How Do Recruitment Agencies Work?

Recruitment can be a tedious and time-consuming process, especially when onboarding top talent for vacant positions. Typically, two types of recruitment processes are prevalent:

• Internal Recruitment: This process refers to the selection of candidates from among the people already working in the organization. Internal recruitment includes either a promotion or transfer of job
• External Recruitment: External recruitment is when fresh candidates are sought from outside the organization. The usual processes of external recruitment include campus placements and advertisements.

Given that these conventional methods of recruiting exist, why do we then need a separate recruitment agency? Companies aim to complete the entire recruitment exercise with minimum expenditure on time and money. This is exactly why you need recruitment consultants – to get access to competent candidates at the lowest cost.

Recruitment agencies act as a bridge between potential employers and employees. Recruitment consultants are experts in their field, possessing up-to-date information about the industry they operate in. This makes them well-equipped to help companies select candidates tailor-made for a particular job.

For candidates, these agencies provide the access to work at organizations that they aim for, fair and square. Moreover, they help in strengthening your resume by providing the required feedback. Most importantly, they act as an intermediary in salary negotiations. The icing on the cake is that all these services are available free of cost to the candidate.

After a company gets in touch with a consultant to meet its requirements to fill job vacancies; the ways in which recruitment agencies work can be broadly subsumed in two categories.

Offline Methods

The database of resumes is the starting point for offline recruitment. Whenever a person applies for a job through a recruitment agency, her/his resume is preserved for future use, if need be. This way, recruitment consultants maintain a list of potential candidates belonging to diverse backgrounds seeking jobs in wide-ranging sectors. Especially in situations where the recruitment needs to be done at the earliest, this database is a go-to option.

There is a reason for job fairs and conferences not having gone obsolete in this modern-day, tech-savvy world; which is that nothing beats personal interaction. Since trust and goodwill are virtues of special relevance to the job market, recruitment agencies are also active in job fairs, industry conferences, and professional meets.

Another expeditious, old-school way of selecting candidates is through recommendations made by senior employees of the company as the trust and goodwill factor is already taken care of in such situations.

Online Methods

The usage of job portals for recruitment has increased in the last decade. Candidates can upload their resumes on these websites and wait for the right company to approach them. Although this acts in a way similar to the resume database, it is much more accessible and convenient to all. The internet boom has also seen networking acquire a new dimension. With several social media platforms, it is now much easier to get in touch with candidates from all over the world who have the attributes that a job demands.

In this fast-changing, competitive world, every company requires a recruitment process that gets them in touch with suitable, talented candidates quickly and cost-effectively to successfully survive in the market. As a result of their proficient working, recruitment agencies are preferable as they are sure to get you the right person for the job.