It’s a quandary – if all agencies say broadly the same thing, how do you differentiate?

“We put our candidates first. Values of honesty, integrity, innovation and professionalism. Disrupting the industry with better service. Candidate experience is what we do. Specialists in everything.”

I’m sure I’m guilty. Please don't browse this website.

I’d expect if you choose an agency from a promise, and you are let down, you’ll be sceptical about the next agency that promises the same.

Of course, that isn’t fair to the many recruiters that do mean what we say, delivering on our commitments.

Fortunately, there is a simple measure for getting to the truth of how we can help:

Watch what we do, not what we say.

If you have an ATS or a way of manipulating data at scale, there is a lot of analysis you can do around costs, time to hire etc; however, today I’m more interested in quality of service.

Here are some suggestions to consider.

Existing suppliers

• What is their fill rate?
• Ratio of CVs to 2nd interview?
• Retention rate (mine’s 4+ years for mid to senior permanent hires, something I’m proud of)
• What do their candidates say about them at interview? Don’t ask ‘how good are they’; do ask about the quality of brief they were given, and how they were qualified
• How do these candidates match up to your expectations?
• How does agency behaviour reflect the initial promise?
• How do their terms reflect a long-term partnership? (always read terms
  & conditions in detail)

New and existing suppliers

• Check out their website to see the balance of using ‘you’ and ‘we’. While this might be symptomatic of poor copy, a heavy bias towards ‘we’ may indicate they care more about their own needs than yours
• Check out their adverts. How do they advocate and represent your business? Would you apply?
• Check out their social media posts. Not so much the initial post, which they may not have written themselves, but how they respond in comments. I find behaviour in the comments section to be an indicator of who the author actually is and what they stand for. You’ll quickly establish who virtue signals and who means what they say.
• Are they more interested in agreeing a fee first, or a service first?
• This one is a big one for me – if you meet or talk with them, what questions do they ask? Questions that probe and try to gain insight on your needs, are a sign of recruiters that want to make a difference.
• How do they respond to your answers? Further probing and constructively challenging you is a great sign, particularly for key hires.
• Ask for references - clients and candidates
• Check LinkedIn for attrition – how long do their consultants stick around? A good sign of culture if there’s a revolving door of hires.

Some of these points will be reflective of how you enable your recruiters – your quality of job description, access to hiring manager, how transactional you are, all make a difference.

If all you provide is a generic job description and basic detail, don’t expect much more than a reflection of this from a new supplier. Existing suppliers may only receive this info from you, but they will also have the benefit of the knowledge gained from working with you over time, feedback from candidates, and the other hidden insight new suppliers won’t have access to.

While how we describe ourselves to you is important in conversation, it’s our behaviours that will give you best insight into what to expect.

As a final point, beware the promise of an outcome: “yes, we’ll fill your job”. Recruitment is a business based on people affected by uncontrollable situations – it’s impossible to make good on these guarantees, unless it genuinely doesn’t matter who sits on that unfilled seat.

Personally, I promise to do the work, the consequence of which is a 100% fill rate for retained vacancies since the start of 2020. The work is in my control - the outcome, while appearing guaranteed, is not.