As an agency recruiter of coming up to 12 years, I have encountered and worked with literally hundreds of talent acquisition professionals across the globe. Some of these have been fantastic, and many at the other end of the scale… truly awful. The same can also be said for agency recruiters and I’m sure that statement would be echoed by many talent acquisition professionals too.
Often looked down by agency recruiters as “failed recruiters” and a hinderance to the process, the reality is that talent acquisition now forms a key internal function for a lot of companies across the globe, and a department that us agency recruiters are increasingly required to liaise with.
From the other side, agency recruiters are often viewed as being pushy and only interested in their commission, so this relationship is often frosty. It needs not to be
The truth is that while talent acquisition grows and a lot of companies favour recruiting directly, recruitment agencies are not going anywhere and are continuing to expand and prosper. Therefore a good working relationship between the two is vital.
From my experience, the following is needed for an effective agency and TA relationship:
Trust: fundamental to any relationship
Why use a PSL with 5 agencies if you trust that 1 can service you fully? By trusting that recruiter, you in return will get a more dedicated and efficient service, especially true of contingent recruitment. And from the other side, if the agency recruiter has trust in their TA counterpart, they are confident that they have someone on the inside with the same goal as them, filling the roles! Eyes and ears on the ground that can be invaluable.
Hiring manager access
The best relationships I have had with talent acquisition is where there is a fluid relationship between hiring manager, recruiter and talent acquisition. Not being allowed to qualify roles with hiring mangers, or get feedback right from the source is the biggest gripe of all agency recruiters and the cause of inefficiency. Everyone wants the same result, to fill roles with the best people in the quickest time, so lets not put barriers in the way of that!
Communication
I have a nickname for certain types of hiring managers and TA’s, bigfoot. No real evidence that they exist other than a few rumours and the odd questionable sighting. For an effective partnership the communication has to be there, and it has to be quick. Calls answered and emails returned sounds like such a basic requirement but it’s something that can be surprisingly hard to find.
Transparency
It’s essential the agency recruiter is giving a clear picture of what is market is looking like, the challenges they are facing and what the market is saying. Being trusted with a role and doing nothing with it will only damage your reputation and relationship. Likewise, that last minute “internal candidate” that was never mentioned until the final interview, or hearing from candidates other agencies are speaking to them about a role when you were told it was exclusive will do the same.
Being trusted with a role and doing nothing with it will only damage your reputation and relationship.
Build proper personal relationships with each other
Get to know each other as a person and not just a professional, meet up in a casual setting for lunch or a drink, get to know about each other’s lives. The best relationships I have had with talent acquisition professionals I’ve known all about them, I’ve been invited to weddings, been an agony aunt, given relationship advice. I’ve received and given birthday presents, sent flowers for congratulations on certain events and so on.
In conclusion, agency recruiters and talent acquisition should be friends but are often foes. In this day and age, the vast majority of contingent recruiters will be working with talent acquisition teams, it is somewhat unavoidable so putting steps in place to ensure a good partnership is essential and will pay dividends for both parties.
I would be interested in hearing peoples opinions from both sides on this!