It’s PSL review time! Is your current supplier list the right mix to support your hiring needs?

Here are our top tips to getting more bang for your buck!

Alignment

The importance of alignment in terms of needs, values and approach around your resourcing strategy cannot be underestimated. Getting it right means that you’ll get the best candidates for the job, and so saving you time, money, and stress throughout the talent acquisition process.

Ensure the agency model and strategy caters for your needs. Does the agency offer flexible talent solutions for temporary, permanent, and contingent staffing?

If you need a one-off hire for a hard-to-get candidate with a unique skillset possessing a high-level of specialism, expertise, and experience in a niche area, then bigger doesn’t always mean better! A larger agency might have a bigger database and greater following on LinkedIn, but they might not have the right network and expertise to find the right person for the role. A niche agency will more likely have deeper and broader connections within a specific sector.

An above-average agency will have a dedicated and extensively networked team that can source talent efficiently within an industry specific ecosystem. Check out their website to see what types of roles are advertised and suss out their connections on LinkedIn to validate any database claims.

Yet, if you have a large volume of hires of a general nature, it’s worth checking if the agency can handle the quantity as well as the quality.

Reputation and Values

Your recruitment partner is often the first and last point of contact with candidates interested in your company. It is important that you engage with partners who are reputable, act with integrity and will be an extension of the candidate experience you have worked hard to build.

It is therefore essential to do your homework to find out as much as possible about the experience in dealing with the agency. Visit the company website to see what values are important to them. If they echo your own, it is more likely that this will make the working relationship easier. Furthermore, if a recruitment agency has been supporting a steady portfolio of clients for several years, then this is obviously a good start.

It is also worth reading testimonials online from a variety of sources such as their website, Google, Glassdoor and LinkedIn. And if they are really on the ball, they should be measuring their client satisfaction rating, through benchmarking and business reviews.

Chemistry and Communications

To develop and maintain good relations and trust over time, communication is key. If internal processes do not align, this can cause difficulties later down the road. Compliance to industry benchmarks and standards often underpins this, and so don’t be afraid to ask them about their internal systems and processes.

Do not underestimate gut instinct! If you naturally have a good rapport with the people in the agency and you’re both on the same wavelength, and they just “get” the brief, it’s likely that candidates will also have a similar experience. We are all human after all.

Sourcing and Screening

Does the agency really understand the job profile before reaching out to the market? Have they recruited for similar roles before? Do they understand the nuances between similar but not the same positions. Do they pick up the phone to check their understanding of the role if need be? Misunderstanding the brief before reaching out to candidates is time-wasted and negatively impacts on the candidate’s perception of the recruiter.

An agency should be able to promote jobs online via different channels and via organic and paid media, depending on budget.  However, often candidates are found via networks and contacts. It is therefore vital to ask how the agency sources their talent. Whilst digital advertising can attract new candidates, recruiters that work hard to stay close to their talent pool and the market by networking will ultimately be more successful.

If the agency is limited to candidates within the active job-seeker market only, it is less likely that you will successfully fill the role with the right candidate. However, if the recruitment team are skilled in sourcing from the passive market (those who are not actively looking to change roles), then you will have much more chance of finding the best person for the job.

Pre-screening tests and candidate verification tools like background and reference checks are often done in advance by efficient recruitment firms as this speeds-up the hiring process by putting forward the most suitable candidates only. Candidates can lose interest in the position if the hiring process is taking too long meaning that money, time, and productivity is lost.

Service Levels and Track Record

Will the recruitment agency deliver to your time, budget, and quality expectations? It is essential to have a conversation early on about how fees and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) SLA’s might differ for permanent and contract roles. Here are some typical questions to ask to validate their track record:

• Can the agency handle the volume and type of hires?
• What is the time-to-hire rate?
• What is the interview-to-hire rate?
• What is the billing rate and process?

Who is Team Horizon?

Team Horizon is a leading expert provider of Scientific, Technical and Engineering talent solutions to Pharmaceutical, Biopharmaceutical, Medical Devices, MedTech and Advanced Manufacturing clients in Ireland.

With specific market knowledge, and over ten years of experience in the Life Sciences and Manufacturing sector, we specialise in recruitment for following areas: Engineering, Project Management, EHS, Quality, Validation, IT, Scientific, Laboratory, Supply Chain, Operations, Maintenance, Regulatory.

What is our mission?

Our mission is to provide leading technical talent and expert know-how for our clients, who manufacture healthcare products that improve patients’ lives. We espouse our values of teamwork, passion, and respect, and we advocate equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. These values ring through in everything we do, and this drives our culture of innovation, transparency, and continuous improvement.

How can we support you?

We offer:

• Flexible and scalable talent solutions for temporary, permanent, and contingent staffing

• High quality candidates from our extensive talent pool that has depth and breadth and includes:

- Entry level to executive appointments

- Professional contractors providing specialist skills and expertise for business-critical projects.

• A scientific and collaborative approach

- Through building flexible but long-lasting relations with our clients, our team can become an extension of your own creating a seamless experience for both the client and candidate.

• Results through delivering exceptional customer service

- We focus on quality over quantity – matching the right candidates with the right roles. We work closely to your HR departments KPI’s: CV efficiency, time-to-interview, time-to-hire, and offer acceptance rate.

Get in Touch

If you’d like a chat about how Team Horizon can help with your resourcing strategy, contact our Director of Operations, Lisa O’Connor via email lisa.oconnor@teamhorizon.ie or call 098 50600.