OK, I admit it; I’m an executive search consultant. So there’s no point in you reading this article as I’m sure you know that I’m just going to tell you that recruitment consultants, as we are more commonly known, are all wonderful and should be used at every opportunity, right? Wrong. While I naturally want to make the case for the recruitment consultant as friend, there are times and circumstances when a recruitment consultant is not needed and could waste your time and money.

If you’re recruiting, the bottom line is that you want the right person for your organisation, and you want to find them in the quickest, most efficient and cost-effective way. Sometimes that can be achieved with a few phone calls to people you were at university with or ex-colleagues, or perhaps via a judiciously worded advertisement. If recruitment were an exact science, it would be a lot easier for all of us.

Who are you looking to recruit?

Recruitment is complex and time-consuming, and you need to take a range of factors into account before deciding the best way to go about it. For instance, are you looking for several people at a relatively low level, or a single senior executive? Are qualifications more important than experience? How much time do you have to read CVs? Will you be able to interview a ‘longlist’, or can you only see a shortlist of three or four candidates? As well as the obvious questions, there are other considerations that are harder to quantify, in particular the cost of getting it wrong and then having to recruit all over again when things don’t work out. Research suggests that a wrong hire can eventually cost many times that person’s salary, due not only to replacement costs, but also to potential effects on other employees, productivity and operations.

If you do decide that the recruitment process will be more efficient with specialist help, then here are a few tips to make sure that the consultant you choose will be your friend rather than your foe.

What makes a good recruitment consultant?

A good recruitment consultant should speed up the process of getting a new person on board, save you time and money, and make sure that your new employee is motivated when they start their new job. As with any other sector, some recruitment consultants are better than others. Check their credentials, if possible talk to clients and candidates that the company has worked with before, to get a feel for how well they might partner with your organisation. Do they know your business and market inside out? Are they committed to your sector? Do their values and culture reflect yours? Ask about fees and make sure you see a full set of Terms and Conditions.

For a retained search, find out if they’ll sign up to an exclusivity agreement and a non-poaching clause (usually 12 months from the start date of the new employee).  Find out how they assess candidates to choose a shortlist for you – do they conduct face-to-face competency-based interviews, or use psychometric tests such as Myers Briggs or Belbin to identify how well a particular candidate will fit in with your team?

An area that is often overlooked is what happens when your chosen candidate resigns from their current position. Good consultancies will be involved in this side of the process as well, providing support for the emotional cycle that the candidate will go through, helping them to deal with any counter-offers and making sure that everyone involved is considered, including partner and children.

Another indication of a good consultancy is how they deal with candidates who are unsuccessful at interview. Managing expectations, something I’ll look at in more detail in a later article, is critical. Not only can a bad experience affect publicity about your company, but it can also affect the future success of your organisation if a disgruntled candidate takes a high position in a company that you want to do business with. In some instances, contacting unsuccessful candidates to see how they were handled by the consultant can be a good way of checking how professional the consultant is. An additional check for professionalism is whether or not the consultant adheres to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation code of good practice.

Consultants to avoid

A recruitment consultant you might want to think twice about is one that bombards you with phone calls after company news is published but seems only interested in finding out the names of your employees. It is also a good idea to be aware of those that follow up with written Terms after quoting a percentage over the phone, refusing to accept exclusivity or non-poaching agreements, and failing to demonstrate a thorough understanding of your company and your market.

If you’re looking for a job and wondering whether to go to a recruitment consultancy, it helps to think about where you are in your career. Could you benefit from an independent, expert perspective not only on your CV, but also on the market as a whole? Is the recruitment consultant going to invest the time in developing a long-term relationship that could become an integral part of your career, or are they treating you like a number on their sales targets? Do they manage the process in a clear and transparent way, providing detailed feedback at all stages? If you are looking to broaden your horizons – and your future prospects – by going overseas, does the recruitment agency have an international reputation? Do they have their own offices in other countries rather than associates? While recruitment consultants don’t charge candidates, you must weigh up the time involved against the potential short and long-term benefits.

Recruitment consultants look for candidates with unique or marketable skill sets, realistic expectations, a sense of urgency, good references and the mutual respect that can lead to a long-term relationship. Interestingly, potential candidates and employers want similar things from a recruitment consultant – expert knowledge, honesty and transparency, efficiency, professionalism and a partnership that can bring long-term benefits. If you find all of these, then the recruitment consultant will definitely be your friend.

Tarquin Bennett-Coles is head of permanent placement, clinical & medical UK, for DOCS International. This is the first in an irregular series of articles looking at key issues of recruitment and retention. For more information tel: 0870 735 1164, e-mail: tarquin.bennett-coles@DOCS-int.com pr visit: www.DOCS-int.com