The Truth About Job Recruiters

A job recruiter must be successful in their positions to gain respect in the community they work in. This means that they need to be able to find potential employees quickly, screen them, and send them to the potential employer. The job recruiters also needs to be able to handle several different clients at once in most cases. There are a few different types of job recruiters. One type of recruiter is an internal person for the business. This means that they work in house for a company and thus taking care of all recruitment needs their company may have.

This type of job headhunter usually does not receive a commission on each person they find for the available position. The second type of job recruiter is called a third party recruiter or headhunter. These recruiters will receive commissions for every employee they find. Within the third party option is two types as well. You can have a retained job recruiter that receives payment up front for the work or you can have a contingent recruiter that only receives payment after the position has been filled.

More often, a job recruiter is assigned to fill top-level positions in larger corporations or in the sports industry. For this reason, a job recruiter differs from a temporary agency or other job placement agency. Their main goal is to help their client, the business or corporation, to find the right employee for the position. If you are a corporation, looking for a job headhunter you will want to be aware of both the advantages and the disadvantages of using their professional services. When you weigh the advantages against the disadvantages, you may find that a job recruiter is not the best option for your business. First, we will look at the advantages listed below and then we will look at the disadvantages for corporations. We will then look at the advantages and disadvantages for potential employees.

Advantages:

• Saving time
• Background check
• Having someone screen potential employees
• Testing the potential employees for skills
• Often higher level positions
• Internal job recruiters
• Advertising for the position

Most corporations find time management to be an essential part of creating a successful business. This means that any work they are able to get done in a quick and efficient manner is important. Often times when you are a part of a larger corporation, you do not have time to spend on finding potential employees, interviewing them, and hiring the correct person along with your other duties. A job recruiter is able to do the work for you. This means you are saving time for other more important matters. Job recruiters will screen the potential employees, which is also a time saver. The job recruiter will have the information on the job opening, therefore they will be able to screen the resumes that come through the office and eliminate a potential candidate from the list, narrowing down the company’s choices. During the screening process is also the testing aspect of employees. Not all job recruiters will test employees for the skills needed for the position. This is where they differ from a job placement agency. They may test for specific skills or they may leave those options to the company. Part of testing for certain skills and screening employees are to help the corporation fill higher- level positions. The low-level positions or medium level positions may not require many skills. This means that companies tend to do this hiring internally rather than creating an extra expense. A corporation wants to know that they are receiving a qualified professional for the position without spending the time interviewing each potential candidate. While it is up to the company to higher the potential employee, they are most often working off the information supplied by the job headhunter. When a job recruiter is helping to find a potential employee, they are saving you advertising costs.

Generally, a corporation using a job headhunter will not post the job in the newspaper or among other sources leaving the recruiter in charge of the description provided as a means to find potential employees. Part of advertising for the position may include setting up the corporation website for potential employees to find. This is a third party way to make sure that potential employees find your job position, but that your corporation does not field the information.

The last advantage of having a job recruiter would be choosing an internal recruiter to work directly for the company or a retained headhunter. While a retained recruiter does exact a fee for the work they will continue to work until the position is filled and during that time, they are working solely for the corporation that has retained them. In other words, they have an exclusive agreement.

If the corporation has a in house headhunter, the corporation is paying the person a salary rather than commissions for a job completed. Most corporations that will choose this option have a high turnover rate or high expansion rate where they benefit from this internal service. In other words if the corporation is in need of a job recruiter once or twice a year a in house job recruiter may not be the best option.

Now that we have looked at some of the advantages let us look at the following disadvantages.

• High placement fees. Usually 20%-30% of the candidate annual salary
• Control of the hiring process
• Lack of quality control
• Mostly for large companies with high level positions
• Third party job recruiters

We left off in advantages talking about internal or retained job recruiters. A retained job recruiter can be considered a third party job headhunter. This means that they are outside of the company acting on behalf of the corporation, as a mediator in other words. The other type of third party job recruiter that we have yet to mention is called a contingent job recruiter. This means that they do not receive payment until the position is filled. They also do not have an exclusive agreement. These types of recruiters will work for middle management, professional, and technical ranges. Therefore, there is already a limitation there. Fees are another disadvantage for most companies. As mentioned above job recruiters require payment for their services. These fees can be anywhere from 15% to 30% of the candidates annual salary. Most job recruiters will receive the commissions as long as the employee is working for the company and that they pass the probation period which is usually 3 months. So not only is the corporation paying a salary to the new employee, but they are also paying the recruiter as well. Some firms may have a one- time fee of the above percentage. The corporation also has to look at how much the fees are in comparison to how many employees they will need per year. This can bring the choice of an in house job recruiter into the mix. An in housel job recruiter is a salaried employee so the potential of being less costly is there if the demand for new employees is relative.

When considering a job recruiter whether they will be in house or a third party you also have to look at the typical positions they will fill for you. Most job recruiters work to find potential employees for high- level positions such as management, the technical industry, or sports. You may find filling a secretary position or clerk position out of context when dealing with a job headhunter. They are set up to find the employees with skills. They may even search other corporations for potential employees luring them away for a better position. While this can be beneficial to large companies such as corporations, they are not helpful for a medium sized or smaller business.

