Recruitment agencies are a very popular method of finding work. They act as a kind of middleman between candidates and employers, their aim being to match one with the other to create the perfect fit.
It’s a simple model, and it works well enough – the recruitment industry in the UK is worth £26.5 billion a year. However there are definitely some aspects of the traditional recruitment model that are flawed, and means that agencies don’t always provide the best opportunities for candidates, nor the best value for employers.
We believe in doing it a different way. So what are the advantages of online recruitment on a flat fee basis?
Crucially, most recruitment agencies have an expensive fee structure, under which they will charge employers a certain percentage of the expected wage.
This means that even when recruiting for low-salaried roles, an employer can look at doling out tens of thousands a year.
Let’s say, for instance, that a company takes on ten employees in one year on a salary of £20,000 each. When going the agency route, paying 15% or more of the salary for each role, that company would expect to pay at least £30,000 to fill those roles.
Many would say that’s simply the cost of doing business. However there is a different way as on average, a fixed fee recruiter charges between £500 -£1000 per campaign. That means an employer could save up to £25,000 on the same 10 roles.
We believe a flat fee model, such as the kind we use at Blue Octopus, can produce the same or better standards of candidate at a price that is much better value for money.
Though we operate at a lower price point, the service we provide is at as high a level as any online recruitment agency, as we use many of the same avenues for publicising jobs as they do. That includes job boards (both general and industry-specific), social media, passive candidate recruitment (just like head hunters do) and drawing on a range of contacts.
In addition, we emphasise communication with employers and candidates alike, as a core part of our policy. While many recruitment agencies will focus on numbers and forget about the people, we do respond to everybody who applies for a role that we have advertised. It might sound like a small thing, but we know it matters!
Overall, there is no denying that online recruitment is a big part of the future of recruitment.
