The opinion of a trained employment expert is always valuable for your business. Before offering jobs to prospective candidates, it is better to assess the quality of a candidate. That is where a good recruitment consultancy comes across as a good solution. Not only that, but there are other benefits also. You save a lot of time as well.
But what comes across as the most notable advantages with an outsourced recruitment agency is the fact that prospective employees have been screened beforehand and checked for their respective job skills. Moreover, recruitment consultants also check over the references of a candidate before they join your organization. These agencies ease the functioning of your HR department a lot and save you a lot of time and effort. But we have already mentioned that. There’s more to a recruitment agency.
If you have worked with a specialist recruitment agency for employee placement, then you know that they have a clear understanding of the kind of employees you need in your particular industry. The more they work with you, the better their choice is over a period of time and the turnaround is also fast.
Most agencies offer an ad-hoc option. That means the employee who’s been placed is a staff of the agency but works in your company. This way you can gauge the candidate’s performance before actually hiring him / her. Just because he/ she has cleared the interview, doesn’t mean that the respective person is a good fit for the job he / she is offered in the company.
Paytime is also hassle-free because temporary workers receive their paychecks from the agency. Your company only pays the agency for this service. Generally, the agency pays the worker on an hourly basis. The agency then collects its fees from the company. After that, the agency pays the employee a lower salary. This difference in income and fees collected covers employer taxes, workers’ compensation insurance, benefits, and the agency’s service fee.
Employment agencies’ fees can be expensive. Most agencies guarantee the placement of the employee. So, if you hire someone from an employment agency and the person doesn’t prove to be a good fit (in a designated time period), then, the agency will find you a replacement free of cost.
Business owners, who like availing the services of employment agencies, get to access a pool of qualified job candidates. Apart from saving time, they save a lot of money, efforts on placing employment ads and screening and shortlisting the applied references. Imagine the feeling when you have spent the money and yet have not achieved the desired results.
College Recruitment
Leading employers, who hire interns / freshers in droves, contact the career center at a local college or university. You will see the agents from these organizations inquiring about their job listings with the placement cells in these institutions. This student resource comes at no cost to the employer. It’s just like a secret stash of employees who are waiting to be moulded by you!
But if your opening remains vacant from Monday to Friday in a peak employment season job, don’t let this dampen your hopes as an employer or an agent. That’s because there are always some students who attend school / college / university in the evening. This type of crowd has more part-time employees in it. All you need to do is adjust your working hours to accommodate their schedules as well.
Hiring a part-time intern is another option for employers. An intern works for you practically at no charge at all, that too in exchange of credits for college. Since it’s a vocational opportunity, most colleges approve of the job responsibilities in an internship agreement. The duration of the internship usually runs jointly with the proposed semester (most probably the penultimate or the ultimate one). Part-time work hours apply to such jobs.
Prior to hiring an intern, you should screen them to the best of your abilities. That’s because they are complete novices and they are a bit frivolous as compared to the senior employees. It’s best to interview them just like any other employee. And yes, you need to ask their professors for a letter of reference.
High schools and adult continuing-education facilities often offer vocational programs. These are similar to internships and at no extra cost to the employer. The sole purpose behind these programs is to teach job skills. Like internships, the majority of the workforce consists of part-time workers.
Before you (as an employer) or your organization enters into an internship program, ask yourself a few questions.
Is It Worth It?
It takes time, effort and patience to train new employees, whether or not they are paid, and time is money. Can the duties of the job be learned quickly enough to justify the short time period? After all, someone who’s working for you is putting in hard work. Secondly, just because someone is not being paid, that does not mean that poor work performance is acceptable. Bad performance should not be tolerated for even one instance. They are being graded to work for you. Look at this as their compensation, and expect as much out of them as you would from a paid employee.
What Compensations Do You Need To Give Away To Interns?
Most of the time, interns are just like regular hard-working employees. Some of them shine in these limited opportunities as well. What you can do is, as an employer,is to give them a healthy stipend, so that they do not feel de-motivated. You should also be prepared to show proof of workers’ compensation insurance to the high school or university you have corresponded with. This is a handy measure in case of a work-related injury.
Networking
The perfect employee is the one who places the welfare of the organization over everything else. But he / she could be anywhere. So where do you start? Here are some suggestions –
From Your Local Network
Hiring friends may not be a good idea, because a relationship at work may ruin a personal one. But friends, neighbors, or family members always have the reference of a good person in their network. Hunting for a keen employee from your HR circle, business or recreation clubs or past business networks and associates could be fruitful as well.
The Local Chamber Of Commerce
The local Chamber of Commerce can help you out. In return, you could give a useful resource as a replacement gesture for the favor whenever the moment arises.
Community Get-togethers
Being visible in the community helps both the applicants and employers. Sponsor a sports team or participate in community fundraisers or patronize local businesses whenever possible. This way you have spent the advertising rupee in areas that will give you the best exposure possible.
Setting Up An Employee Referral Program
Setting up an employee referral program at your company can work wonders for your organization. Offer a program in your enterprise that goes something along these lines – Refer friends / ex-collegues / family members for a job opening. If they are hired and pass the introductory period, you get to receive a bonus on your next paycheck.
You could also get in touch with former employees who left on good terms and ask if they know anyone looking for work. Most of the time, these people always know about someone who needs a job. Not only that, they might know about the preferred skill set for that position and they would perform a pre-screening themselves.
If you hire their referral, then you could send a thank you note / card to the person in question.
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