Simply put, the aim of a recruitment agency is to attract, screen, select and place qualified persons in the right job. But there’s a lot more involved in the process, including the analysis of jobs, the sourcing of candidates using traditional advertising and networking methods, the matching of candidates to the right job position, the assessment of the expertise and personality of candidates, and the finalisation of their placement.

Recruitment Agency Approaches
Recruitment agencies can be publicly funded organisations, or private sector businesses supporting temporary, permanent, or casual labour recruitment. They may also be highly-skilled niche agencies specialising in a particular industry sector or professional group. There a number of recruitment approaches, some which combine two or more of these as part of their overall strategy.

In-house Recruitment
Here, employers leave the recruitment of staff to individual managers, who undertake most of the recruitment using their HR department, frontline hiring managers and recruitment personnel. In-house recruiters advertise job on the company’s website, seek staff internally and encourage employees to take recommend candidates from within their own network.

Employee Referral System
Some companies work by way of an employee referral programme, where existing employees recommend job candidates. If the referred candidate is hired and remains in the employ for a stipulated period, normally three or six months, the employee receives a cash incentive.

Outsourced Recruitment
Some companies without the skills and facilities to use external recruitment agencies. Here, the recruitment process may involve some part-time consulting, recruitment for particular skills, or the outsourcing of the entire recruitment process.

Recruitment Agencies
The goal of a recruitment agency is to provide suitable job applicants to a client for a fee. Some agencies are paid to provide candidates that remain employed beyond an agreed probationary period (normally three or six months), whilst others are paid a retainer to provide ongoing candidate searches. In this case, the agency is normally paid a percentage of the candidate’s salary.

Niche Recruitment Companies
The aim of the niche or specialised recruit company is to seek job candidates with a particular job speciality. Niche agencies are able to channel all of their resources into specific skill sets and attract highly-specialised candidates. This helps them grow a large database from which to match suitable applicants to available jobs.

Because niche agencies place the same candidates a number of times throughout their careers, they focus on building strong, long-lasting relationships.