Have you ever been cajoled into hiring a square peg to fit a round hole? When was the last time you heard someone in the Dynamics market space commenting in a positive way about a recruiter? Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen often. Yes, there might be some exceptions but most people will complain about their:

–          Unjustifiably high fees (last week a Dynamics partner told us they had found out they were being charged an astonishing 40% mark-up by a well-known agency for every man day worked!)

–          Lack of understanding of the specific requirements leading to tens of unsuitable candidate CVs to wade through unnecessarily

–          Aggressive chasing of candidates and hirers to try to force them together

In a recent study we undertook, many hiring companies told us how they regularly have to invest a long time trying to educate their agencies about their specific requirements, only to reach an agreement with the recruiters and then be bombarded with CVs of candidates that don’t meet the criteria at all.  A further irritation was that it took them a lot of time reviewing each CV before they could reject almost all of them – they wondered whether this was the agencies’ lack of understanding of the requirements, a lack of service by not vetting the CVs, an attitude of “these are the only ones on our books so let’s broadcast them and hope they stick”, or a combination of all three.

The next gripe was that many candidates simply interviewed dreadfully.  Again, there was surprise that agencies clearly had not interviewed, and often never even met, their own candidates.  One case we heard was of a very tired interviewee in a 4pm interview who had been sent to SIX interviews that day already by the same agency. He was so tired that the interviewer sent him home – what sort of agency service is that to the candidate or the hiring customer?

Another major complaint category was of apparent low business etiquette.  We’ve been told too many stories of agencies placing new staff into firms through the front door while simultaneously trying to take existing staff out the back door, then claiming it was merely an unusual coincidence but still refusing to provide guarantees it will not happen again.  Based on the number of times we have heard this type of thing, this claim really does seem a work of fiction.

But of course the final major complaint is about the ridiculously high fees for this “service” provided – hopefully not 40% as above, but on average a 20-30% hidden cost on top of what the consultant would get paid.  Unlike the Finance Industry who have finally had to accept transparency in their commissions due to long term abuse and popular dissent, agencies are remarkably unwilling to make this mark up clear to candidates or customers.  Why do you think that might be?

You may wonder why, in the face of such ill feeling, people continue to use agencies.  What is the alternative? Wouldn’t it be great to have a tool where you can go and find the exact person you need and save all the wasted time and massive sums of money that you spend on recruitment agencies?

365 Freelance (www.365freelance.com ) offers hiring firms just that. You don’t really need to hope an agency will find you the perfect “round peg” candidate – just register with us for a small subscription fee and access details about hundreds of available Dynamics contractors. You judge for yourself whether they meet your requirements or not, contact them and discuss your project, rates, terms and conditions directly. There is no mark-up on what you agree with the consultant, no misunderstanding of what you need and what you get, and no persistent calls to attempt to persuade you to hire the wrong people for your company.

365 Freelance (www.365freelance.com ) is an online platform that allows Dynamics partners and clients to connect with the best Dynamics consultants directly, at significantly lower cost than agencies. 

Try it today and never need to complain about an agency again.