1) Market intelligence

Specialist Recruiters have first hand experience of the market place. They can be the source of knowledge encapsulating your competition, market trends, and benchmarks for salaries for example. Recruiters can be consulted before you decide to recruit and before you have drafted a job description for the proposed role. A good Recruiter can advise on suggested skills and experience which should be required, and what is realistic according to the current market. A Recruiter’s knowledge can be invaluable, and have a direct effect on your bottom line.

2) Thorough briefing

Emailing a job description is simply not enough to find quality candidates through Recruitment agencies. It is important to provide more information about the team dynamics, type of person who will suit the team, and specific experience required which will add more value to the vacancy. This information can speed up the process, and ensure that suitable CVs are sent to you.

3) Open Days

Why not invite all of your Recruitment partners in to your office to find out more about your company? This is especially useful if recruitment is the sole responsibility of the HR team, and if Line Managers are not involved. Recruiters could have the opportunity to meet Line Managers on this occasion, and really get a feel for the company culture. An open day is essentially a selling tool, and Recruiters need to be sold to! They meet many candidates weekly, and you will want them to be excited about your company in order to inspire candidates to want to work for you.

4) The use of CV Coversheets

Recruitment can be extremely time consuming. However, it doesn’t have to be this way, if you allow your Recruiters to truly work for you. Ask your Recruiters to produce a CV coversheet which will provide you with all of the information which is not shown on the CV. This will help you decide whether or not to interview the candidate, and it will also ensure that Recruiters give you all of the necessary information about each candidate. This information could include the following:

- Reasons for leaving current job or stipulate if headhunted

- Salary expectations

- Availability/ notice period

- Comment from Recruiter

The coversheet could also serve as part of an audit trail. It could also be formatted into an email or simply stipulate that CVs need to be submitted with the above information in the body of an email.

5) Networking

Good Recruiters are excellent networkers. Make the most of their network! Connect with them on linked-in for example. Socialise with them to ascertain more about your industry, and what industry professionals look for in an employer. You may be able to gain more direct access to candidates using this method.

6) Using Recruiters exclusively

In order to fill your positions quickly, you could give one or two of your Recruiters 2-3 weeks exclusivity. This will encourage Recruiters to really invest their time and effort to fill your vacancy. A Recruiter will work much harder for you if they know that they are the only partner or one of two partners working on your assignment, as opposed to being one of 4 or 5 Recruiters working on the same vacancy.

7) Review the fees you are prepared to pay your Recruiters

During this economic downturn, many companies are quite rightly taking measures to reduce their spend in all areas of their business. However, recruitment is one of those areas where you need to spend an adequate amount to ensure a good return on investment. Therefore, drastically reducing the amount you wish to pay your Recruiters could be like ’shooting yourself in the foot’. A Recruiter works with many clients at one time, and will put more effort into the assignment which is paying the most reasonable amount. For example, a client offering to pay 10% of salary compared to a client who is prepared to pay 30% for the same salary can miss out on quality candidates. If finance is an issue it is always worth speaking with your Recruiter.