Speed and accuracy of hire in the digital age

If you’re wondering if using a recruitment agency suits your organisation, here’s the two key reasons our customers ask us for support and an example of how we offer more than a generalist agency.

Speed of hire

The first reason is speed of hire which, in the digital age, is even more relevant. The speed of technological change has signalled an era where job seekers have constant access to new opportunities and types of work. Hyper-connectivity and the mobile workforce makes it even easier, and more socially acceptable, for employees to move from one company to another – even during the recruitment process. The days of expecting candidates to wait patiently whilst interviews are held and decisions made are long gone and risks your candidates finding a bigger better company hiring for the same post. Today, successful recruitment demands that organisations adapt to the current needs of their potential workforce.

If transforming your company’s recruitment procedures sounds daunting, this is where a professional and well-established recruitment agency can help. Speed is everything and successful agencies have the digital reach to be quick and efficient and make no apologies in pushing for a quick hiring process.

Accuracy of hire

The second is accuracy and this is where hyper-connectivity can be a disadvantage to recruiters. The online world can make it very difficult to target specific job seekers. In my experience, online advertising, as cheap and accessible as it is, will bring you huge amounts of willing and eager candidates, from all over the globe, but few if any with the skillsets you require.

Agencies can accurately access prospective, often passive, but experienced candidates with as close a match to what your role and organisation requires as possible. Good agency recruiters are skilled in targeting advertising and deep searches to attract the right people. They know which platforms to advertise on to maximise the flow of suitable candidates and can quickly filter unsuitable applicants. Coupled with that are strong pre-screening skills, and in our case, strong compliance checking. The result is a speedy and accurate search to deliver the best the market has to offer.

Be reassured that professional recruitment agencies abide by strict and evolving legislation to protect workers and improve practices. There are many reasons for the continuing growth in agency recruitment but, for all organisations, recruitment is financially expensive and time consuming, whichever route they choose. In contrast, good agency recruitment, is fast and accurate.

Where we demonstrate heightened value is our specialist focus of education recruiting. By building sector knowledge, slowly and carefully over time, we quickly understand roles, often not needing to advertise to select the right type of candidate and can drive to place the right person as soon as possible.

ESP Recruitment in Action

Just after Easter, a client referred us to a school in urgent need of a temporary SIMS specialist. Within a couple of hours, we found someone who lived close to the school, was immediately available, had the right skillset and experience and was already compliance checked. Prior to contacting us, the school was working with a national generalist agency who, after a week of recruiting for the post, hadn’t been able to propose any candidates. Our consultant has also had similar experiences and finds working for us much more rewarding as we are able to find them the most suitable and enjoyable posts.

When your organisation must have the right person in post quickly, judge your agency on delivery first, the opposition may promise everything but can they deliver?