Beware of placement- and quota-driven ‘recruiting machines’ led by recruiters with little to no experience in the role they are recruiting for. Never settle for anything less than you deserve and pay for.
1) Do you use an applicant tracking system or humans to assess and identify candidates?
Overwhelmed and overworked staffing agencies (‘machine’ more than a human-driven, empathetic ‘agency,’ really) and recruiters that lack significant experience in the role the company is hiring for lean heavily on applicant tracking systems (ATS) or AI to identify candidates based on keywords and phrases. Savvy candidates know how to manipulate and trick the ATS by overstuffing their resumes and cover letters with the keywords, phrases, and titles a computer will think makes an ideal candidate.
The biggest drawback of ATS, and it’s a huge one, is that they bypass awesome, highly qualified candidates who do not keyword stuff their resume in favor of, most often, less qualified candidates who know how to manipulate computer algorithms.
Companies need to insist the staffing and recruiting agency use highly experienced human eyes who have many years in the role they are recruiting for.
2) Does the recruiter have any experience in the role we are interested in filling? If so how many years?
If the recruiter does not have at least five years in the trenches of the industry you are recruiting for, you should seriously consider choosing another recruitment agency or demand a recuiter with many years of experience in the role they are recruiting for.
Over the years, the very best experience and recruiter interviews I had when searching for a marketing position were with recruiters who had many years working in the marketing trenches. They were able speak my language and relate to my career, knew which questions to ask, and what answers reflected great candidates. They were also much more knowledgeable about and so much better able to accurately communicate the hiring company’s desires in the marketing role; and so much better at answering my questions about the role.
I regularly monitor Periphery Staffing Solutions’competition, even more specifically recruiting agencies that brand themselves as specializing in recruiting only marketing candidates. The other day, I reviewed five such agencies. Do you know not one recruiter from all of these agencies, combined, had even one year of real-world experience in marketing? Crazy, right?
If you want the very best fit for your (marketing or IT) role, from both an experience and culture perspective, never settle for a recruiter with less than five years of experience in the role you are recruiting for. Never.
3) How much does your staffing agency value transparency? What are your processes and procedures during the recruiting process?
When working with recruiting agencies during my marketing career to help my company identify awesome candidates for an open marketing role, their lack of transparency and high-level processes and procedures (if they even had any documented) failed to provide me with 100% confidence that we selected the right recruiting agency.
You need to press your prospective staffing agency on their transparency practices and how much they value transparency. You also deserve to review their documented processes and procedures, have the agency walk you through them, and decide for yourself if they are well thought out, thorough, account for your wants and needs, transparent, and always place you at the center.
4) How will you keep us current during the search process?
Consider it a red flag when a staffing solution agency fails to keep you current on a real-time or daily basis on the status of their efforts. Weekly status calls with your agency are a given but your agency should email you everything they accomplished on a real-time basis.
You are making a sizeable monetary investment and placing your trust in the agency you hired to solve for a very important company task. You deserve to know the real-time progress your agency is making (or not making).
5) What does your fee structure look like?
Percentage-based fees. Flat fees. Hourly fees. Tiered (or staged) fees. Fee due dates. Make sure the fee options you review and discuss with your agency are not vague or open to interpretation. And always read the fine print for those nasty hidden fees.
Vague and hidden fees have soured, even ended, relationships with several recruitment agencies when I worked in corporate marketing departments.
6) How important is it for you to truly get to know our company? How do you accomplish this?
As I mentioned at the top, so many recruitment agencies today are not all agencies but indifferent ‘machines’: overwhelmed, overworked, and more concerned about churning out ATS candidates than performing a human-based assessment and identification process of awesome candidates. It also nearly a given that these agencies have neither the time or desire to genuinely get to know your company on a deeper, more strategic level.
Pay attention to how important it is for a prospective agency to truly get to know your business. On the kick-off call, is it clear they did their research on your company? Are they aware of any recent, big news about your company? Do they genuinely want to take the time to speak with you about your company? How interested do they seem? Do they seem eager to just get to your opening?
Periphery Staffing Solutions promises you noticeable benefits, professionalism, and thoroughness from our decades of experience in the marketing and IT trenches; and our wanting experiences when partnering with an agency to find talent and also as candidates working with them.
When you partner with us, you can expect better marketing and IT candidates and a superior, fresher, more engaged experience!
Christian DeGobbi
Founder and Marketing Recruitment Lead
201.446.2217
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