How do recruitment agencies work?

There are more and more recruitment agencies, and working with them is considered prestigious. Only fairly large and wealthy companies can afford this, because recruitment agencies charge quite high fees for their services. Job seekers who decide to turn to an agency for help in finding a job will also have to pay a lot of money if a suitable job is found for them.

Before you start using the services of recruitment agencies, it doesn’t hurt to study how they work. Often companies, and especially job seekers, do not fully understand the principles and schemes that such agencies use, and as a result, they do not expect exactly what they actually receive.

What are the differences between recruitment agencies?

First, let's understand the concepts. Employment agencies, staffing agencies, recruiting agencies - is there a difference between them and what does it consist of? Recruitment agencies are the general name of companies that provide certain services related to personnel (whether it is personnel selection or, on the contrary, employment). Recruiting agencies search for employees for various companies and enterprises. That is, their clients are the companies themselves, and not specific people. Employment agencies search for suitable vacancies for people who contact them. Here the clients are specific individuals who are looking for work.

There is also such a specific direction of personnel organizations as headhunting(headhunting - “head hunting”). This is a search for true masters of their craft, professionals with extensive experience, highly qualified specialists. Now more and more recruitment agencies are switching to a mixed type of activity, that is, providing services for both job seekers and enterprises. But still, employment services for individuals are not available from all agencies. Working for enterprises is much more profitable for them financially, which is why the main emphasis is placed on this type of service.

Scheme of interaction with employers

A recruitment agency receives a request from a client company to fill a specific vacancy/vacancies. In this case, the agency must receive detailed instructions regarding what knowledge, skills and qualities the candidate must have. Work experience and level of education often also play an important role. Some even make demands on gender, age, and marital status.

After receiving all this information, the recruitment agency sorts the resumes of applicants that are already in the database and selects those that meet all the employer’s requirements and are potentially suitable for the applied position. Usually about 5-7 applicants are selected. If there are no suitable options, or there are not enough of them, then advertisements for open vacancies are published on various job search resources. Moreover, the advertisements indicate the contacts of the manager who represents the recruitment agency, and not the contacts of the employer. If a company has turned to a recruitment agency for a service, it means that it does not want all applicants to call it in a row, but is waiting only for those who will actually apply for the position. The name of the company that is looking for an employee is most often hidden by the recruitment agency.

All suitable candidates for the position are then invited for an interview. First, it takes place in the recruitment agency itself. After it, a certain number of applicants may be eliminated. All applicants approved by the agency are already sent for an interview with the employer. If one of them is approved for the position, the company pays the recruitment agency a fee for the services provided. According to the terms of the contract, sometimes the fee can be paid only after the candidate has completed a probationary period. If he does not pass it, the recruitment agency begins the search for the position again. The fee usually ranges from half to two full monthly salaries of the found employee, depending on the specifics of the activity.

Scheme of interaction with applicants

People turn to recruitment agencies for help for various reasons: some are already desperate to find a job on their own, some simply don’t want to bother themselves with searching, others are convinced that they can find the best vacancy through an agency. One way or another, when contacting an employment agency, you need to understand that the very fact of applying there does not guarantee that they will find a suitable vacancy for you and get you a job. It often happens that a candidate is denied all potential jobs, no matter how hard the agency tries. In this case, the person remains without work, but he will still have to pay for the services provided by the agency, at least consulting ones.

What is the basis for how agencies work with applicants? The candidate applies to a recruitment agency, where specialists interview him. Its goal is to find out what position the candidate is looking for, what requirements he has for it, what salary he would like, what ambitions he has regarding building a career and other important points.

Next, a high-quality resume is compiled. Composing a resume so that all the positive aspects are highlighted, attention is not focused on the negative ones, and with all this the summary is absolutely truthful is not so easy. This is why most resumes that candidates write on their own are not competitive. In some cases, it is necessary to translate a resume into a foreign language. This can also be done by a recruitment agency; of course, all services are paid.

The resume is entered into the recruitment agency database, and an interview is conducted with the applicant. At this stage, the manager of the recruitment agency will already have a certain picture of what the candidate is like and which company can actually hire him. Then specialists begin searching for suitable vacancies.

