well, enabling me to focus on my core business, that I don't grudge them the fees at all.

And for the record, the fee doesn't "come off" what the temporary or permanent member of staff gets paid. The fee covers the service delivered.

Sadly while there are employers like Cazzie, there will be always be a market and demand for these recruitment vultures. Employers are really as much to blame, as a lot of HR departments, and employers who recruit themselves aren't much better than these shady recruiters.

DVardysShadow

Marie88 wrote: »

So to sum it up, from most people's experiences as well as my own, when dealing with recruitment agencies they fail on the following three factors. Firstly, poor customer service when discussing a job or sending a CV on to the employment, where you never hear back from them. .....

Of course, as a potential employee, you are not the customer of the Agent.

The Agent is mining a free resource. As a potential employee you are resource. If an employer hires you, you are gold. If you are not hired, you are just another lump of dirt.

SueC_2

DVardysShadow wrote: »

As a potential employee you are resource. If an employer hires you, you are gold. If you are not hired, you are just another lump of dirt.

Unless of course next week I happen to be hiring in my current role and looking for an agent to help me. In which case, I'm just a lump of dirt who's not interested in doing business with you.

There aren't many areas of business which, deep down, aren't about relationship building. If you're not interested in building a relationship with me, then you are likely to find that what goes around comes around.

RexBanner

SueC wrote: »

But how can you sell a product you know nothing about?

Bullsh!t seems to do the job!

DVardysShadow

SueC wrote: »

Unless of course next week I happen to be hiring in my current role and looking for an agent to help me. In which case, I'm just a lump of dirt who's not interested in doing business with you.

There aren't many areas of business which, deep down, aren't about relationship building. If you're not interested in building a relationship with me, then you are likely to find that what goes around comes around.

This is not about the application of karma to my attitude to employment agents. marie seemed to think she could expect customer service. She can't because she is not a customer.

The art is maintaining and developing the relationship, all the time knowing that you are not a customer and knowing that the agent is judging whether you are gold or dirt.

CCFC_80

At the end of the day then, people have to make sure they have those so called buzzwords on their CV because Recruitment consultants can't be arsed to read through all the CV's.

Incidentally, I wonder if all employers who use agencies are aware that they are selecting their prospective employee's with a "computer says no system"

So, anyone who puts I worked with a computerised accounting system with company XYZ for 20 years is probably going to be overlooked by someone who has put on their CV that they worked on a Sage computer system for 2 weeks with company ABC.:eek:

inmypocketnottheirs

SueC wrote: »

Oh dear OP... are you regretting starting this thread...?

I would not be surprised!:rotfl: