When you’re looking at hiring a recruitment consultant, it can be difficult to know exactly what makes a good one. If you’ve never worked with one before, how do you know what best practise is? Luckily there is a lot of information available to help you. Regardless of whether or not you’re a business needing staff, or a job seeker needing employment, there are basic things you should expect from a good recruitment consultant.
Here are a few things you should expect from a good recruitment consultant:
Honesty
You don’t need to hear all the sales jargon. They will be desperately trying to get you to commit to their agency, but you need to push past the fluff and get the the truth. Explain to them that you don’t need their sales pitches, you just simply need to know how they are going to help you. If they continue to give you fluff and sales jargon, move on.
Information
If you ask for more information and get a rude response, don’t be afraid to move on from that company and perhaps even send them some feedback. If you’re a job seeker you shouldn’t be made to feel worthless just because you’re out of a job, and if they make you feel like that you need to move on and fast. If you’re a business you need cold hard facts. Don’t be afraid to ask them all about their reputation and how they work as a company. Don’t just accept being told that the consultant has a unique way of screening applicants, ask them how they do it. You’ve every reason to ask them for more information and if they don’t give it to you, move on and find someone who will.
Good rates
When you’re a job seeker looking for employment, you tend to expect to take a basic wage from an agency for a set amount of time. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept the lowest rates possible. Most agencies will offer a fair hourly rate in relation to the job you are applying for, so don’t be afraid to expect that. If you’re a business, you should not expect the lowest rates possible for the best staff. The key is to look for value for money. You are investing in a long term relationship, so if they charge more than other agencies, find out why that is.
Communication
If you are looking to work with a company and they barely respond to you, or you’ve started discussing the next stage in a business agreement and their communication is poor, see this as a warning sign and move on. You are hiring them to do a job for you, to save you time, you do not need to be wasting time chasing up information from them as that would defeat the object of hiring them in the first place.
Remember you should always look around and do plenty of research. If the company aren’t clear about their reputation, forums, social media and message boards will be, so seek out the truth and opt for a company that’s right for you.
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