With the employment market now slowly beginning to improve through the UK, it's quite surprising to see that recruitment agencies are actually thriving in a recovering market. In fact, recruitment agencies were barely aware of the reduction in employment over the past few years – with some agencies publicly announcing that more vacancies were being advertised than previously.
What is a recruitment agency?
An employment agency is a company which aims to provide their clients (businesses / organizations) with qualified and experienced candidates. They handle the whole recruitment process, which may include vacancy advertising, headhunting, telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews and candidate assessment.
From a businesses point-of-view, using a recruitment agency is beneficial because they do not need to hire in-house teams of recruitment specialists and HR teams.
How Agencies Can Help You To Find A Job
Because agencies work with multiple clients, they are often advertising for multiple vacancies across multiple market sectors. This is particularly ideal for candidates who have a wide and varied skill set, and may be suitable for different job roles.
In addition to this, because agencies usually specialize in specific job markets, they often only work with companies who recruit within their markets. For example, an agency specializing in call center recruitment would only work with call centers.
This can be extremely beneficial for candidates who have a specific skills set and are looking for an employment opportunity within a niche market. Typically speaking, candidates who specialize in a technical job role (such as Information Technology) have difficulty finding employment – because local companies are not always recruiting.
This is where recruitment agencies provide a unique and bespoke service to candidates. Not only can candidates immediately apply to the recruitment agency for any advertised vacancies, but the recruitment agency will also be able to directly approach clients who may not even be advertising. Because employment agencies earn a retainer fee on each successful placement, they often take candidate placement seriously – and this can be very beneficial for skilled candidates.
In this situation, agencies will employ sales techniques to approach employers who operate within the candidates field of specialty. From there, they will sell the qualifications and experience of the candidate, and attempt to persuade the company to hire the candidate either immediately, or in the short future ahead. Throughout the years, this method of employment has proven to be extremely successful – especially if the agency has a prior positive experience with their clients.
Finding a job can often seem like a difficult task – but it's always beneficial to consult with local recruitment agencies. In short, recruitment agencies earn money when candidates are given a job – and so they are always working in mutual benefit with the candidate; making job searching that little bit easier.