As the new financial year approaches, many heads of departments are finalising their budget spend for 2019 – 2020.
Our Director Leilani Reader looks at the necessity of including recruitment agency costs in budget forecasting.
Cost
Whilst it may seem counterintuitive to say spending money will save you money, this is true when it comes to recruitment. The expertise of an agency means they are efficient and well-versed at identifying well-matched candidates. They perhaps even have the right candidate waiting in the wings. By engaging an agency as soon as your hiring needs become evident, you will also be saving any HR function time, resource and energy that can be better spent elsewhere.
Time-to-hire
Inexperienced and poorly managed handling of recruitment can cause an inevitable delay in getting the right person for the job. By electing to use a recruitment agency, especially an agency that is concentrated on your sector, you’ll be cutting your recruitment time down and you’ll be much more likely to fill the role with the right candidate quickly.
Accountability
Any agency worthy of your money will have a myriad of ways in which they can show ROI on your agency spend. Agreed SLAs, a key account manager for your roles, bi-weekly updates and valid and valuable metrics that can be measured are all ways in which your recruitment agency can show that they are looking for, and eventually producing, your new hire. Having such focused accountability in a generalist HR team is much more difficult.
Quality candidates
Of course you can try to reduce costs by asking an in-house team to lead a recruitment drive, however, the likelihood is your shortlist of potential employees will be much vaguer, less targeted and ultimately, it could end up wasting your time interviewing people who aren’t a right fit. An agency will be able to dig beneath the surface to really understand what you want from your next recruit – a good culture fit, technical experience, management capabilities – and then speak to candidates who fit the bill. Agencies have also spent time building good relationships with passive candidates, so they are in a position to approach people who may not be actively looking for a new job.
When looking to budget for recruitment, be sure to do adequate research on agencies. Our agency, for example, specialises in supporting the legal sector across London and the South East and therefore we would not be a good fit for a media company recruiting in a northern city. Be sure the agency you work with has the knowledge, skill and capabilities to help deliver the right candidate for you.
LR Legal is a bespoke recruitment agency, offering a comprehensive service for law firms and businesses, across all sectors. Get in touch to find out how we can help your firm.