Let’s face it – most employers are not enthusiastic about paying extra fees to find qualified candidates, are they? Even when they opt for third-party agencies to fill their positions, they often end up deeply disappointed with the level of service provided. Industry 4.0, in particular, has its fair share of unreliable staffing agencies, so it’s difficult to believe any of them can truly help you build out your team. However, when there are urgent, difficult-to-fill positions that need attention, many companies find themselves resorting to working with multiple external agencies out of desperation, hoping that at least one qualified candidate will come through.
Many hiring managers consider using third-party agencies as a necessary evil, rather than seeing them as a trusted partner who can help them with their business growth. Why? The agencies they collaborate with have failed to earn their trust or establish any credibility in their efforts to assist them. These agencies are driven by profit, lack a comprehensive understanding of the hiring needs, and are primarily self-serving. Consequently, they inundate hiring managers with an overwhelming number of resumes, hoping that one will result in a successful hire.
While there are reputable recruitment agencies out there, finding one that truly deserves your time and attention can be an incredibly time-consuming task. In our guide, we’ll explain the qualities to look out for – and avoid, when choosing your recruitment agency.
Why Choose a Technical Recruitment Agency?
Hire Specialized Talent
So, what is Technical Staffing? It’s a broad term, for a recruitment agency with dedicated recruiters who specialize in identifying candidates that use your specific tech stack. Choosing a non-specialized agency could mean that they could fail to grasp your requirements and what constitutes a strong candidate – ultimately meaning that you’re going to end up with a lot of irrelevant resumes in your inbox. Not good.
Market Knowledge
Broad scale recruiters are unable provide you with relevant market knowledge for your industry.
Specialist recruitment agencies will have in depth knowledge including whitepapers and reports with industry-specific insights relevant to the candidates in your market such as.
- Current salary trends
- Technology in demand in the market
- Types of companies that candidates want to work for
- Strategies to keep and retain top talent.
Knowledgeable recruiters can become a strategic partner to grow your business.
Technical Agencies Value Your Business
An agency that values their business and the expertise they can bring to you, is not going to force their services down your throat. They will wait patiently for the moment that you decide you’re ready for their support.
This is a problem we’ve heard about too often from too many clients, and it’s something that unfortunately discredits what we do as a recruitment agency. When choosing a recruitment agency, you should avoid companies that:
- compromise on rates
- resort to exclusivity agreements as a means to avoid competition
- agree to almost anything just to secure positions
If these agencies genuinely value their services and understand the hard work required to earn their fees, they wouldn’t be so quick to settle, as it means offering a subpar service.
Specialist Agencies Understand Your Needs
It’s important to work with a specialist recruiter who understands exactly what your needs are. Non-specialists are likely to miss suitable candidates – for example, if a mandate for an Applications Engineer requires DfAM experience, and the recruiter only screens for the buzzword ‘DfAM’ in candidates’ resumes, they’re going to miss perfectly suitable candidates due to a lack of understanding of broader skills and experience relevant to the role.
Skilled recruiters will recognize that an Applications Engineer with DfAM experience will likely have software such as SolidWorks or nTopology in their tech stack or other experience working with CAD. It’s important for the recruiters you work with to ask the right questions and fully understand how to identify the right type of candidates to ensure they’re not wasting anyone’s time and sending over irrelevant resumes.
They Don’t Just Rely On an “Internal Database”
It’s pretty common for staffing and recruiting agencies to have databases of candidates that they can dip into, in theory, to turn around a shortlist in a short amount of time. Lazy recruiters will tout the size of their database as a key selling point, while in reality, their database is full of candidates the agencies haven’t spoken to in years, meaning that the resumes are often outdated, and many of the candidates’ needs or desires may have changed since their last contact with the agency.
Good recruiters will rescreen candidates in their database if they’re suspected to be suitable for your role but won’t rely solely on their database to produce a shortlist. They’ll headhunt, advertise and do their research to make sure that the shortlist you receive isn’t short of perfect. The quality of candidates received should speak for themselves.
They Don’t Spam Resumes
Related to the above point, another thing that gives agencies a bad reputation is sending over too many resumes. Sometimes, there is a good candidate in the mix – but usually, it’s due to luck.
