Recruitment Agencies

What is a Recruitment Agent?  | Recruitment Agencies | Executive Search | Graduate Recruitment | Legal Issues | Recruitment Software

Introduction - recruitment agencies can be a valuable means of searching for job vacancies.  This article summarises the UK job recruitment industry, types of recruitment agencies, how to deal with agents, software technology, and highlights topical legal issues impacting the recruitment industry...

What is a Recruitment Agent? - a recruitment agent acts as an impartial facilitator between the employer and the jobseeker.  They primarily act on behalf of the employer and seek out suitable candidates, based on the profile of registered job seekers. Many employers use professional recruitment agencies to advertise job openings, (as opposed to advertising directly themselves).  This means jobseekers must first approach the recruitment agent, to register their interest any job listings advertised. 

The UK Recruitment Industry - according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the recruitment industry is made up of over 8,000 recruitment agencies, who are responsible for facilitating almost 1.4 million temporary agency workers on assignment a week, and for placing over 787,000 permanent employees in work per year. The recruitment industry employers just over 100,000 workers. These specialists place approximately 1.4 million people every week, of which 22% were placed in industrial and blue collar positions, 18% in clerical and secretarial positions and 11% in technical and engineering positions.

Signing Up with a Recruitment Agency - employment agency offices can be a great source of information and advice during your job hunting process.  Most reputable recruitment agencies post their vacancies on their own website, allowing easy comparison of job vacancies, by salary and geography.  Some recruitment agencies specialise in providing temporary agency staff, for manual lower paid jobs.  Others specialise in recruiting experienced business professionals in particular vertical markets, such as accountancy or information technology. 

The first step when signing up with a recruitment agency, usually involves completing their online registration website form, or submitting your resume or CV.  Most recruitment agents are normally happy to accept speculative registrations.  Alternatively, candidates can submit customised responses to a specific job advertisement on their website. After an initial telephone conversation or face-to-face meeting, the recruitment specialist will be clearer idea about your relevant skills and experience, and be able to match those with jobs on their books.   Face-to-face meetings for higher paid, permanent positions are an interview process in themselves.  Employers are looking for the recruitment agent to narrow down the list of potential job interview candidates, by filtering out those candidates which are not suitable.  For more general office types of work, the recruiter may ask you to perform some simple tests to check typing speed, computer literacy, spelling and grammar. 

Choosing a Recruitment Agency - choosing which recruitment agency to sign up with can be tricky. Compared to other industries such as financial services, (which is highly regulated), there are not as many limited legal restrictions dictating who can or cannot set themselves up as a recruitment agent. Ask a trusted friend for a recommendation and check the company report of the agency concerned.  Searching through Yellow Pages is a simple way to find the contact details of local recruitment agencies.  Agents are likely to be limited to advertising jobs from within that local area, (unless they are a branch office of a larger recruitment network). There is nothing to stop you signing up with more than one recruitment agency.  Recruitment is a people orientated business, and as such it is sensible to make friends with the adviser in your local branch office.  Establish a basic level of trust and ensure they have good understanding of the type of person you are, and the sort of work you are seeking.

Executive Search & Head Hunters - executive search professionals specialise in helping employers recruit for senior positions.  Most head hinters have a good knowledge or practical experience of working within a particular industry or vertical sector. Their authority main role is to identify high calibre candidates, through an in-depth interview process, and to assist  employers during the negotiation process, prior to a job offer.   They typically work as independent consultants or a within a small specialist team, dedicated towards executive positions.  Unlike general recruitment agents, who may have dozens of employers registered within their branch, executive search agents typically only have a few, larger and more established clients, with whom they have a long-term relationship with.  It is not uncommon that executive search agents will attempt to recruit candidates who are already gainfully employed within an employers' rival competitor.  It is also common for executive search firm is to be retained by an employer with an upfront fee, for their professional advice and search service.

