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Recruitment agencies
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Are recruitment agents specifically bred in a lab? Or is being incredibly rude just part and parcel of the role? And WHY do lots of companies now outsource their recruitment, thus you cannot avoid recruitment agencies?!?!
Imagine the scenario. One is interested in a role, labelled hybrid/office based. No more information about what that means for the employer or employee. One emails the address that invites "informal discussion" and a phone appointment is made a week hence.
15 minutes before the appointed hour and I am sat with my phone in my hand, headphones in. No call. 10mins after the call time, an email from the recruitment agent, claiming no response and my phone is dialling out. One test dials from another phone and successfully phones. There seems not to be a problem. You respond, asking for the recruitment agent's phone number and suggest you will call them. No response.
Eventually, you locate a phone number from the job ad and call the recruitment agent. It is now 10min before the end of most typical office worker's day. They are surprised. They are rude. They "answer" the question about hybrid working, advertised in the header of the job, by pointing out that actually mainly office work is likely needed but that the role holder is free to make a lot of their own decisions. I explain that I am disabled and am asking these questions for practical reasons. They do not wish to discuss and endeavour to end the call.
The tone throughout is brusque, as though you are an inconvenience. The timing of the call was chosen by the recruitment agency. My phone was working, ready and in my hand 15 min beforehand because I am organised. Yet, they still managed to spin it so that it was my fault the conversation was right at the end of the day, was rushed and inconvenient.
Anyone would think it's deliberate 
Rant over about recruitment agents! |
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By *bi HaiveMan 23 weeks ago
Forum Mod Cheeseville, Somerset |
Second only to estate agents in the twunt stakes I've found.
When I was flat hunting last year they were absolute arseholes. With 40 odd people chasing each available property the second I mentioned I was self employed they couldn't get shot of me fast enough. Those that didn't pretty much cut me off straight away leapt in with the 'we'll need 7 years detailed accounts'. When I mentioned these would include 2 years of covid/lockdown they said that was my problem.
They seem to recruit both recruitment consultants and estate agents from a very special part of hell. 🤬🤬 |
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I managed a recruitment business from 2001 til 2013 (and worked in one for 5 years before that)
It's an industry 'on its own'
I worked with two or three great people
I worked with a lot more that were out and out cockwombles though
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I have dealt with a lot of recruitment people and I've found good companies who do it are very good. But they are very very very few and far between.
The main issue is there is zero governance in the industry. We could set up Fab Really Awesome Recruitment Agency tomorrow morning and we'd be good to go as long as we didn't contravene GDPR |
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"Are recruitment agents specifically bred in a lab? Or is being incredibly rude just part and parcel of the role? And WHY do lots of companies now outsource their recruitment, thus you cannot avoid recruitment agencies?!?!
Imagine the scenario. One is interested in a role, labelled hybrid/office based. No more information about what that means for the employer or employee. One emails the address that invites "informal discussion" and a phone appointment is made a week hence.
15 minutes before the appointed hour and I am sat with my phone in my hand, headphones in. No call. 10mins after the call time, an email from the recruitment agent, claiming no response and my phone is dialling out. One test dials from another phone and successfully phones. There seems not to be a problem. You respond, asking for the recruitment agent's phone number and suggest you will call them. No response.
Eventually, you locate a phone number from the job ad and call the recruitment agent. It is now 10min before the end of most typical office worker's day. They are surprised. They are rude. They "answer" the question about hybrid working, advertised in the header of the job, by pointing out that actually mainly office work is likely needed but that the role holder is free to make a lot of their own decisions. I explain that I am disabled and am asking these questions for practical reasons. They do not wish to discuss and endeavour to end the call.
The tone throughout is brusque, as though you are an inconvenience. The timing of the call was chosen by the recruitment agency. My phone was working, ready and in my hand 15 min beforehand because I am organised. Yet, they still managed to spin it so that it was my fault the conversation was right at the end of the day, was rushed and inconvenient.
Anyone would think it's deliberate
Rant over about recruitment agents! "
I'm going to write a book about my experiences with recruitment agencies.
It will be a very long book.
In the main, incompetent twunts. |
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Had a couple of good experiences but mainly bad
Been constantly sent jobs based on my qualifications and not what I said I was looking for.
An agency member laughing at how long I had been out of work.
Going in to having a honest chat about mh issues and never heard from them again |
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By (user no longer on site) 23 weeks ago
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"They recruit pretty and entitled people."
Aren’t they for Students and Inbetween job Sh** I’m desperate I need a Job tomorrow…that’s the only times I’ve ever needed to use one (bearing in mind this was a long time ago when I was in that situation…used to walk in “can you use a Macintosh..yes..here’s a job)
We spend all day in the agency telling them to f** off we don’t use recruitment aganecies!!! |
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It is deliberate.
Mr N used a recruitment agency once around 15 years ago. He has a fairly rare and unusual qualification and skill set. The agency passed his CV to every other agency in the known and unknown universe and published it on line. Until he blocked every number he regularly received calls from people he'd never heard of trying to recruit him. He told them all he'd retired, they promised to take his number off their records and still they called. |
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It's just as bad if you have to use them as a recruiting manager too (only when we're told we have to).
It's putting me off applying for the role because the recruiter was SO dismissive and rude. Feels like the organisation could subscribe to the same principles.
Do employers realise that? |
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"It's just as bad if you have to use them as a recruiting manager too (only when we're told we have to).
It's putting me off applying for the role because the recruiter was SO dismissive and rude. Feels like the organisation could subscribe to the same principles.
Do employers realise that? "
Employers still work on the principle that people will jump through hoops and tolerate a lot in order to work for them .