If the recruiters you’re working with are sending you too many resumes – they aren’t doing their job effectively. The reason you choose to use an agency in the first place is that you don’t have time to look through stacks of resumes to identify just one candidate. While it’s expected that not every candidate will be a perfect match, the recruiter should be able to provide a compelling justification for why they have chosen to send a particular candidate your way, showing that they’ve taken the time to get to know the professional.
The Best Recruitment Agencies KNOW Their Candidates
A good recruiter won’t just send resumes – they really get to know their candidates so that they know that they can fulfil the job role. Recruiters should understand the candidate’s motivations and history, including;
- Interview skills
- Reasons for leaving
- Employment history
- Technical skills
- Job preferences
A recruitment agency should understand all of these points to ensure that the candidate is suitable for the role. The agency should also coach the candidate to refine their resume to enhance the candidate’s experience.
Good Recruiters Don't Mislead
Numerous recruiters, driven by desperation to close a deal, resort to telling candidates and clients whatever it takes to secure an interview. They may promise candidates a higher salary than your company’s budget allows and attempt to sway them with the allure of the “opportunity.” While salary shouldn’t be the sole motivating factor for accepting a position, recruiters should set realistic expectations for candidates to avoid surprises down the line.
Recruiters who fail to represent your company to the best of their ability by focusing on superficial selling points like “we have a beer fridge” or “we have an on-site gym,” end up neglecting essential aspects that could genuinely pique candidate interest, such as growth potential and exposure to cutting-edge technologies. This approach could cause you to miss out on talented candidates who are looking for more substantial opportunities.
They Take the Time to Recognize Why You're Struggling to Fill a Role
When you decide to work with an outside agency, it’s a lot more than handing them a job description and sending them on their way. If the agency is okay with that and is willing to just “send the resume” – that should be a red flag. If their ultimate goal is to make the perfect match for both the candidate and the client, they need to understand the whole picture. There is a reason you haven’t filled the role yet, so it’s important for the agency to understand your interview process, what you like/haven’t liked about candidates you’ve already interviewed, the timeline from the 1st phone call to the offer stage, and the biggest contributing factors that have resulted in your failure to fill the role. A lot of agencies spend too much time “selling” their services and don’t take the time to understand what it’s actually going to take to fill a role.
Communication and Honest Feedback are Crucial on Both Sides
It’s so important that the agency you work with gives both you and the candidate honest feedback throughout the interview process. On the candidate side, a lot of recruiters don’t like being the bearer of bad news. It’s not fair to the candidate, and they actually do want honest feedback – whether it’s good or bad. At ADG, we’ve even spoken to candidates who never received feedback or heard from the agency ever again! Although it can be uncomfortable, using an agency that is direct, to the point, and truly wants to help both sides will let the candidate know what they need to work on and specifics as to why a company does or doesn’t think they’re a good fit.
On the client side, it’s important that the agency gives you honest feedback from the candidate, as well as feedback on your interview process. Even if they feel the candidate is not a good fit, it’s important that the candidate has a good interview experience.
They Actually Enjoy What They Do
Great recruiters ENJOY speaking with their candidates every day and keeping track of which technologies are hot on the market. If a company is working with the newest technologies and constantly keeping its tech stack up to date, it’s definitely way more exciting to tell potential candidates about your position – and why they should be excited to work there! The best engineers are hungry to advance their skill set and passionate about what they do, and if we have a company that can offer an environment for those types of engineers to thrive – it makes our job very easy to do.
How Can Alexander Daniels Global Help?
Here at Alexander Daniels Global, we conduct direct sourcing through targeted headhunting to access inactive candidates, alongside our database and extensive network of active candidates. To put it simply, your additive and advanced recruitment needs can be seamlessly handled by our specialist team – putting the right candidates in front of you when you need them most.
Alternatively, if you’re working in the additive or advanced manufacturing industry, browse our career portal to apply for our varied open job vacancies.
For more information about how we can help, contact our team of expert recruiters today. We also have a wealth of HR resources, such as our annual salary survey, to help you stay on top of hiring trends.