Graduate Recruitment - many larger international organisations have human resources departments, that have established a graduate recruitment programme.  These programmes are designed to employ a students in their gap year or graduates, fresh out of university, seeking their first placement..  An graduate recruitment program would normally consist of a combination of practical work experience and formal in-house training, to enhance the graduates knowledge.  Some recruitment firms specialise in recruiting graduates to enter these programmes. However, in most cases though, universities have their own careers advice service, providing help and advice.  Some employers prefer to contact careers advice services directly, to advertise graduate positions, thereby cutting out recruitment agencies.

UK Legal Issues Affecting Recruitment Agencies - keeping up with the very latest changes in the law is important aspect of running a professional recruitment firm, ethically and legally.  There are laws which affect all UK recruitment agencies, and there are other laws that may only impact a certain proportion of agencies, (depending upon a range of factors and situations).  The main statutes are as follows:-

• Employment Agencies Act - all recruitment agencies must comply with the Employment Agencies Act. This legislation was put in place to protect people seeking employment. The main area the regulation cover includes identity checks, taking a client brief, advertising, fees and provision of information to candidates.

• Data Protection Act - individual recruiters depend upon large amounts of computer stored database client data to do their day to day jobs.  All this information must be stored, managed and used in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act 1998.  This act defines the handling of information and the protection of personal data, related to people within the UK.  When jobseekers post CV is on to online job websites, the owners of the site under a legal duty to protect that date are in accordance with the act. In particular:-

  • data may only be used for the specific purposes for which it was collected

  • data must not be disclosed to third parties without the jobseeker's consent

  • employers and job seekers have the right of access to information is stored by the recruiter

  • information must not be held for longer than is necessary

  • the recruitment company must register with the information Commissioner's office

  • security measures should be placed around the data to ensure its protection

• Working Time Directive - when advertising and promoting vacancies, and dealing with candidates and employers, recruitment agents must be mindful of the Working Time Directive.  This European Union directive sets a range of different limits for workers in various situations. UK workers are still able to opt out of the 48 hour weekly maximum limit, if they so desire, and work up to 60 hours. The ongoing negotiation between Europe and the UK, regarding flexible working hours for permanent as well as temporary staff..

• Health & Safety - recruitment companies must be extremely mindful of the health and safety laws, when supplying individuals into potentially dangerous engineering or manufacturing or construction positions.

• Agency Workers Directive - agency staff supplied by recruitment agencies are protected by the agency workers directive. This aims to improve the quality of temporary and agency work by applying the principle of non-discrimination.  Its equal treatment provisions aim to provide agency workers working under the control of the client company, like-for-like employment conditions, compared to a similar permanent worker in company. This is important active as one third of all agency workers in the European Union are located in the United Kingdom.  Many companies outsource low paid small business services to agency companies, (such as cleaning, office maintenance and retail services).  The influx of economic migrants into the UK is an issue of debate between the free movement of people versus the country's ability to support an increased population through infrastructure and social support.

Recruitment Software - the dominance of online orientated recruitment software, allows agencies to fully automate their business, at relatively low cost.  Many larger branch networks have bespoke recruitment software. There are also many 'off-the-shelf' packages providing the latest functionality including:-

• Powerful and accurate database search capabilities to filter and retrieve relevant candidates for short listing.
• Shared diary & alarms with alerts to prompt recruiters to ring candidates
• Simple navigation software that integrates with conventional business application software such as Outlook, Excel, and Word for Windows
• Workflow wizards to automate daily repetitive admin tasks such as sending out confirmation letters
• HTML bulk email and SMS capabilities in order to send job announcements to candidates, via e-mail or to candidates mobile phones.

Useful Industry Links - please visit the following useful industry links to find out more....

• The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) - the trade body that supports and represents the recruitment industry.

• Employment Agency Standards - latest regulatory from the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.

• The Recruitment Society  - a professional membership body with a professional interest in best practice and innovation in recruitment.

• Recruitment Industry Benchmark - provide members with useful, comparative analysis of industry performance.

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