Recruitment agencies as a business partner

Many companies today use the services of employment agencies, due to the saturation of the market or simply because they are used to that way of doing business over time. What is important is that recruitment agencies are a valuable business partner when used properly, and it usually depends on the company how effectively it uses the recruitment agency as an external service. 

There are many factors that affect the quality of the end result when it comes to hiring the best talent, but one of the most important is maintaining a good business relationship between the company and the agency. Let's imagine company X, which has a good and recognizable brand, they have a contract with an employment agency, but they rarely use their services because most of the time they perform the tasks themselves. 

They are rarely in contact with the opposite party and do not know much about each other beyond a brief introduction and general initial information. Once or twice a year, they have active vacancies for positions such as Data Scientist or similar positions in the IT domain, with which they have problems finding quality candidates. During these situations, Company X sends a request to the matching agency with only the job description and the necessary operational information to continue the selection process. 

The agency, on the other hand, will usually not ask too many questions in order to improve the quality of the search for candidates because they will be guided by the logic that if the employer and the client do not care about a detailed description and a deeper acquaintance, why should they? One of the biggest problems here is the lack of communication and information on both sides, which will inevitably cause a number of problems and thus harm the business in the bigger picture. 

The agency then does not deliver a sufficient number or quality candidates within the reasonable time frame that company X expects, and the already insufficient relations become even worse. This is something that must be avoided at all costs.

The above situation is not a rare case and companies do not treat recruitment agencies as they should, since they are a business partner whose only purpose is to help the company in the long term. Of course, with a lack of interest and contact on both sides, the project will not even have decent results, let alone what is expected - which is the best possible talent on the labor market. However, the company that is the client of the employment agency is the one that needs to initiate the initiative that will lead to the beginning of a good business relationship.

How to do it?

How to start / maintain a good business relationship and potentially reduce hidden costs?

So where did company X go wrong and what ultimately affected the quality of service provided by the recruitment agency? First, although Company X rarely uses a recruitment agency, sending them only basic information and a general description of the position with tasks and required qualifications is an alarmingly unprofessional move. 

A good recruiter will want to know a lot more than that; about the business culture of the company as a whole, who is the hiring manager and what specific employee profile they want, the salary level the company is willing to negotiate with, the advantages they offer, etc. All this information is crucial for the recruiter if he wants to mediate well in recruiting for the position and the company. 

Without this type of information and insight, the recruitment agency will not take the client's request seriously, which will result in the company's case being lower on the priority list. Because of this, the end result will not be satisfactory either. A company that understands all these points also understands that the recruitment agency itself is a company that will only do well if its clients provide them with enough honest and relevant information as tools to do so.

This is basically how a company can improve its business relationship with an employment agency. You give them detailed and transparent information and the results will come by themselves. It is good to be in contact with the agency even when the company has no need for their service, because personal contact can strongly influence how the agency perceives the company in question and in this way get new and valuable information that can improve the entire process. 

Being in contact with each other and informing them as a partner about the current situation is a form of respect that has no price, and on the other hand an incredibly important factor in practice. The more knowledge the recruiter has about the company, the easier it will be for him to find good candidates when the need arises. For example, if the recruiter knows that the hiring manager of a certain company is the type of person who is very direct and doesn't like to talk around, he will know that the candidates in question must not be sensitive and modify his search accordingly. 

Keep in mind that these are just some of the many items that will help recruiters find the best candidate for a specific department in a specific company. Not to mention the time spent that would be saved for internal recruiters and managers in the sense that candidates are tested for business-cultural aspects or even skip certain steps in the selection process