3 things you need to know about working with a recruitment agency

Having great talent helps your business to achieve its goals. There is, however, no denying that sourcing and hiring new people for your business is hard work. Like any business function, you’ll need the right people to make it work. That means that in order to secure the right additions for your team, you’ll need the right people involved with hiring; people who know the market within your industry and have a comprehensive understanding of your unique requirements and dynamics as a business. Engaging an external recruitment partner can be a great way to outsource your recruitment needs whilst still hiring the right people. So, when should you consider working with an external recruiter and what are the qualities you should look for when you do?

Working with a recruitment agency

If you don’t have an internal recruitment function, then an external recruitment agency can give you the support you need to find talent and improve your hiring process. If you’re unsure whether your business needs the services of a third-party recruitment specialist, you may want to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you want the best person in the market or the best person that happens to see your job advertisement?
• Does going through applications and shortlisting qualified candidates take up time better spent on core business functions?
• How much practice and training have you had with assessing and interviewing candidates?
• Once you extend job offers to candidates, do you find that they’re being accepted?
• Is it important for your organisation to stay up to date on industry news and developments to attract and retain great talent?

Depending on the answers to these questions, partnering with a recruitment agency could be a highly effective way for you to add value to your business.

When working with a recruitment agency, you’ll receive a selection of qualified candidates who are pre-interviewed and screened by a specialist recruiter. This reduces the risk of hiring someone who does not have the right set of skills, core competencies or cultural fit. By outsourcing the time-consuming sourcing and screening process, you can strategically reinvest that time and effort into core business functions, strengthening your competitive advantage. You also minimise the risk of making a bad hire who doesn’t have the correct blend of skills and personality to help your business. Making a bad hire can be an expensive mistake, and will cause you to have to go through the whole recruitment process again, costing your business more time and effort.

Time-saving isn’t the only advantage, however. As external recruiters find and interview candidates all day, it is fair to say that they are experts in the sourcing and screening process and are up to date on all the latest developments in the labour market. This also allows them to build vast networks, which they can tap into to fill roles quickly. Plus, if you are hiring for a new role that you do not wish to advertise externally, using a recruitment agency can help you maintain confidentiality whilst still sourcing high-quality candidates. Candidates also tend to be more open about their aspirations with third-party recruiters than to an internal recruitment team or Hiring Manager. This allows external recruiters to effectively identify each candidate’s key motivators, keep them engaged and work with you to put together a job offer tailored to the candidate.

Depending on the nature of your business, you might have a need for a contingent workforce to fill in for regular team members on leave or to bring specialist skills to specific projects. Recruitment agencies are specialists in finding reputable, reliable people for these kinds of non-permanent roles, and often have a great pool of fixed-term or temporary talent to pick from.

Although working with an agency is useful for filling time-sensitive roles short term, building a long-term relationship with a recruitment agency can really reap rewards. The more you work with an agency, the better they’ll understand the needs of your business and be able to provide you with a tailored service. By working closely with Hiring Managers and collaborating with internal staff, external recruiters will better be able to fill in skill gaps and find people who are a good cultural fit. We believe that this is one of the key benefits of engaging the services of an external agency. Genuine partnership is one of our core values, and our experience has always proven that this approach can help you get more value out of any recruitment process.

3 Key qualities to look for in a recruitment partner

Once you’ve made the decision to engage a recruitment agency, selecting the one you’re going to work with is the next step.

1. SPECIALISED

Your first step should be to find a recruiter who specialises in your industry. Specialist recruiters focus on specific sectors and their industry knowledge can be a huge help in engaging top talent. They’re often actively engaged within the industry, regularly attending events and networking with talented professionals. If you need to hire a new team member with highly specialised, industry-ready skills, engaging a recruiter who speaks the same language as you and the people you’re looking for is key to success.

2. LOCAL

Many of the best recruiters are credible, local, and well-resourced. By building a rapport with their candidate base and cultivating trust, recruiters can attract top talent and work with candidates over time to develop their potential. Looking for local recruiters who have the familiarity to provide key insights into the local labour market, and are fully aware of the skills and reputations of local professionals, is also a good idea.

3. WELL RESOURCED

Being well-resourced is another key quality to look for in a recruiter. Digital disruption has, for all intents and purposes, changed the face of the business world and recruitment is no different. By investing in the right tools and technologies, recruiters can significantly shorten the time it takes to find the right talent, as well as deepen their talent pool by making use of social media and other online networking platforms.

Summary

Whether you’re a large organisation or a fledgling startup, a recruitment agency can assist in sourcing and attracting the best talent for your business. Looking for talent in a complex, specialist industry such as Accounting can certainly be daunting at first, however, engaging a recruitment agency will take the pressure off of you and save you time and cost with their expertise and industry-specific knowledge.

We have over 60 years of combined experience in the Australian Accounting industry, recruiting for a range of roles from Accounts Payable, all the way through to CFO. If you’re based in Sydney and are looking for an experienced, expert recruiter specialising in the Accounting industry, then get in touch.

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