A good agency has its own extensive database of enterprises that are looking for personnel in various specialties. The manager compares the “portrait” of this applicant with the available vacancies, from which those for which he can apply are identified. Information about the candidate is sent to these companies, and then they conduct an internal interview with the organization. The decision to accept or not accept a job is made, of course, not by the recruitment agency, but by the company, which is a potential employer. When an applicant has been hired for a position, he pays the recruitment agency a fee for services rendered, usually a percentage of the monthly salary (from 25% to 100%). Less often, agencies set a fixed fee amount.

To avoid deception on the part of the client, the recruitment agency enters into an agreement with him at the very beginning of cooperation, which spells out all the responsibilities of the parties. Sometimes the terms of the contract stipulate that the fee will be paid only after the candidate successfully completes the probationary period at the company. Recruitment agencies can also provide purely advisory services. For example, regarding career building, methods of searching for vacancies, principles of successful interviewing. The client can use these services at will, and all of them are paid separately.

Such schemes of interaction with clients are used by the vast majority of recruitment agencies. Headhunting agencies have their own specifics. First, they need to have an extensive database of all top managers in the city. Information about such specialists contained in databases is most often exclusive and must be protected. Secondly, the people who are included in such a database are professionals in their field who rarely sit without work. Therefore, recruiters are faced with the task of not only selecting a suitable candidate, but also persuading him to resign from his current job in favor of the advertised position. This can be very difficult, but the reward for successful provision of services is also very high.

Even if you, as a candidate, do not like CAs, it will be useful for you to learn about the principles of their work with candidates.

Recruitment agencies do not always enjoy a good reputation among job seekers. Sometimes it’s completely deserved, but often it’s because candidates have a poor understanding of how recruitment agencies operate. Rabota.ru asked experts to talk about the principles and structure of the work of KA: Elena Bulkina, director of the recruitment agency, and Sergei Podkolzin, deputy general director of KA "".

The essence of the business of recruitment agencies is the selection of personnel for client companies in accordance with their requests. As a rule, the employer holds a tender among the KA and, based on its results, chooses a HR service provider (or several providers). An agreement is concluded with them to fill the company's vacancies throughout the year.

The services of recruitment agencies for candidates are free, unlike the services provided by employment agencies. The clients of the latter are applicants, from whom they take money (in fact, for drawing up a resume and sending it to job sites).

Some recruitment agencies are specialized. For some, IT vacancies are a priority, others fill vacancies in the hotel and restaurant business, others in the oil industry, etc. But most agencies work with almost any position in many sectors of the market.

As a rule, recruitment agencies work with trusted clients. Some employer companies recruit staff exclusively through agencies, and vacancies cannot be found on their corporate websites.

Three ways to make contact with CA

1. The specialist compiles an extended resume and posts it on employment sites. The recruiter looks through a variety of resumes in the site’s database, contacts candidates who are suitable for a specific position, and invites them for an interview.
2. On these same recruiting sites, recruitment agencies post vacancies of client companies. You don’t have to wait for attention from the recruiter, but call the agency yourself and propose your candidacy for the vacancy you are interested in.
3. You can simply call the recruitment agency and say that you are looking for a job and would like to send them your resume. It is not necessary to send a resume - you can come to the agency and fill out an application form for the applicant.

Competition for a vacancy

The first interview always takes place at a recruitment agency. CAs are interested in the best candidates to present to the client and carefully select from many, so the applicant may have from 5 to 15 competitors, depending on the complexity of the position.

If the requirements of the customer company - the skills, abilities, knowledge and experience of a specialist - coincide, the recruiter, based on the results of the interview, draws up a resume with his comments and sends it to the client. On average, companies submit five resumes per position to employers. But there may be more. For example, there is a known case when 30 candidates were eventually sent to the position of accountant. But these are extremes.

The resumes are reviewed, and the employer invites several interested candidates for an interview. The meetings are organized by a recruitment agency. Out of five people, two usually make it to the final round of the competition for a vacancy, and the client chooses which of them he will invite to work.

"Curator" - recruiter

Candidates who are interested in a client often have a “curator” - a recruiter or consultant from a recruitment agency. He guides the specialist from the moment he meets the employer until the end of the adaptation period in the new place. He calls the person, finds out whether he went to work, and how satisfied he is with everything there. If it suddenly turns out that a new employee, for example, has not yet been supplied with a computer or the necessary software has not been installed, the supervisor will take all possible part in ensuring that the situation is corrected.

