Using a recruitment agency is like Mr Gump said, “it’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gunna get”. There is an estimated 31,000-32,000 agencies in the UK and that number is growing every year. All of them have a slightly different approach to operations and service, so it is understandable that businesses can have strong and varied opinions on whether to use one or not.
Regardless of what your business is, the decision whether to use an agency will more than likely come down to level of service and costs. This is great as both of these are flexible and can be fine-tuned.
Service from a recruitment agency
Let’s look at level of service. We feel that service comes down to a few things:
Using a recruitment agency will save valuable time
A good service from an agency will allow you to offload your staffing issues and stress with confidence knowing they will provide a solution for you.
This frees up your time to focus your efforts on other areas such as business development, revenue-increasing activities and day-to-day operational efficiency.
For example, you may be organising an event in a few months’ time, and could spend significant time recruiting, interviewing and assessing 50-110+ candidates. This would take hours, days or even weeks on end. If you outsource this to your agency you have the assurance that they will provide an experienced team ready to go.
Effective communication
A simple part of having a good level of service from an agency is their communication skills.
The aim of using an agency is to take away stress and worry regarding staffing, so if you find yourself in the lurch not knowing where you stand due to lack of communication, it defeats the object of using one. It is vital that candidates, companies, and agencies all communicate effectively, especially when dealing with temporary staff as situations can change quite quickly.
All parties need to be kept in the loop throughout the process whether that’s for last minute sickness cover on a Saturday morning, or for an event requiring 100 staff in 3 months’ time.
Effective communication allows everyone to work as efficiently as possible.
Honesty and integrity
Another key aspect of good service is honesty. Arguably the most important part of a business is its employees, therefore if you have an outside company providing you with temporary staff then you need to have complete trust both in their service and in themselves personally.
This is only possible with an honest and transparent service. Like most of us, I am sure most people would rather deal with a situation honestly rather than having the wool pulled over their eyes, potentially causing more problems.
Understanding your culture
When working with a new agency it is, to a certain extent, a risk at first. It is a new company that you haven’t worked with and they are performing a key task; providing your business with staff who will need to:
1. Get on and work effectively within your team,
2. Work at a high standard to uphold your reputation and
3. Understand your company values and culture.
To be able to provide staff who tick all these boxes, an agency must invest time in getting to know your business inside and out so that they can relay this to the candidates they put forward. This allows them to work as effectively as possible for your team and hit the ground running.
The cost of working with a recruitment agency
An important factor for most businesses is cost. There will be many cases where the cost will be the deciding factor as to whether you use an agency or not, and to a certain extent this is understandable.
There is a stigma around agencies being expensive, but it is all relative. When you look at the work that goes on behind the scenes with the candidates prior to them being put forward and the costs involved in running the business it is only then you start to see that the costs are justified. Using the leading job boards including Reed, Caterer and CV Library to attract candidates can cost several hundred pounds per month each, and some agencies may subscribe to 4, 5 or even 6+ job boards.
Also, once you delve further into what the additional costs are to use the agency, it may only be £3, £2 or even £1 extra per hour to use an agency team member. When you weigh this up against the time you’ll spend writing a job advert, sifting through 10/20/30 applications before another half a day interviewing your five shortlists, it seems a lot more reasonable.
If your Sous Chef calls in sick on a Saturday morning, I am sure any Head Chef or General Manager would prefer the extra cost of £10-30 for a 10-hour shift rather than a day of hell being short-staffed.
Flexibility of service and cost
The good thing about service and cost is that they are both flexible.
Each business has different needs and are in different situations. A good agency will gain an in-depth understanding of the requirements and then put together a bespoke package of costs, terms and specific service requirements which works for both the agency and the business.
For example, with costs there can be 7-day or 30-day payment terms for temporary staff, and charge rates are negotiable, there is nothing set in stone.
Supporting fluctuations in business levels
Our final point is the main reason businesses use an agency for temporary staff; flexibility.
It allows your workforce to increase staff numbers during fluctuations in business levels. For example, if you work for a holiday park then your naturally busier times are going to be during school half terms, summer holidays and at Christmas. If you were to employ staff for the whole year you would need to consider;
- Will they be available during all these busy times?
- Will their situation be the same at the start of summer?
- Will they pick up new employment in between peak periods and want to come back?
If any of these occur you will have spent time and money recruiting them, onboarding them and associated costs which could all be for nothing.
It is a gamble as there’s no way of predicting what will happen with them in the future.
If you were to use a recruitment agency they will have experienced candidates available and looking for work all the time. Whether it’s over Easter or at Christmas, they will have teams available for the period needed.
Another issue can be a sudden change in staff requirements. If you have 20 staff booked for a week and you experience a sudden surge in customer bookings then you may not have the extra 3-4 needed to cater for the demand. An agency would have people immediately available who can top up those numbers. Unexpected changes in business levels are common so it is always good to have a backup option when needed.
When using a recruitment agency there are a variety of factors to consider but we believe that choosing the right one will provide a truly useful service.
If you would like to find out how Summerley Recruitment can assist your business with temporary staff then give Sam a call on 01243 979735 or email sam@summerleyrecruitment.co.uk.