Five panda pointers: Finding the right recruiter for your hiring needs

How can a recruitment agency help you when you’re looking for a new employee?

It all starts with finding the best recruitment agency who can not only work with you closely, but understands the intricacies of the role you need filled. To find the best recruitment partner in your candidate search, there are many things to consider when deciding who will be the best agency for you.

In our latest panda pointers, we are going to show you five fantastic ways to find your perfect recruitment partner. Before you know it, the perfect employee may just be signing that contract of employment!

1) Understanding your time & priorities during the hiring process

When finding the right recruitment agencies to discuss your hiring needs with, an important thing to determine is how much they understand what is happening in your business overall…and not solely focussed on finding a candidate quickly. Outline what needs to be prioritised in the candidate search and ensure the recruiter can work within your guidelines. The right recruitment agency should be keen to discuss a hiring timeline that is realistic for both of you.

Perhaps they require updates/feedback at certain intervals throughout the process. Can you realistically provide this while juggling your duties and the hiring process? This of course works the other way too; you might want feedback at certain points and want to feel assured you will get these updates. If there is something that doesn’t quite suit both parties, it could affect the process slightly or massively. Make sure you and the recruiter are comfortable with each side of the process.

2) Understanding your business, industry, and culture

A recruitment agency has to understand your business, the culture and the industry you work in. Once you have determined that you can work with a recruiter to a realistic time frame, be sure that they understand what you do, and what the company culture entails. How else are they to sell your business to potential candidates? It’s your job to fill them in on the current situation of course, but you should feel comfortable that they can be an ambassador for your business and team.

For example, if you are hiring for a vacancy within a start up setting, can the recruitment agency sell this environment to potential candidates? Perhaps you have a set of company values that must be communicated early in the hiring process. Write up a list of ‘must know’ aspects about your company, relay these to the recruiter and then chat through their understanding of these.

3) The importance of specialist recruitment agencies

While it may seem a good idea to contact as many recruitment agencies as possible, specialist recruiters should be your go to. You want to know that they understand the area and have a host of contacts within the field your vacancy requires. Do your research and discover agencies that shout about their specialist background, be it ecommerce or digital marketing for example. Have a list of questions too, like what makes them the best for your hiring needs? What makes them specialist? This brings us on to the next panda pointer…

4) Recruitment success stories

While this question is important in regards to the pointer above, it really needs to be considered in its own right too. Just a few questions you can ask include: Have they worked with similar companies or competitors in the past? What successes can they reveal in terms of placing candidates in your industry, be it fashion, FMCG or lifestyle? What kind of candidates do they aim to attract or have on their radar already? How many times have they filled the kind of role you are recruiting for? You’ve told them everything about your business, so this is your chance to learn about them.

5) Finding a value adding recruitment experience

Finding a great candidate through a recruitment agency adds value to your team of course, but what about an agency that goes above and beyond in their service? An agency that engages with you beyond the job search is one that wants to maintain a great professional partnership. Perhaps they can provide exclusive insight into candidate expectations and salary benchmarks, or invite you along to great events that allows your team to learn new things. Ultimately, if the agency is eager to provide a fantastic service you’re happy with then it looks like you’ve found the perfect recruitment agency for your hiring needs!

Want to chat about hiring needs?

The pandas know all there is to know about ecommerce recruitment! Contact us for a chat if you are looking for your next ecommerce superstar!