Do Recruiters Represent Poor Value For Money?

Do recruiters represent poor value for money?

If you’ve been a recruiter for more than five minutes you’ll have already heard about a dozen employers complaining about recruitment fees.

Even though recruitment firms typically compete on price and driving fees down, employers still feel like they’re being short-changed.

Some of that is down to the lack of transparency in the process.

A recruiter has to search the market, build a relationship with the candidates, and work out which individuals on the long list are most likely to be of interest to the client.

That’s skilled work that takes time and effort.

But from the employer’s perspective, all they get is a bunch of CVs and a bill.

Little wonder that, after a while, they start to wonder if they would be better off just using LinkedIn or CV-Library.

But that’s only part of the problem…

Recruitment is a necessary evil

In a perfect world, every company would hire all the staff it needs on day one and never have to hire anyone new. But in reality, every time someone leaves, or the company expands, the recruitment process has to begin.

It’s disruptive, it’s time-consuming and it’s expensive.

So, no matter how good a recruiter is, the client still feels like they’re being inconvenienced and charged for the pleasure.

It’s unfair, but that’s just human nature.

It’s like when your boiler breaks down and you have to take cold showers for a few days while it’s replaced.

It’s a miserable experience with a hefty bill at the end of it.

You pay the bill because it’s NECESSARY, but at the end of the process you don’t feel like you’ve gained anything, even if the new boiler is a bit better than the old one. You’re just back where you were before it broke down, except that you no longer have any money.

Recruiters who love their job take pride in helping great candidates find great employers.

But our clients, unfortunately, are never going to view the process with quite the same level of enthusiasm, because their perspective is always going to be different.

Recruiters DON’T offer poor value for money.

They offer a great service and a reasonable fee.

But as long as employers see the work we do as a necessary evil, it will always be seen as an expensive solution to an irritating problem.

But there is a way to mitigate this…

Value comes from the extraordinary

How would you feel if you went to the website for a hotel you were thinking of booking, and they promised you a comfy bed and a door that locks?

Well… great… but that’s what every hotel offers. That’s the bare minimum that you expect when you book a room.

But that’s exactly how an employer feels when you tell them you can find them six great candidates, fast and for a reasonable fee.

That’s what EVERY recruitment firm offers.

That’s the MINIMUM expectation.

Because here’s the truth that is inherent to every service-based industry:

When the core of a service is seen as necessary and ubiquitous, it has NO perceived value.

When you tell an employer you’re well-connected, fast and good value for money, they’re thinking…

“Great… what else you got?”

And that’s where the opportunity awaits. What can you add to your service that adds EXTRAORDINARY value, and that will turn a lead into a client?

Go back to our hotel analogy and think about the extras that sweeten the offer. Things like free parking, free wi-fi, room service, breakfast buffet, proximity to shops and so on.

These are supplementary to the service of having a room for the night, but they collectively help to seal the deal.

And when the extras are really good…

You might even choose this hotel over cheaper options.

Your recruitment business should be presenting itself in the same way. Once you have a solid recruitment service to offer, as well as a TRUE USP... you can really elevate the perceived value of your service by adding additional extras.

Think about things that will…

• Improve the accuracy of placements.
• Reduce the client’s workload.
• Remove risk from the process (replacement guarantees, for example).
• Make the process less stressful.
• Improve communication and transparency.

Add enough extras and your recruitment offering looks less like a service and more like a package.

And people LOVE packages.

***

Over time we’ve added even more features to i-intro® that allow our clients to enhance the recruitment service they offer and increase their sales.

This is especially useful when winning retained business.

When you’re convincing a client to hire you exclusively, an in-depth, well-rounded recruitment package makes all the difference.

Recruiters offer good value for money. But if you want your clients to believe it, you need to be prepared to go further and add extraordinary value to your recruitment service.

If you want to talk more about how you can add extraordinary value to your recruitment service and how i-intro® can help you future-proof your recruitment business, book your free consultation. There’s no obligation and I’ll show you the exact method that only the smartest recruiters are using to future-proof their recruitment business.