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Common Complaints About Recruitment Agencies

Business owners often outsource certain business services, functions, or needs - such as recruitment services. However, business owners, executive teams, and hiring managers have shared some complaints that reduce their desire to work with recruitment agencies. Below, please find five common complaints, and how our agency resolves them.

#1. Transparency Issues

One of the most common complaints is a lack of transparency into the recruiting process. Agencies should not disregard business owners’ need for progress updates, clearly defined deadlines, shared procedures, and process consistency. Further, recruiters who communicate using industry jargon can frustrate hiring managers. Without clear and insightful communication and transparency, the trust between a hiring company and their recruitment agency can quickly deteriorate.

How we resolve this: at De Novo Recruitment Agency, we assign a Project Manager (PM) to you. Our PM gets to know your business, your expectations, and your communication preferences. As we guide candidates through the recruitment funnel, our PM communicates consistently, providing reporting and insight that enables you to compare our progress with your needs.

#2. Consistency Issues

Many hiring companies cite frustration about staff turnover within their recruitment agency; an endless cycle of new recruiters being assigned to their account replacing those who have left. Hiring companies often feel like they have to “start over” and that time invested cultivating a relationship with their recruiter has been wasted. According to one time tracking software company, each year one in every four recruitment agency employees are likely to leave their job. With a 25% turnover rate, it may come as no surprise that many business owners feel there are consistency issues in service delivery.

How we resolve this: De Novo Recruitment Agency employs recruiters who are also trained HR professionals, providing both stability and subject matter expertise beyond that of a traditional recruiter. When you partner with us, you are guaranteed consistent, specialized delivery of services.

#3. Poor Outcomes

Many hiring companies have expressed disappointment working with a recruitment agency, namely the agency's inability to understand the unique needs of their business. This can result in discrepancies and misalignment between candidates and the jobs they’re being considered for, potential overflow of candidates for employers to review, and wasted time. Business owners also cite a lack of follow-up from recruitment agencies once placement is made, leaving them adrift to navigate those critical first days of onboarding and orientation.

How we resolve this: As referenced above, a Project Manager (PM) is assigned to each client to oversee every step of our process. We get to know your business by visiting your offices and touring your facilities or meeting with members of your existing workforce remotely. Our goal is to get a thorough understanding of who the new hire will be managing, collaborating with, and reporting to. We want to understand your culture at the micro and macro levels. We are also available to continue advisory services well past the date of hire, providing training opportunities and retention strategies.

#4. Excessive Costs/Fees

Many hiring companies find themselves unhappy with the excessive costs/fees that have become associated with recruitment services. Most recruitment agencies follow a contingency or retained search model. In contingent search, fees are collected once the job requisition has been filled, and are often charge 20-25% of the new hire's gross annual compensation. The less work that is performed, the more profitable the engagement.

How we resolve this: We offer different pricing models so that our clients can select the one they are most comfortable with. Ultimately, we want what is good for us, what is good for the hiring company, and what is good for candidates to be the same thing. We aim for 100% placement rates, 100% client satisfaction, and 100% candidate satisfaction.

#5. Quantity vs. Quality Issues

While working with a recruitment agency, business owners often feel that their agency partners focus more on quantity than quality. Hiring managers become inundated with candidates as the agency continues funneling through as many as they can. As we mentioned previously, most recruitment agencies follow a contingency search model. This model creates a built-in incentive for the agency to submit the highest possible number of candidates as quickly as possible, and quality can suffer. For example, it is common practice for some agencies to assign less experienced agents to the project, who do not know or understand the client’s business or their needs.

How we resolve this: As we move through the recruitment process and begin to receive candidate resumes, we preview and prescreen candidates to ensure only the best are invited to an interview. We also edit Job Descriptions regularly to maximize targeted candidate flow and identify nonviable candidates. Our homegrown rolling interview process, eliminates candidate pools, and advances each candidate through the funnel at an efficient pace without any other candidate slowing down the process.

Looking Forward

Outsourcing your recruitment process can be a very efficient and productive step toward helping your business grow, without taking your time and focus away from the parts of your business that need your attention the most. When you partner with us, you can trust and rely on our team of experienced professionals to provide a positive candidate experience for your future hires!

To learn more about our process, click here.