Why do companies use recruitment agencies?

So, why do companies use recruitment agencies?

Businesses choose to hire through recruitment agencies for a variety of reasons, there are several advantages and benefits that companies receive which include:

Flexibility with their workforce

Companies who experience peak periods, such as Easter and Christmas, hire staff through an agency to help their current workforce with the demands of the peak period. Once the demands of the peak period have decreased they can decrease their workforce accordingly
Companies choose to have an agency on hand to help fill odd shifts to cover holiday/sickness/absences in their current workforce to help to keep their operations running smoothly
Agency staff are widely used by companies whose requirements change daily. These companies may have more orders one week compared to the next or need to temporarily close or open a production line, it gives them the option to be more flexible with their staffing numbers

Don't have time to recruit themselves

An agency gives the option of a faster hiring process, as they have access to candidates who are already registered, pre-screened, compliance checked, reference checked and available to start work immediately. Agencies can often fill a vacancy from their list of available candidates before needing to advertise online
Recruitment Consultants are experienced in recruiting, which some companies choose to take advantage of. Recruiters generally recruit for the same types of roles, and know what characteristics, skills and experience to look for in someone, plus they have knowledge of recruiting in the local areas of the company’s site and the challenges that they may face, with ideas of how to attract candidates in a candidate short market
It can be time saving for many companies. Recruitment agencies write adverts, handle all advert response, filter suitable candidates, compliance check, reference check, conduct initial face to face interviews and some agencies, like Essential, administer in-house payroll of candidates. This enables the company to decrease their admin duties for hiring, allowing them to focus on their core business activity

A "try before you buy" concept

This gives companies the option to offer a trial period to assess a candidate before offering a permanent contract. This is a great way for companies to see if an individual fits into their organisation and workforce, and they can assess the worker’s attitude to their work before committing to them full time. It also prevents companies from losing money and wasted time from going through the hiring process with someone and offering a permanent contract, for them to turn out to not be suited for the role. This is very beneficial to job seekers too, as it gives you the option to see if you are suited to the role before accepting a permanent position

Expertise for skilled roles

Recruiters are continually engaging with the current labour market, this knowledge enables them to provide expert advice on competitive pay rates, candidate availability, skill shortages and much more
Recruiters can also head hunt/CV search for skilled workers to approach them about work opportunities they may be interested in

Wider candidate reach

Recruitment agencies can reach out to a wider number of job seekers, as they generally have a well known presence online and through social media. They also tend to work with job centres and have more resources to attract candidates
Recruiters can also reach out to ‘passive candidates’ through their CV searching facilities, who may not necessarily be actively job seeking but may be open to the right opportunity

Money saving

A one off vacancy with a job board will cost around £99-£150 +vat

The cost of managing the recruitment process in-house can be higher than outsourcing recruitment through an agency, the company can save on the following costs:

Recruitment agencies already have contracts set up with job boards, which saves on the employer needing to pay for these contracts too
When hiring directly the company will be paying for their advertising from day one, where as when going through an agency, like Essential, we don’t charge a penny to the company until the candidate is placed with them
The company can save on outsourced costs of marketing, compliance and payroll when they are supplied by the agency
Managing a temporary workforce saves on paying out for redundancy and notice pay of permanent staff, and the admin & HR costs that come with letting a permanent members of staff go