The last disadvantage for a corporation or business stems in the interview and testing process. While it will save your corporation the time and potentially money depending on the fee scale, you lose control of the process to a certain degree. The potential for missing the correct employee is high. Job recruiters can receive thousands of resumes and applications making it difficult to sort through each and everyone for the potential employee.

They may send you several choices and you will find no one in the mix at least not right away. If the position is one of immediacy, this can be a problem. You may also find that the recruiter has eliminated a potential employee based on the information you have provided without considering all the possibilities. In the instance of using a job recruiter, you are losing most of the control for hiring the right employee. While the corporation has final decision, the possibilities that have been eliminated could be the difference in finding a permanent employee and one that becomes temporary.

As a corporation, you have a responsibility to yourselves for saving time, finding the correct employees, and saving money. This means that you have to weigh all aspects of using a job recruiter for your business needs. While it is your choice more often, the disadvantages overrule the potential advantages of using a job headhunter.

Let us see what the result for potential employees may be when we make the same type of comparison. The advantages are as follows:

• Set up a web page
• Interview tips
• Searches
• Job database
• Career advice
• Access to position not listed in newspapers and other sources
• No cost to potential employee

For a potential employee having a web page set up with your resume and all pertinent information is very important. It will help potential employers to find your information online with the ease of access. Job recruiters may offer you the service of helping you set up your own web page through their company. This means that potential employers will have access to your information without having to call you or seek you out. You will also have access to more searches through a job recruiter. In other words, a job headhunter most often has access to potential jobs that are not listed on any database you have access to. Often times when a high level position is available a corporation will be looking to the recruiter to find the potential employee through resumes, web sites, and applications rather than posting an advertisement online, in newspapers, or with other sources. Using a recruiter can give you the access you would normally be denied. Some job recruiters also offer career advice. They will point you towards the information you have to learn in order to qualify for the positions they normally work to fill. They will also in some cases help you to create your resume so that it looks better to the potential employer. This is very helpful when you consider how difficult it may be to find the position you are looking for and need.

Briefly mentioned above was the fact that you would have access to potential job you may not otherwise have access to. This bears mentioning again. Most employers save on advertising costs by using job headhunters to search for potential employees. While you may not be able to see the job descriptions through searches or databases, you will still have access to potential jobs when you submit your resume to a recruiter. They will analyze your resume for the job positions they are looking to fill. If they see what is necessary for that position they will forward your information on to the corporation or bring you in for an interview before doing so. This means you have the access to options you did not before.

The last advantage of a potential employee or job seeker using a recruiter is the lack of fees to you. While the corporation is paying a fee for the service, you can submit your information to the headhunter for no charge. This is not always the case with job placement agencies. While most job agencies will pay you as a temporary employee, some have been known to charge you for their services. Therefore making no fees from a recruiter an advantage.

As with the advantages, you will find there are several disadvantages for using a job recruiter. In fact, you will find that there tend to be more disadvantages than advantages making the use of job headhunters out of favor.

Disadvantages

• Recruiters work for the company, or are independent
• See several thousand resumes
• Do not always call back
• Place resume in a database
• Are often looking for one position with specific skills
• Often higher level positions
• Privacy laws
• May overlook what is the best job position for the sake of making a sell to the employer

Some of the disadvantages are self- explanatory so we will not spend time on those; however, we will delve into those that need extra care. Job recruiters are extremely busy with resumes and finding the right employee so they will not call you back if you are not right for the current positions they have available. This can leave you to wonder about employment and cause undue stress. They will place your resume in a database, which can seem like an advantage; however, they may not always find your resume again when a job becomes open for which you are qualified. A job recruiter is also looking to fill specific positions with certain skills. If you do not have these skills despite your education and background, they will not call you in for an interview. They are also looking for high- level employees. In most cases a job headhunter will have their loyalty geared towards the employer. Why? Well simply because they are the ones that are paying their services.

The last and most important disadvantage that must be looked at is privacy laws. Most job recruiters are not required to keep your information private. They may even sell your information to other people. While there are certain laws prohibiting this to happen, there are certainly ways around it. You must read every job application carefully to make sure that they are not able to sell or spread your personal information before choosing a job recruiter to work with. As a disadvantage, this is the most powerful one for rejecting the idea of using any type of job recruiter or job headhunter.

There are many reasons why an employer or job seeker may wish to use a job headhunter to find them a new position. With the advantages of using a job recruiter weighed against the disadvantages you will find that most often using a job headhunter is not the best option for you or your company. Job recruiters tend to have recruiting fees, not all headhunters will keep information private, and they may not be able to help you. Some recruiters offer web pages, searches, job databases, and career advice to potential employees. This is why you need to understand you options before choosing a job headhunter. This is important when looking for the perfect job opportunity.

You must be selective if you are a employee or employer. Use only a job recruiters that have been referred to you. The service offered by the job recruiters should always be free of charge for the job seekers.