Unfortunately many applicants feel that way too. |
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i'm guessing it depends on what skill sector you're seeking employment in. i've found that a quick phone call responding to an advert where they ask for CV, certificates and tickets to be sent by email which is ready to send prior to calling them, results in a wait of less than 5 minutes before they're calling back to ask how soon can i start. on the whole, i've found agencies are an excellent resource for free lancers. |
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Also remember this story.
A guy goes for an interview and on the way he calls into an agency, but not the one that got him the interview.
By the time he arrived for the interview, the agency had sent down five new cvs for the role.
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"i'm guessing it depends on what skill sector you're seeking employment in. i've found that a quick phone call responding to an advert where they ask for CV, certificates and tickets to be sent by email which is ready to send prior to calling them, results in a wait of less than 5 minutes before they're calling back to ask how soon can i start. on the whole, i've found agencies are an excellent resource for free lancers."
The sorts of jobs I'm looking at are not the sort where that kind of approach would work. That I am certain of. |
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Dan - being keyboard warrior for info
For a long time we have had contracts of employment and they give you the worker quite a lot of rights & most of all a regular o income, along with a process the employer should follow to end that contact and get rid of you.
Work for a company without a contract - via a job agency & you have less rights & they will show you the door in a matter of minutes if your face does not fit or you have an option.
In my opinion they should be avoided whenever possible as they don't often offer work stability
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"Dan - being keyboard warrior for info
For a long time we have had contracts of employment and they give you the worker quite a lot of rights & most of all a regular o income, along with a process the employer should follow to end that contact and get rid of you.
Work for a company without a contract - via a job agency & you have less rights & they will show you the door in a matter of minutes if your face does not fit or you have an option.
In my opinion they should be avoided whenever possible as they don't often offer work stability
"
Recruitment agencies are nowadays doing the recruitment stuff of advertising, answering questions (allegedly) and sifting. Then once someone is appointed, the agency's work is done and they have no more involvement. The job in question will not be VIA or through the agency, they simply are handling the recruitment admin on behalf of an organisation that clearly prefers to outsource it. This is the norm in many roles now.
The role in question would be contracted directly with the employer, no middle-men/women/people. All the requisite employment rights would be preserved, one would expect. |
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I do wonder what some HR departments actually do in companies.
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I've seen some manage the whole process from advertising, selection, interview, offer, onboarding, then managing retention, until offboarded (and managing that process too). All highly professional and skilled in their roles.
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And yet I have seen other "internal HR Depts" who outsource the whole operation.
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It's these that I wonder what they do. Manage the outsourced process, I imagine. In which case, such departments don't have highly paid staff doing high level HR work (apart from a manager perhaps to sign off stuff).
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I suppose there are cost savings with the latter, since 1 manager and 7-8 trainee staff is probably a lot less expensive than 1 manager, 1 team leader and 3-4 highly trained staff.
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If you are paying an agency 1K or more to find staff, then you might think it's better to have the cheaper internal staff option, since if you had the expensive option, you'd still pay the agency 1K for each hire. (However that's an unnecessary cost, because that well-staffed and skilled HR shouldn't need an agency in the first place.)
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I'm sorry KC you had such an abysmal experience. You're worth more than that, and if they cannot value you at such a critical stage, it does not bode well for the ongoing relationship.
I think you may have dodged a steaming pile of doo-doo there. |
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"I'm sorry KC you had such an abysmal experience. You're worth more than that, and if they cannot value you at such a critical stage, it does not bode well for the ongoing relationship.
I think you may have dodged a steaming pile of doo-doo there."
Thing is, I haven't had any interaction whatsoever with the actual employer. Just an agency contracted to handle the recruitment process on their behalf. But yes, it's very off-putting.
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Jobs go up on LinkedIn with 3 different agencies - so they clearly don’t have the role and are just posting speculative adverts to then get people on their books.
You hear nothing from agencies now when you apply for a contract - not even a no thanks.
K |
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"Jobs go up on LinkedIn with 3 different agencies - so they clearly don’t have the role and are just posting speculative adverts to then get people on their books.
You hear nothing from agencies now when you apply for a contract - not even a no thanks.
K"
All very true. This was the "executive search" type of agency "appointed to manage" the process. I wonder what the employer knows about the way in which potential applicants are handled? |
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"I'm sorry KC you had such an abysmal experience. You're worth more than that, and if they cannot value you at such a critical stage, it does not bode well for the ongoing relationship.
I think you may have dodged a steaming pile of doo-doo there.
Thing is, I haven't had any interaction whatsoever with the actual employer. Just an agency contracted to handle the recruitment process on their behalf. But yes, it's very off-putting.
"
Do you know who the employer is? If so why not let them know how badly the agency is performing? They may value your feedback. |
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If you thought it was bad in the UK you should try experiencing recruitment agencies in the Middle East.
They are sharing commission not only with other agencies but also with candidates and companies themselves. I was even asked by one for monthly payment once of 10% of my monthly salary for the duration of the contract in order to secure the position.
They are meant to add value with things like head hunt, search , security clearance psychometric and competency based tests so that by the time the client gets to interview They have the best of the best of what’s out there.
The reality is the best often not interested in roles And what the recruiters can get hold of falls way below clients expectations and so they are forced to de-risk and take internal candidates |
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Recruitment agencies generally hunt for posted jobs and peoples profiles on job sites and Linkdin and then try to match the two without any background research.
I had one call me last year with a job I would be perfect for. Isaid to send the CV and the skills and qualifications they employer wanted, didnt match mine in anyway. When I called the recruiter back, his response was "Are they asking for that".
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