Make The Agency Do The Work

Have you ever considered how you use your agency and are you using the agency in the most effective manner? Is the agency doing the work you are paying them to do or are you doing it for them?

Do you find you need additional temps to help you out on certain work projects? If so, do you find yourself calling several agencies and getting them to send over CV's for you to wade through?

Adopting this approach is time consuming and often not very effective, because you are duplicating what the agency should be doing for you. To get the best out of your agency you should see them as an extension of your human resources department. A place where you can go and they understand what you want and they are working with you to fulfil your needs and requirements. A good agency wants to please you and provide you with what you want; that way you will continue to use their services and it's a win/win scenario. Of course this doesn't happen over night, it takes time to build relationships and develop knowledge of what you, the client, is looking for, but putting your trust in your agency puts the pressure on the agency to perform. If you respect and trust them they don't want to let you down.

It's not difficult for any agency to provide CV's for any jobs, throw enough mud at the wall and some of it is bound to stick. The trick is to provide the right candidate for the role required, not to provide cv's that look as if they can do the job and then let the client establish for themselves if the candidate is the right person or not.

CV's can be very deceiving and not really tell you very much at all about a candidate other than where someone has worked and studied. It doesn't tell you why they left their last employment, what it is they are looking for in their new employment, or indeed if they are any good at what they may claim to be good at, and it certainly doesn't tell you what a persons personality is like, which is so important when hiring new people. Whereas the consultant from the agency has seen and spoken to dozens of candidates whom they have whittled down to a short list who fit client criteria, such as ability, adaptability and personality.

Our experience has shown time and time again that some of the candidates we see and speak to do not always have CV's that highlight their ability to communicate effectively in the sectors we operate in and if we or our clients solely relied on viewing CV's before talking to candidates, both clients and ourselves would have missed out on some fantastic candidates over the years.

If you are going to use an agency to recruit staff, either temporary or permanent, talk to the agency about what it is you are looking for, but likewise listen to what the agency has to say about the candidates; remember that this is the agency's job and they are doing it all day every day. It is likely that you may not get the best results or outcome from an agency if they are instructed to send over CV's. Instead try to encourage your agency to talk to you about candidates they think suitable for your role and, if appropriate and you like the sound of the candidate, arrange a telephone interview. Of course an agency will appreciate that you would like to see a CV as does the agency itself, but don't base your first judgements on this criteria; use your agency effectively and remember that this is all part of the service of using an agency and is included in the cost, so why do a job that you are already paying someone else to do for you?