Role of Recruitment Agencies in Today’s World

Recruitment agencies are basically external bodies which serve the purpose of finding candidates for employers. There are certain factors which differentiates recruitment agencies from employment agencies.

There are employment agencies out there which provide IT support people to firms, but professional engineering roles are normally found through recruitment agencies. There are numerous placement franchises in India which are instrumental in providing job consultancy services. Recruitment franchises in Mumbai are the most successful so far.

How it works?

Agencies get lists of vacancies from employers, and then they place adverts on internet job boards, and sometimes in other places too. They are also always on the lookout for new CVs being uploaded to the internet job boards.

If you’ve ever spent time looking through an internet job board at the current vacancies, you will probably have noticed that very few adverts mention the name of the company that is hiring. The reason for this is that the agencies are worried about not getting paid: if you saw a job that you liked, and you applied directly to the firm, then the recruitment agency wouldn’t get its fee. There are numerous job franchises in India which are providing job service.

 

Purpose of Recruitment Agency

Recruiting people takes a huge amount of time, and for many firms it is a real struggle to find enough time to do it well. Recruitment is also very much a numbers game: an employer often has to look at a lot of applications before he finds the right person for the role. That might sound a bit horrible and impersonal, and it is, but it’s also how it is.

Recruitment agencies fill a specific need. Employers need the right people to apply for their jobs, but often they don’t have the time to go and find these people themselves. They use recruitment agencies to do this for them, so that the employer can spend more of their time interviewing applicants.

Agencies are a major and important part of recruiting for the computing industry in the India. You will probably find at least one of your first three jobs in the industry through a recruitment agency.

Some agencies will take the CV that you give them and send the employer an edited version. (This, by the way, is the main reason why many internet job boards only accept CVs in Microsoft Word format). The agency may simply put your CV into their branded template, and some may remove your personal details to prevent the employer trying to approach you directly to avoid paying the agency. (There is often no love lost between employers and agencies!)

No reputable agency will change the contents of your CV without your permission.

How it helps?

If you know which employers you want to work for, and if they accept direct applications, then there’s no reason to apply through a recruitment agency. There’s no benefit in doing so, and with no middle-man for all communication to pass through, you might find that you prefer always dealing with the employer directly.

The better recruiting agencies can be a great help in getting hired, especially later in your career when you’re chasing more senior jobs. They’re able to chase a tardy employer in a way that a direct applicant often can’t get away with, and if they’ve worked with an employer successfully in the past, they can have a good feel for what the employer is looking for.

It has to be said, though, that many employers merely tolerate recruiting agencies. Staff turnover inside recruiting agencies can be very high, making it difficult for the employer to build up a successful long-term relationship with the agency. Without that partnership, employers often feel that recruiting agencies don’t understand their requirements well enough, and employers are often not very good at working with agencies to improve matters. Recruiting agencies also charge substantial fees to employers, and employers often begrudge this, rightly or wrongly.