Why should I use a recruiter?

Recruiters are there to do the recruitment work that you don’t have time to do whilst running your business on a day to day basis. Their role is to identify and select candidates that you can then interview and ultimately employ. Depending on how you engage a recruiter will determine how in depth their search will be.

1. If you are just asking them to search the available market they will search their databases and any job-board databases that they have access to, screen the CVs to your Job Description requirements and forward relevant CVs to you, often with a few days or a couple of weeks. It’s then in your hands to evaluate and assess the candidates further. It can be expedient to use this type of service as it is usually quick but there has usually been minimal assessment of whether the candidate you choose will be anything other than a skills match. There isn’t a huge amount of resource invested by the recruiter so the fees for this type of service will typically be in the 15-20% range.

2. If you engage a recruiter to search the market then you are engaging them to undertake more of your work as you want to be more secure in your decision making process, reduce the chances of failure and establish that the candidate is a close match to the requirement of your business. This usually involves multiple layers of assessment and evaluation, not just a review of their skills and experience that is shown on their CV. This might include behavioural assessment, key competency assessment and video assessment. These services will be part of the package and the recruiter undertaking this work will search the market to identify and thoroughly assess the best candidates, whether they are passive or active. They will Map the Market for suitable talent and reach out to those individuals and using their knowledge and skill to attract them to consider your role. This type of engagement will take 2-4 weeks and the recruiter will need to be given exclusivity by way of a retainer to undertake this work. The fees for this service will be between 20 and 33%.