“There are millions of unemployed people in Nigeria, so I can just pick one from the crowd…” There are indeed a lot of people actively searching for job opportunities, but how easy is it to hire the right employee?
In today’s competitive job market, finding the ideal job candidate to join your organization is hard. This is why many companies run to recruitment agencies to help them recruit the best talents for their vacant positions.
Many employers decide to make use of the service of a recruitment agent for the following reasons:
PS: Are you looking to hire a Human Resources Personnel? Then you can take a look at other hr vacancies in nigeria
If you are currently looking to hire new employees and you are not sure of the recruitment agency to use, then these tips will guide you in making a choice based on your needs and budget.
1. Research the agency
Research the agency before you decide to work with any recruitment agency for your hiring needs, make sure you do your research. You can start by doing a simple search about the company on Google to find out important things about them like:
2. Know what you need
One of the most important tips for selecting a recruitment agency for your company is to know what you need. A big recruitment agency may fail to fill your position with the right candidate if you cannot communicate what you need from the prospective candidate.
You should take a look at your organization and discover what your needs are for the position that you are trying to fill. You can only communicate your needs to a recruitment agency when you have discovered these needs.
You can ask yourself the following questions:
A recruiter may be good at selling their services, but it may not be easy for them to find great talents for your position if you do not know what you want.
3. Ask them questions
It is normal for a recruitment agency to say all the great things they can do when they want to sell their service. If you are not familiar with some HR/recruitment terms, make sure you ask a question to be sure you understand the terms and conditions of their service before sealing the deal.
Don’t get swept away with terminologies, always ask questions that are relevant to your needs like:
An agency may miss some important information when they are trying to sell their brand to you. This is why you should ask these questions to understand how the agency can help you better.
4. Find out the experience of the recruiter
If you are looking at recruiting job candidates with hard skills, then you would want to find the best possible candidates with those skills. An experienced recruiter must have built a network of experienced candidates over the years.
When we talk about experienced candidates, we do not mean job candidates that you find on job boards (they don’t need to post their CVs). You don’t just hire a recruiter for the sake of it, you hire a recruiter for their network of candidates that no one can find.
It is also important you find out the track record of the recruiter’s hiring success in similar roles that you would like to fill to be sure of the quality of hires that you would get. With a good network, the time it will take for the recruiter to fill the position will be lesser and the quality of candidates will be better.
5. Evaluate the Terms and Conditions
Some recruiters can be rigid when it comes to talent acquisitions contracts and the likes. The best kind of recruiters are very flexible recruiters, these kinds of recruiters can go over and beyond to make sure they help their clients find and retain talents.
You should not make the mistake of working with a recruiter that is rigid and easily gets bogged down with flexible terms.
6. Ensure you are working with an honest agency
You would not want to work with a recruiter that cannot deliver on what they say they can. Make sure the agency is honest about their process and the quality of candidates they will be referring to fill your vacant position.
It won’t be nice if a recruitment agency fails to deliver what they promised especially if you are recruiting candidates for the first time. To reduce the chance of this happening, you can search for the agency’s testimonials on their website or other platforms. You may be able to find a good amount of reviews of the company that may be useful to you.
7. Find out the recruitment cost
Should cost be your concern when you trying to recruit for your vacant position(s)?
Well, getting a good hire sure comes at a cost, but if you are working on a budget, it is good you know what the hiring cost will be on average. If it is your first time working with a recruiter, you can have an idea about what you are going to spend.
Recruitment agencies usually charge on a percentage basis rather than a flat rate. This percentage is likely to be around 10% of the position’s gross annual salary. You can also do your research to find out the cost for different agencies, but these agencies percentages do not differ a lot.
You should also know that cost should not be the major factor in your decision.
8. Find out if the agency is referring you to good candidates
Even if you have gotten everything figured out about the company and have discovered that you both are the perfect blend, if the company cannot refer you to the best candidates, then you have not made a good decision.
Regardless of the percentage discount, and other perks a recruitment agency may offer, if they are not placing you with the right candidate for your position within the right amount of time, then they may not be the right agency for you.
To make sure a recruitment agency is continually adding value to your company you have to diligently do your research.
9. Check their specialty
When you want to choose a recruitment agency, you should check the agency’s speciality. Different recruitment agencies have different areas of specializations. For example, some agencies specialize in recruiting for IT-related roles.
You must find out the specialization of the agency you want to work with and see if it aligns with the position you want to fill. You should work with an agency that has an area of specialization than work with a general one. An agency that specializes will refer better candidates than one that does not.
10. Ensure the recruitment agency is providing additional security
If you are running a start-up organization, one of the things you should consider when choosing a recruitment agency to work with is candidates’ security. You should check if the recruitment agency offers guarantee periods. This means that they should guarantee you that your new hire will stay in your company for at least (3-6 months).
If the new hire leaves before the expiry of the guarantee period, the recruitment agency should give you a full or part refund. Most of the times, the agency will offer to find a new candidate for your position at no cost.
Finally…
If you find yourself facing the challenge of choosing the best recruitment agency in Nigeria for your vacant positions, then you don’t have to worry because you just got connected with the right company.
MyJobMag is a boutique recruitment agency with over 10 years recruitment experience and a large pool of qualified candidates. Engage our recruitment service that fits your needs.
Find out more details about our recruitment service.
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