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Pippa Drew 04-Apr-2016 08:42:00 4 min read

Big v’s Boutique – a recruitment dilemma

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Having the right people in the right place at the right time is essential for any successful business. Equally deciding which recruitment agency can best enable you to achieve this is invaluable. Your time is precious to your business, hence reducing your time spent on candidate selection is important.   

So, why should I choose a boutique recruitment agency over one of the big brand names, I hear you ask! It’s simple really.

Choosing a boutique recruitment agency may not be the most obvious decision but if you are looking for an effective and efficient recruitment process then choosing boutique specialists over the big brand names is the way forward.  We have highlighted 8 key areas where you can have complete confidence in the boutique recruitment process and in the work that they will do for you.

  1. Flexibility - A boutique agency will offer a greater level of flexibility over their processes, approaches and even terms of business;
  2. A personal service - The candidates you see will receive the same personal and tailored service as you do;
  3. Specialists - The person you brief on a role will be a specialist in that area and will be the one searching for and speaking to potential candidates on your behalf, the role won’t be farmed out to a junior with a job board. Hence you won’t be sent large volumes of CVs or inappropriate candidates;
  4. Honesty - The recruiter values their own time enough to be honest with you about your requirements so you can effectively manage expectations within your organisation
  5. Commitment - If you realise at 9 o’clock on a Friday night that you’ve forgotten to schedule an interview for Monday, the recruiter will do everything they can to make it happen.
  6. Cost - That the fees you pay aren’t over inflated by the need to support massive marketing budgets and overheads.
  7. Market wide searches - The recruiter you work with will be able to search the entire market for you, unrestricted by the conflicts of interest which so many of the big firms suffer from due to their expansive client base.
  8. Brand - Recognition that brand is important and will be protected – yours, the recruiter’s and the candidate’s.

 

Working with a big brand name recruiter may seem like the easy option, but it’s important to remember these are people we are dealing with, not technology. The candidate experience is of vital importance, and that starts with the recruiter. It may not come as a surprise to you that many recruiters may have ‘cut their teeth’ in the big corporate names.  However, when it comes to finding the career move that allowed them to make a difference, for a good number of them it is within the boutique or specialist space. Boutique agencies are much more likely to be very selective about their own employees, motivating them through reward relating to quality and levels of exemplary customer service rather than by the volume of calls made in an hour.  This means the recruiters themselves know that their skills are valued and that working for a boutique recruitment agency provides the right environment for them. 

Recruitment can sometimes feel like a lottery, so having confidence in your recruitment partners is extremely important. It can allow you to get on with your day to day business secure in the knowledge that you will have the right people in the right place at the right time.