The Importance of Feedback When Working With a Recruitment Agency

Working with an agency to find your next employee has a whole range of benefits, saving you time and money. To get the best from your experience, building up a two-way relationship is important. Good communication between employer and agency can greatly enhance the recruitment process, with better outcomes all around.

 Getting to know you 

This communication process starts from the very outset. You, as the employer, will contact a recruitment agency with your requirements. The agency will try to find out as much as possible about your company and the role you’re recruiting for. This helps them to build up a good picture of what you’re looking for and the type of candidate that will best fit into your team.

Give your chosen agency as much information as you can. The more detailed you can be, the better the candidate pool your recruiter can present to you.

 Candidate selection

Based on the information you provide about what you’re looking for in your next hire, your recruitment agency will call upon their extensive resources to find you a selection of potential candidates. These are handpicked to meet the specifications of your role closely, as well as taking into consideration the culture and ethos of your company.

With the selection of candidates in your hands, you can go through the CVs and select those you feel should be called in for an interview. However, it’s important to think about why you are rejecting some of the CVs, as this kind of feedback is valuable to your recruiter.

Is it because the CV doesn’t specify a skill or programming language you require for the role, for example? Candidates may not always list every individual skill if they have extensive experience or may assume that some skills are a given based on other entries on their CV. This streamlining of information is done to give you, as the employer, a quick snapshot of relevant details without giving you too much to read through. If a candidate is otherwise perfect for the role on paper, ask your recruiter to confirm with the candidate if they have the skill you require. You may be overlooking potential talent. The role of the recruitment agency is to act as a middleman between you and the candidates.

You may, however, feel that the candidate is simply not suitable for the role. In this case, it is useful if you can briefly provide an explanation for the recruitment agency. This doesn’t need to be lengthy by any means, but it can be of great benefit to the whole hiring process. The recruitment agency can use the information to create a more detailed requirement for your vacancy and develop their understanding of precisely what you’re looking for. This means they can provide you with an even more specific talent pool. The recruitment agency can also feedback to the candidate themselves, which helps with their personal development. The candidate can use the feedback to improve their CV or work on expanding their skillset, making them a better prospect for future roles.

 Interview feedback and hire review

Once you have selected the candidates you wish to interview, you can advise the recruitment agency to make the necessary arrangements. It’s likely you’ll interview multiple candidates for your vacancy. Naturally, you will only need to recruit one person, so the others will be told they are unsuccessful.

One of the roles of your recruitment agency is to deliver this news to the candidate. The candidate is likely to ask what they could improve upon for future roles. Your feedback as a client is, therefore, a crucial part of this. The recruitment agency can deliver your feedback in a discrete and helpful manner. Sometimes it might be that they are simply not a good fit for your company, and at other times they may not have the skills and experience required.

Again, this feedback doesn’t need to be long or overly detailed. It’s very valuable to your recruitment agency, as it helps them create a better, deeper understanding of what you’re looking for. This is a key part of building a strong working relationship with your recruitment agency for future hires. It’s also valuable to candidates, who can work on ways to develop.

Once you’ve hired a candidate with the help of a recruitment agency, they may ask for final feedback on your new employee and how they are settling in. This two-way communication throughout the whole recruitment process has great benefits for all parties concerned.

Find out more about Spectrum IT and how we can help you to find the right person for your next vacancy.