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Hopefully, this will help your job search by giving you the insight into how to engage and work with your recruitment consultancy with better results.
Let's get the basics out the way, recruitment agencies work to make money by placing candidates within clients / customers who have vacancies. They are an intermediary between the company and the market, matching up connections which may not exist if they did not proactively try to make it happen.
Obviously candidates in the market have the option to go directly to organizations, but agencies have carved out a successful industry in acting as the go between.
In a lot of cases it benefits candidates because they get theoretically an 'agent' to try and find their new role. I am sure clients do not see this as a benefit when they have to pay a fee to the recruitment agency, but they exist for a reason and will be around for many years to come.
The fundamental basics have now been covered so let's move onto to more of the detail to how agencies work and how you can effectively manage your agent.
A recruitment agency will generally be engaged by a client for positions with a particular skills profile, whereby they are finding it hard to attract that type of candidate.
There are several successful graduate recruitment companies operating at graduate level, however clients will normally like to recruit these types of people direct, agencies do not add much value here.
An agency will obtain a new requirement through either business development by a consultant (canvassing, email marketing etc) or through an inbound lead (company finds a specialist within their sector through the web or reputation in the market by the company etc).
One particularly effective way to develop business for an agency is to speculatively approach companies with an exceptional CV, this is a great door opener. But be careful of working with agencies who do not tell you they are doing this.You should always qualify whether they are recruiting a specific role or just merely using your CV. This process can work very well for both candidate and agency if done properly, honestly and with open lines of communication between both of you.
Once an agency has a requirement to resource they will then go to market for the candidate and this process can be multi faceted. They will use their own database searching, applications, online job board searching like monster, try to utilise referrals in their network and/or headhunting (sites like Linkedin has made this process better so if you're not a member you may be shooting yourself in the foot). Every time an agency searches via a database they will use a technique called Boolean searches.
Let me explain; a Boolean search means your CV will be searched for key words, the more key words you have in your CV the higher it comes up in the search string. So remember to have your CV packed with key words but not bordering on the ridiculous!
A good agency should always tell you the company they are recruiting for and confirmation with your approval that you want to be submitted. You should always expect this as part of the service you receive. When following up feedback with your consultants, always be aware they will be chasing feedback daily for you, if not you have a lazy consultant on your hands.
Remember it is always just in as much interest for them to move the process quicker as it is for you the candidate.
This is a similar premise when you get to offer stage, a consultant will never want to get a lower salary for you and they will always be trying to negotiate more money for the candidate - as it inevitably means they get more commission.
So never believe an agent is playing mind games and trying to drive you down on your salary expectations. The salary will always be dictated by the client with the agent doing the best they can for you. Once you start your new exciting job the agency will then invoice their client which will be a percentage (%) of your basic salary in most instances.
In summary, most agencies out their will work with your best interests in mind and if you think they are not then you should tell them so. You should always try to communicate the best you can with them and your service received will be much better.
The more openly you communicate with each other the better relationship you will forge throughout the process - again a win for you because if a consultant feels comfortable with you and likes you as a candidate he/she will try much harder on your behalf.
I hope this brief article helps your job search and remember they are not all out there to screw you over. If you work together the process can be much smoother and effective, recruitment firms want to place you at the end of the day!
A collection agency is an organization hired by lending corporations to collect default funds or accounts that are over due, on their behalf. A lending corporation normally owns a subsidiary to perform the duty of recovering past due funds.
Collection agencies generally offer services to lending companies such as are credit card firms, insurance firms, healthcare providers, automotive firms, financial institutions, banks and utility service providers like telecom and electric.
Generally, a collection agency does not acquire the rights of the dues but they commonly warrant a certain share or percentage of the default funds it can recoup for the lending company. In fact, a number of collection agencies buy the discounted amount outstanding from the lender and the collector gets the full sum of whatever default funds they were able to recover.
In the States, a reputable and trustworthy collection agency has to be registered with the Certified Collection Agency Association of America. They're also subject to Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a federal regulation that prohibits making threats, deceptive representations, and limits the time during which the agency calls the debtor. This is one way of guaranteeing protection for both lender and debtor. By getting the right collection agency, lending corporations are also ensured that they are not going to be a casualty of fraud or later on, bankruptcy.
Collection companies may not only offer due accounts recovery but also help with financial solutions as well as loss prevention.
Collection agencies work alongside the lending corporations and would recommend most appropriate approaches for successful collections of due accounts. Collection agencies have professional collection agents to do the task of recovery. They develop programs or approaches and apply them to efficiently recover the funds the defaulter owes.
A professional collection agent would normally present a call to the client to make the client aware that he or she is being followed up. Special correspondences by way of postal mail or e-mail will be carried out by the agency until the debtor respond. Litigation process only takes place if the client refuses to either cooperate or respond. Unless a collection agency has prevailed over a court case against a client, it cannot either lawfully sequester assets from the client, or terrorize or inflict physical damage to make payments.
Collecting agencies have to closely adhere to the most significant debt collection regulations. In this light they not only favor the lending companies for which they work for but also try to keep the services on the debtors' financial capacities. Once the client shows interest and commits to pay the due account, collectors do the negotiation and decide to have the debts paid in full or installment basis.
Ideally, a collection agency performs on the lending companies' behalf in the way lenders want by either applying a diplomatic recovery approach or a more assertive strategy, whichever the lender may want to execute. However as lending companies always wish to maintain an affable business rapport with its debtors, hired collecting firms ought to be tactful and friendly to clients with due accounts though debtors are in the wrong.
Moreover, collection agencies carry the name of the lending company so they are often expected to do business and make it appear that it's the same company recovering what is default. This is a standard way that collectors and lenders do because debtors most of the time do not respond positively to collection agencies.