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What We Do
Recruitment Consultant
The role of a recruitment consultant is demanding and diverse. It is so much more than simply 'finding people work'. It is an exciting and complex sales role that takes weeks to learn but longer to master! The main elements of the job are:
- Establishing market information to create new business - using marketing and business knowledge to establish leads and create contacts.
- Understanding the jobs your candidates do, in the context of the companies they work for, and understanding the vacancy your client has in the context of their business.
- Winning business - canvassing companies by telephone to establish new contacts and their recruitment requirements.
- Selling yourself and the recruitment services you offer.
- Handling objections to the sale at all stages of the process.
- Identifying and evaluating employers' recruitment needs.
- Clarifying and negotiating salary and benefits relating to the vacancy.
- Negotiating fees relating to the services you will provide for the client.
- Writing and placing advertisements for the positions where appropriate using a wide range of media (e.g., online job boards newspapers, magazines or local radio).
- Headhunting (also known as 'Executive Search') - building knowledge of professionals in your market and identifying and approaching suitable candidates.
- Interviewing applicants - screening them against the client's criteria and ensuring there is enough of a match in terms of what the candidate is looking for in their next role.
- Managing interviews - preparing your candidates for their interviews, taking feedback from both interviewee and interviewer, and conveying this back to both sides appropriately.
- Working to targets of revenue produced by placements or contracts. Also working targets (or KPIs - Key Performance Indicators) of calls made per day, new business won, interviews arranged and so on.
- Monitoring candidates once placed.
- Collecting feedback from employers on the performance of candidates who have previously been placed with them.
- Mentoring new trainee consultants or working with resourcers.
- Attending recruitment fairs and other events to expand your client base and develop new business.
Skills and personal attributes that are required to succeed in recruitment:
- Self-confidence
- Ambition and competitiveness
- Drive - having money as your key motivator
- Excellent communication skills - negotiating and influencing
- Wanting to learn and take on responsibility
- The capacity to handle multiple and conflicting priorities
- The ability to work to tight time scales often under pressure
- Flexibility - this is not a normal 9-5 job and requires a huge amount of commitment
A degree it not essential, however increasingly recruitment companies are taking on newly qualified people as trainee consultants or resourcers. An academic qualification is no guarantee of succeeding in the profession, and personality, motivation and communication skills are in reality more important.
Previously working in some sort of sales environment (telemarketing, insurance sales, or estate agency for example) will help you get an idea of the basic sales process, and go some way to understanding what you are letting yourself in for.
Recruitment Agencies vary in the industry sectors they specialise in, their methods of working and their salary/commission structures.
- Typically generalist 'high street' recruitment agencies strictly work to KPIs, meet candidates in person, do not specialise in the vacancies they will work on or the clients they will target.
- 'Specialist' recruitment agencies focus on one (or a small number) of industry sectors. Within this, Consultants may focus on a particular market. For example, in IT recruitment, Consultants are assigned a technical market such as SAP, Windows, or IT Management and only deal with candidates and vacancies in these areas.
Basic salaries vary and earnings will depend on sector, location and economy. Commissions are based on the salary of placed candidates and vary from 15% to 35% of gross (take-home) pay (the higher end of this scale relates to specialised executive search markets).
Trainee Consultants start on a basic salary of around £14,000 - £20,000. Good performance will result in 'on-target earnings' (OTE). After two to three years, consultants are expected to earn from £35,000 - £75,000 (more like £25,000 - £35,000 in 'high street' agencies). Senior Consultants who perhaps have a Resourcer or a team of trainees working under them generally have a minimum of two years' experience and a higher basic salary, perhaps taking a percentage of the commission generated by the overall team.
As the job is target driven, work-related bonuses are used to encourage achievement. Other incentives and non-pay benefits are common, such as company cars, pensions, share schemes, and holidays.
Working long hours is common practice and can involve evenings. Interviewing candidates out of office hours may be a requirement.