KA provides a guarantee for a free replacement of a candidate who could not cope with the job or quit. Depending on the level of the position, it ranges from 90 days to a year, and periodically agency employees are interested in the fate of an employed specialist in the company. In turn, he can call the agency himself at any time and tell about the difficulties or problems that have arisen in his new job.

Today we will try to understand the peculiarities of the work of a recruitment agency in order to understand whether the idea of ​​​​opening your own business in this niche is interesting. From the point of view of fulfilling their direct responsibilities taken on outsourcing at the customer's site, HR officers are constantly struggling to achieve maximum efficiency in searching for the best applicants. This is not an easy task and consists of several basic questions that we will look at today.

Where to find applicants

The first and most important issue for a recruitment agency is the field of choice. Where to look for candidates? The list of methods for searching for applicants is simple and is usually limited to the following list:

• own database (every good agency has one)
• scanning sites for job search
• social media
• headhunting - direct search for key specialists
• advertisements in print media

Of course, the greatest attention should be paid modern methods personnel search. This is primarily the use of an Internet resource and searching for candidates in the databases of large specialized sites. This practice carries some risks, so you need to be more careful while working. Modern platforms with resumes of applicants erase distances. There are many professionals online who are ready to move. So competition among them forces them to constantly work on improving the visual appeal of their resumes. Behind a candidate's seemingly impeccable resume, a completely different figure may be hiding. Simply selecting people you like will not be enough. Already at the stage resume selection sensitive work is needed to recognize truly good specialists. It is simply impossible to invite everyone to an interview, especially from other regions. This is a huge amount of time that will be wasted. It is necessary to carefully select worthy candidates. It is better to replace the first interview with a telephone conversation. It seems quite logical to conduct tests here. Tests are needed to assess the candidate's personality and intellectual capabilities. Even if this does not seem fair at first glance, the main goal is good results in the form of selecting the best specialists. The ability to find the most worthy is what distinguishes a good recruitment agency.

Main stages of personnel selection

Practice shows that before inviting the best candidates for an interview with representatives of the customer, a recruitment agency must carry out several main stages of personnel selection:

• screening of applicants' resumes
• tests to assess performance and personal qualities
• telephone interview
• 1-2 meetings with qualified candidates

A recruitment agency, having a list of people, passed all stages of selection, you can be confident that you are presenting worthy candidates to the strict judgment of your customers, for whom you will not have to receive criticism in the future and, perhaps, even lose the order. Identifying good applicants to meet with employers is the agency’s main trump card, its opportunity to prove its professionalism.

How to Interview Candidates

When interviewing a candidate, the main task of the HR manager is to identify degree of conformity candidate requirements of the employer. Of course, professional qualities alone are not enough. The freedom of modern specialists and the attitude towards work of the younger generation is associated with a constant change of job in search of a better place. There is nothing wrong with this, and the quantity faithful people There are fewer and fewer people devoting many years to their enterprise. And organizations themselves do not always have a modern view of the working conditions for their employees, and therefore, acting in the format of “there are no irreplaceable people,” they do not care about maintaining a constant composition of employees. An interesting situation arises when a company, from which employees are running away, wants to find a specialist who has worked in one place for at least several years. This desire is understandable, but the real benefits, expressed in many years of useful work and achievement of professional heights, are received from their employees by those companies that try to create conditions for personal growth and development of their employees. There are not many of them, and those who want to join these ranks a bunch of. Having a huge choice, such organizations, realizing that mere compliance with professional skills is not enough, measure their candidates on all possible indicators. A detailed assessment of the qualities of applicants allows you to hire the most suitable employees, eliminating the risk of their subsequent departure and poor performance. Taking into account the modern requirements of employers, recruitment agencies are forced to engage in detailed incrimination of data about candidates. Perhaps the unsuitable applicant will be of interest other employers, so you still need to collect complete information about him, without driving him around again later. Built in this way, a fairly universal system for collecting information about the applicant allows us to say with confidence that every correctly conducted interview will contain questions that allow the HR manager to assess the following qualities of the candidate:

• professional knowledge and skills
• education and literacy levels
• level of interest in job search
• attitude to work
• willingness to move for a good job
• ability to develop and acquire new knowledge
• frequency of job changes
• psychological assessment
• communication skills
• stress resistance
• place of residence, marital status, presence of children

