Recruitment Agencies - Why You Should Use Them

Numerous contractors hold the view that recruitment agencies don't supply value for money. Now this can be true of some agencies however utilizing a good agency to secure a contract can be quite cost effective. As a contractor there are two ways to find a contract:

1. Using the recruitment agency
2. Finding a contract for yourself

What's involved in finding a contract yourself?

Firstly, you need to find time to research the companies along with contract opportunities that suit your skill set which means trawling through umpteen job sites as well as boards and understanding where to look.

If you are already in a contract and looking for your forthcoming one then it's very difficult to find the time in the working day whilst you're at the client site to cold calling HR departments of potential clients, after all you are getting paid on an hourly basis by your current client plus they are not going to be very happy if your telephone is glued to your ear all day or sneaking off to the hallway every 10 mins.

If you have no experience in selling then it can be a daunting prospect. You may be a specialist in the field that you're in but are you an expert sales person?

The biggest challenge is developing contacts. These days the majority of Human resources departments within multi-national companies possess preferred supplier agreements with agencies and will only take on a candidate when they come via one of the companies on their preferred supplier list and therefore these people won't even entertain an individual approaching them directly - 'If you're not on the list you can't come in'.

So why make use of a Recruitment Agency?

You can treat recruitment agencies as your sales force, working for you on a commission basis. The nature of the recruitment agency business model would be to make money when you are paid commission for effectively placing applicants with clients, so it's in their financial interest to find you a contract as quickly as possible.

The agencies invest a lot of time and cash in creating contacts as well as building associations with customers. They contend with each other to get on preferred supplier listings of customers which involves lots of wining and dining and jumping through hoops.

Clients also want the safety that if a candidate doesn't work out then your agency is actually obliged to find another using the relevant skills. It may be possible to earn more money if you found your own agreement and skipped out the 'middle man'.

However, what you need to ask yourself is whether or not you have:

1. The contacts
2. The sales knowledge
3. The time
4. The understanding

Even if you were able to by-pass the preferred supplier lists it might take months for you to find a contract by yourself, during which time you most likely won't be earning money. The time being from a contract searching for a new one is possibly more costly compared to the margin the experts at a recruitment company charge their own client.

Check out here for how to start a recruiting business.