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Dealing with Search Firms

Submitted by Paul Holmes on Mon, 08/03/2010 - 13:25

The UK is fortunate to have a very well developed recruitment market with a vast infrastructure of recruitment intermediaries. The UK recruitment market is worth some £24billion and there are more than 15,000 recruitment agencies/consultancies ranging from single office companies to national organisations.

The market can be broken down into distinct sectors:
• The Temporary/Office & Admin High Street Agencies
• General Agencies - covering both temporary and permanent positions
• Niche function and sector agencies
• Search & Selection Consultancies
• Search Firms

You should only really concern yourself with the Search & Selection Consultancies and the Search Firms as these are generally the organisations that recruit at management and director level, although obviously some of the niche sector agencies will seek to fill senior posts.

The difference between 'Agencies' and 'Consultancies' is that agencies generally receive payment only when a candidate is placed in a role; consequently they are candidate driven and will seek to find a role for candidates as well as fill vacancies. Consultancies generally work on retained projects which means that they get paid in stages to find candidates for specific roles, mainly on an exclusive basis; consequently they are not candidate driven and do not find work for candidates.You should therefore not expect the Consultancies, who will carry the bulk of the roles you will be interested in, to be active in helping you find a new role.

Search/Consultancy Firms
There are approximately 2000 Search & Selection/Search Firms in the UK who undertake retained management and director level recruitment projects. Of these many will be small, consisting of 1-2 consultants, and work in defined niche sectors. They probably won't have a sophisticated database either!Typically a Search Consultant will generally specialise in 2-3 market sectors only; will probably have no more than 15-20 active clients (ie: undertaken work for them in the last two years); will generally handle up to 15 assignment projects in a year and will source candidates by search, advertising, internet advertising and possibly the company's database.

Consequently they will not have time to meet, or speak, with candidates that are not for a specific role. They are paid to generate fees and if you are not going to be of help or use to them they won't be interested in you.Shortsighted? Most definitely. Consequently do not expect much from the average Consultant!

To get the best out of the market you should contact hundreds of search firms, not just 2 or 3. You should also contact those who are in your sector and keep in touch - if you see a vacancy they are handling, don't assume they will remember you, contact them. Some firms will not reply quickly, if at all!

Paul Holmes, Managing Director, InterSearch in the UK

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Comments

Submitted by Mike Davies on Fri, 12/03/2010 - 11:47

Underlines the importance of good networking.  I've always liked the idea of a lighthouse brand.  I think it was initially coined for corporate brands but it works well with individual brands too.  So a good lighthouse brand is one where people come to you because your brand is so salient and pervasive, rather than the traditional marketing route of you going to the customer.  The web has made it increasingly easy to be 'the' face in your niche, and by doing this you are setting yourself up as the lighthouse brand in your sector, one that people come to as you set the agenda.