The recruitment business is highly competitive, forcing specialists to constantly improve their professional skills. Understanding the work of companies, one comes to the understanding that working with people is always a big challenge. responsibility. A recruitment agency takes people's destinies into its own hands, guiding them into the future. This is an important role in modern society, the importance of which will only grow over time. Next articles:

Today we will try to understand the peculiarities of the work of a recruitment agency in order to understand whether the idea of ​​​​opening your own business in this niche is interesting. From the point of view of fulfilling their direct responsibilities taken on outsourcing at the customer's site, HR officers are constantly struggling to achieve maximum efficiency in searching for the best applicants. This is not an easy task and consists of several basic questions that we will look at today.

Where to find applicants

The first and most important issue for a recruitment agency is the field of choice. Where to look for candidates? The list of methods for searching for applicants is simple and is usually limited to the following list:

• own database (every good agency has one)
• scanning sites for job search
• social media
• headhunting – direct search for key specialists
• advertisements in print media

Of course, the greatest attention should be paid modern methods personnel search. This is primarily the use of an Internet resource and searching for candidates in the databases of large specialized sites. This practice carries some risks, so you need to be more careful while working. Modern platforms with resumes of applicants erase distances. There are many professionals online who are ready to move. So competition among them forces them to constantly work on improving the visual appeal of their resumes.

It is better to replace the first interview with a telephone conversation. It seems quite logical to conduct tests here. Tests are needed to assess the candidate's personality and intellectual capabilities. Even if this does not seem fair at first glance, the main goal is good results in the form of selecting the best specialists. The ability to find the most worthy is what distinguishes a good recruitment agency.

Main stages of personnel selection

Practice shows that before inviting the best candidates for an interview with representatives of the customer, a recruitment agency must carry out several main stages of personnel selection:

• screening of applicants' resumes
• tests to assess performance and personal qualities
• telephone interview
• 1-2 meetings with qualified candidates

A recruitment agency, having a list of people, passed all stages of selection, you can be confident that you are presenting worthy candidates to the strict judgment of your customers, for whom you will not have to receive criticism in the future and, perhaps, even lose the order. Identifying good applicants to meet with employers is the agency’s main trump card, its opportunity to prove its professionalism.

How to Interview Candidates

When interviewing a candidate, the main task of the HR manager is to identify degree of conformity candidate requirements of the employer. Of course, professional qualities alone are not enough.

The freedom of modern specialists and the attitude towards work of the younger generation is associated with a constant change of job in search of a better place. There is nothing wrong with this, and the quantity faithful people There are fewer and fewer people devoting many years to their enterprise. And organizations themselves do not always have a modern view of the working conditions for their employees, and therefore, acting in the format of “there are no irreplaceable people,” they do not care about maintaining a constant composition of employees.

An interesting situation arises when a company, from which employees are running away, wants to find a specialist who has worked in one place for at least several years. This desire is understandable, but the real benefits, expressed in many years of useful work and achievement of professional heights, are received from their employees by those companies that try to create conditions for personal growth and development of their employees. There are not many of them, and those who want to join these ranks a bunch of. Having a huge choice, such organizations, realizing that mere compliance with professional skills is not enough, measure their candidates on all possible indicators. A detailed assessment of the qualities of applicants allows you to hire the most suitable employees, eliminating the risk of their subsequent departure and poor performance.
Taking into account the modern requirements of employers, recruitment agencies are forced to engage in detailed incrimination of data about candidates. Perhaps the unsuitable applicant will be of interest other employers, so you still need to collect complete information about him, without driving him around again later. Built in this way, a fairly universal system for collecting information about the applicant allows us to say with confidence that every correctly conducted interview will contain questions that allow the HR manager to assess the following qualities of the candidate:

• professional knowledge and skills
• education and literacy levels
• level of interest in job search
• attitude to work
• willingness to move for a good job
• ability to develop and acquire new knowledge
• frequency of job changes
• psychological assessment
• communication skills
• stress resistance
• place of residence, marital status, presence of children

The recruitment business is highly competitive, forcing specialists to constantly improve their professional skills. Understanding the work of companies, one comes to the understanding that working with people is always a big challenge. responsibility. A recruitment agency takes people's destinies into its own hands, guiding them into the future. This is an important role in modern society, the importance of which will only grow over time.