Flat Fee Recruitment – The rise of the Pirates and Deceivers

“Never judge a book by its cover”. A cliché perhaps, but one that should be exercised when choosing your new Flat Fee Recruitment supplier says Jamie Mistlin, co-founder of RecruitmentRevolution.com.

Over the past few years the recruitment market has witnessed an increase in Flat Fee Recruitment companies eager to help companies slash their recruitment costs. With this popularity come those looking to gain traction through deception.

Here are 5 Steps to ensure that your chosen supplier is the “real deal”:

1. Don’t be fooled by over ambitious Google PPC Adverts. We see all too often companies claiming to be ‘Number 1’, the ‘Market Leader’, have ‘Thousands of Customers’ and ‘Filled tens of thousands of vacancies in the last 12 months’. Are they able to back up their claims?

Go to the Company’s House website and see when the company incorporated. If they’re newly incorporated or have been going for less than 12 months it is likely that their claims are nothing more than illusions of grandeur.

2. Validate their resourcing portfolio. Google the company name if they’re actively working on vacancies Google will find their adverts on the job boards. Alternatively, go directly to the likes of Reed, Total Jobs and Monster. If a recruiter claims to fill hundreds or thousands of vacancies a week then this will be mirrored by the number of live postings.

3. Fictitious testimonials – Go to LinkedIn to find the name of the person who supplied the testimonial. If you can find them, ask them if they’d be happy to validate their statement. If not,… well, that tells its own story!

4. Dig around! Who runs the company, are they Phoenix company specialists? What are their credentials?

5. Credit score them. If you have access to credit checking facilities look into the company. If they’ve claimed to have filled tens of thousands of roles in the past 2 years but have not posted any financial data then maybe all might not be quite right. And are they credit worthy? Do you really want to “bulk buy” upfront advertising packages if the company is insolvent or financially unstable?

Now you know what to look out for you’ll find that recruiting online can be a rewarding experience to reduce the cost per hire. We would strong recommend that you either use a job board directly where you can manage your own message and candidate experience, an established low cost online recruitment agency that works on a no upfront charge model or a Flat Fee Recruitment advertiser with a proven track record and long term market presence.

Happy Recruiting!