A couple months ago I wrote a whitepaper called “Maximizing Your Recruiter Relationship”. It gives companies simple tips for hiring and working with a Recruiter to ensure a successful partnership. From a company perspective, the big question always is “what's this recruitment going to cost me?” 
Over the next few weeks I will be blogging about recruiting fees. First up though is a summary of what you, the company, should get from the recruiting fees you are charged.
The job posting
- A job posting is a tool to advertise the job. There is an art to writing an effective job profile especially once you consider search optimization and key words. A Recruiter that understands online search techniques knows how to write job profiles so your ad can be found online. Finally a well networked Recruiter has the contacts to send the job profile to, as well as a library list of free job boards, associations and industry networks.
Finding candidates
- Print and online advertising alone does not guarantee you results. That is the “let’s wait and see what we get” mentality. Sometimes timing works out perfectly though and you hire a candidate from an ad, but did you get the best candidate? Unless you conduct a search you really don’t have the answer to that. Recruiters go to the market and search. They will identify companies or like companies in your industry where candidates are performing similar jobs. They will identify competitors. They will look for industry thought leaders.
Interviewing
- If the Recruiter isn’t certified in Behavioural Based Interviewing at the very least most will have training. Behavioural Interviewing is based on the theory that the best predictor of future success is past performance. This method of interviewing allows for a more structured and fair assessment process and it takes away the “gut feeling”. Fit is also assessed. Recruiters interview every single day so they are quite skilled at it.
Reference checking
- A good reference checker knows how to listen for cues, they don’t accept just any answer. They know to probe, to ask the individual for more information to get an honest reference. It’s amazing how many companies don’t do references before hiring an employee. This step in itself is worth the money.
Simply put you are paying a Recruiter to find a candidate, qualify a candidate and present a short list of candidates. Stay tuned for more blog posts on exclusive, retained, contingency searches, guarantees, refunds, credits and so on.