Finding the best candidates for a job role can be far from simple, so how do recruitment agencies work? A recruitment agency’s purpose is to make the hiring process a breeze for businesses. This is achieved by delivering full support and communication with candidates, providing specialist knowledge, finding the highest quality candidates and making the whole recruitment process much more efficient. 

Not only that, it takes a large weight off a business owners shoulders, allowing them to focus on other areas, knowing that a very important part of their business is being managed by experts.

With all of this in mind, there are thousands of recruitment agencies in the UK. So how do you know which one to choose to find the perfect candidates for you? Here at Planwell Recruitment, we have put together some very helpful tips to guide you in the right direction.

How to choose a recruitment agency?

Here at Planwell Recruitment, we are a recruitment agency covering London, Kent and Essex, with over 10 years experience which enables us to fully understand a business’s needs.

If you have identified that your organisation is in need of an additional set of skills to help achieve your goals but, you do not have the internal resources to acquire new staff members, then a recruitment agency may be the answer for you. However, even if you have the internal resources to recruit new team members, many may struggle with a high turnover, finding qualified candidates for the role, or cannot complete the recruitment process efficiently enough. 

Recruitment agencies exist to eradicate these common issues, allowing businesses to hire the most applicable and talented candidates for the roles they wish to fill. 

With all of this in mind, how do you choose a good recruitment agency that is best suited to your business’s needs? Read our guide below to help you:

2. Contact agencies directly and read their reviews

Before committing to using a recruitment agency for your business, it is ideal to ask questions beforehand. Here at Planwell Recruitment, for example, we welcome any enquiries you may have in regards to how our agency would benefit your business. Carrying out this initial step will allow you to gain an idea of which agencies can provide the services you need to achieve your goals. It may also be worth asking for any statistics on businesses in a similar industry to determine if their results outshine another agency.

You can easily gather information regarding particular recruitment agencies based on their reviews and testimonials too. Look across their social media, Google reviews and website testimonials to find out if both employers and candidates have had a positive or negative experience. Overall negative reviews can possibly indicate that there may be issues with the services they offer. 

2. Look for specialisations

Each recruitment business will have their own specialist areas, approach and methods on talent acquisition that may or may not be aligned with your brand, goals and values.

At Planwell Recruitment, for example, we are specialists in finding candidates for manufacturing, warehouse and office jobs. We work with national corporations and smaller companies to attract high quality staff to fulfil these roles. 

Having an extensive applicant database and access to local and national CV boards allows our resourcing team to find the most relevant applicants for your role. Our account managers will communicate with you throughout the process to ensure that we are meeting your specification.

It is important to find out if these attributes that recruitment agencies have are most compatible with your business and hiring goals.

3. Join their online networks

You can gain a strong insight into an agency by looking at their online presence. LinkedIn, for example, is somewhere you should be looking to see how they interact with candidates and increase their brand awareness.

How do the agency’s recruiters look online? Are they active on social media networks? Do they contribute to industry discussions? These are just some of the few questions you can ask yourself and investigate to gauge how they use their online presence to attract top candidates for their clients.

Do you want to carry out some research into our social networks? Click our social media links below and follow us!

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To summarise, there are many steps each business owner should take to make an informed decision on which recruitment agency to choose. It is important that this research is carried out so you can have a great experience with the agency you choose, helping to achieve your recruitment goals.

Here at Planwell Recruitment, we build relationships based on trust, honesty and recruitment expertise that meets the staffing needs of our existing and future clients across London, Kent and Essex. Please get in contact with us here if you would like to find out more about how we can help with your hiring process.