There are many different ways to recruit and to fill your job vacancies; each with their own positives and negatives. Here, we explore the different methods to recruit, so you can make an informed decision on which approach is most suited to your requirements and business.
Traditional Recruitment
Traditional recruitment is where you target candidates who are active in the job market. This can be done through advertising on job boards, social media and other traditional methods like utilising your previous applications or databases of CVs. This is often referred to by Recruiters as contingent recruitment. In addition, contingent recruitment is often the default recruitment method by companies when filling job vacancies.
Positives of Traditional / Contingent Recruitment
- Traditional recruitment gives you access to active candidates, those who are genuinely looking for a new role.
- Can be quicker, applicants are motivated to move.
- Often gives you the choice between multiple candidates, useful for benchmarking.
Negatives of Traditional / Contingent Recruitment
- Contingent recruitment doesn’t give you access to the whole market, just those currently job seeking.
- Not guaranteed to get any interest or applicants at all.
- Job boards have an associated cost, which you pay regardless of filling the role or not.
Headhunting
This is where you go out and look for candidates and professionals who you think are suitable for the role and contact them directly. This method is an option often used for senior roles but also those vacancies where there is a lack of active candidates in the market. This is often referred to by Recruiters as retained recruitment if they are operating in this way, as the client is retaining their services to map and speak to all individuals in the market.
Positives of Headhunting / retained recruitment
- A headhunt or retained recruitment gives you access to better quality candidates and ones who aren’t actively looking for a job.
- You are able to reach the whole market, useful to ascertain whether what you are looking for actually exists.
- Candidates typically are flattered and enjoy the process.
Negatives of a headhunting / retained recruitment
- Headhunting is a slower process than contingent recruitment and often can be time consuming to find professionals suited to the role.
- Candidates who aren’t looking for a role often need more meetings to encourage them to move (and often a higher salary and benefits package).
Using a Recruiter
A recruiter can help you with both contingent and retained recruitment.
Positives of using a Recruiter
- You get access to a recruitment expert who specialises in your sector and geographical region. They will dedicate their time to finding the best candidates for your vacancies, and work at this all-day, every-day.
- Recruiters are generally well-connected with talented professionals and have a database of candidates who are actively looking for new roles, so they provide you with a wider talent pool.
- Most recruiters (like us) will provide you and your candidates with support at every stage of the recruitment process, even once the successful candidate has started their new job with your company. This allows you to concentrate on your job, and not be worrying about your internal recruitment.
- Your jobs will be seen. We list your jobs on industry specific job boards, Google Jobs, social media and on our website free of charge.
Negatives of Using a Recruiter
- They don’t know the business as well as you, so you must invest time at the start to discuss everything thoroughly. We take time to get to know more than your job requirements. We will find out about you, your business, company culture and goals. This unique approach enables us to quickly establish the perfect match for talented professionals and businesses. On top of this, we will only place an individual in a company if we are 100% confident it is the right decision for both them and you as the hiring company.
- There is a cost to using a recruiter. With us, there are no hidden fees and we don’t charge a different price for contingent and retained recruitment (just a different pay structure).
Recruiting on your own
Many businesses will try recruiting on their own first before approaching a Recruiter. However, we find once clients has used us for the first time, they come back to us again when they need to recruit.
Positives of recruiting on your own
- Recruiting on your own you have full autonomy over the applications.
- It’s the cheapest method of recruiting. No agency fees.
Negatives of recruiting on your own
- Time cost is very high. You have to oversee the whole recruitment process. Trust us, the vast majority of applications you receive will be irrelevant and clog up your inbox. Work out how much it costs you in time cost to recruit and it could be cheaper to pay an agency to recruit for you.
- Applicants often enjoy using an agency. We manage the process for them and negotiate on their behalf. So, often some applicants will only apply for agency roles.
- It’s likely less applicants will be received – your jobs will be less visible to active professionals in the job market. Plus, as so many professionals are registered with agencies, they know the vacancies will come to them, rather than them having to go searching job boards.
What is the cost difference of using a recruiter for traditional recruitment (contingent) and headhunting (retained recruitment)?
There is no difference in the cost, however the payment terms are different. With contingency recruitment, often described as “no win no fee”, the recruiter searches the market for active candidates and the fee is charged to the client on the placed candidate’s start date. The cost is the same for the retained service but there is an up-front fee to cover the cost of the time spent compiling the research, which is often very lengthy. The remainder of the fee is then paid when the candidate starts.
The fact that part of the fee is paid up front puts extra pressure on the recruiter to fill the role, so a good recruitment consultant should never suggest a retained service for a role they don’t think they can fill. When we consider this option for our clients we always take into account the job role, geographic, the firm’s culture, values and the benefits they can offer prospective candidates before agreeing to this service level. It has to be an attractive option in order to appeal to professionals who aren’t actively looking for new employment.
What resources do candidates use when looking for a job?
The above image shows the results from our recent survey. In the survey we asked legal and finance professionals which resources are they likely to use when looking for a new job. 70% of respondents listed Recruiter as their top go-to resource when looking for a new job.
Which is the best recruitment option for your business?
We hope the above has helped you to understand the different methods of hiring for your business. Before coming to a decision on a recruitment method, think about the role, what sort of candidates you would like, any database of candidates you may have, your budget and time costs to recruit. We find that some companies use us every time they are hiring and that some businesses only come to us with the job vacancies they are struggling to fill themselves.
If you decide that using a recruitment agency is the best option for you, you will have a choice between a contingent or retained recruitment search. Both options have excellent benefits. A good recruitment consultant will want to understand more about the role, what you have done so far and why you think you are having difficulty filling the role before making a recommendation on the best option. Their advice will be based on their expert knowledge of the market in your geographic.
Whichever option you choose, the most important element is ensuring your recruitment consultant has a thorough job specification and understanding of the firm. If you can you should meet face-to-face so your consultant can talk about the firm and the environment with first hand experience.
It’s important to remember that candidates don’t just want to know about the job role and the salary, they want to understand about the culture, vision and values along with why people enjoy working for the firm and the employee benefits.
Get direct recruitment support and advice
If you would like to discuss any of your current vacancies and how we can work with you to hire the best talent, please get in touch here. Our specialist consultant for your geographical region and sector will then be in touch to provide you with their honest advice and to discuss your requirements. Alternatively, email info@eventuslegal.com or call 01524 34400.
What do our clients say about our recruitment service?
Excellent service received by both Amy & Lucy. They both fully understand the businesses and the candidates we require both academically and culturally. They both always go above and beyond. 1st class service received.” – James, Watson Woodhouse Solicitors
“The team at Eventus Legal always take time to fully understand the needs of the business and each role they are involved with, putting forward only those candidates who closely match our requirements. Feedback from successful candidates sourced by Eventus Legal has been excellent and they offer full support throughout the whole process from initial stages to job offer.” – Marsden Rawsthorn Solicitors
“Eventus is our default provider because they understand our business. Time has been taken over the long term to really understand the various elements of the services that we provide, which means that the candidates they provide are capable of delivering what we need when we need it. In addition, we feel that we can pick up the phone at anytime to discuss potential developments and we know that Eventus will always take a long term view of our requirements and put our business needs first. – Sharif, Ormrods Solicitors.
Additional Reading on developing your recruitment process and strategy
Employee benefits your staff and future employees want.
How to write job adverts that stand out to the top talent working in your sector.