Hiring just one candidate costs businesses thousands, making volume hiring even more expensive. With a knowledgeable, experienced supply chain recruitment partner, every hiring process is quicker and more cost-effective - no matter how many roles you need to fill.

candidate being interviewed

As an employer, recruitment agencies ease the task of filling vacancies, ensuring your requirements are met. Here’s what factors to consider when selecting a supply chain recruitment partner and what to avoid.

Industry bodies

Accreditations and certifications from relevant awarding bodies are a good sign the recruitment agency you’re considering is a high-quality provider. Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) is an investigative agency for labour exploitation in the UK. It works with police and other law enforcement agencies to ensure workers aren’t exploited. 

The Association of Labour Providers (ALP) promotes responsible recruitment and good practice for organisations that supply workers across many sectors, including construction, food and general manufacturing, warehousing, logistics and the supply chain.  

When choosing a recruitment agency with a license from Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority - as well as an Association of Labour Providers membership - businesses can rest assured knowing the chosen agency is maintaining the highest standards.

Type of recruitment agency

Some recruiters are generalists. Others specialise in particular sectors, such as healthcare or warehousing, for example. 

Specialist recruitment agencies can tell you what the job market currently looks like, as well as how best to achieve your recruitment requirements. Generalist recruitment agencies also offer valuable insights, as well as house experts in their team and qualified professionals. However, if you’d like an agency with a deeper understanding of the market and industry, it’s better to choose a specialist agency.

For volume hiring, a recruitment agency should be classed as a long-term business partner. The agency should show a willingness to discuss your requirements in detail and formulate a strategic, long-term plan. The right recruitment agency will understand the issues a growing business faces, as well as seasonal peaks. 

When researching recruitment agencies, ask questions about their candidate pool, their experience in high volume recruiting and their processes. If they’re open to sharing this information with you, it’s a good sign.

Budget

There’s no point in hiring a recruitment agency you can’t afford to pay, so it’s important to establish your budget first and foremost. It’s common for a supply chain recruitment partner to charge a percentage of the hiring salary, rather than a standard fee. This percentage varies according to the agency, but it’s usually around 15%.

To choose the right recruitment agency for your budget, compare the costs of different agencies and take payment structure into account. Are they flexible and can they tailor to your budget?

Experience

When choosing an agency, you want to know they have the necessary skills required to fill the vacancy. You’ll also want to know how many positions they’ve successfully filled for similar companies previously. 

Find out how long they’ve been around and which companies they’ve helped. To gain a better understanding of how an agency works, read their client and candidate testimonials. 

Warning signs to look out for

When choosing a supply chain recruitment partner, there are several things you should avoid. It’s best to work out whether or not the agency is right for you before you start working with them. If you’ve already partnered with an agency, here are some warning signs to look out for.

The recruiters are too ‘salesy’

A good recruitment agency will listen to your unique requirements and place those as a priority. It’s best to avoid any agencies that come across as too sleek or ‘salesy’. If you feel pressured by their employees to work with them or go in a certain direction, it’s a sign they aren’t truly interested in meeting your recruitment needs.

They send job seekers to interviewers who aren’t right

If a recruitment agency isn’t taking the time to provide a personalised service, they'll send any candidate your way for an interview. This wastes time, money and it’s merely a way to fill positions quickly.  

They don’t have a screening process

If the agency is sub-standard, they won’t bother to pre-screen applicants. Ultimately, this means you may end up interviewing or hiring someone who's a bad fit for the role, has poor prior references or lacks the skills for the job.

Why work with Kingdom Recruitment

At Kingdom Recruitment, we deliver recruitment services in warehousing, manufacturing, transport and customer service. This gives us specialist knowledge and enables us to deliver personalised services for both temporary and permanent recruitment requirements.

Our knowledgeable team has a wealth of experience behind them and works with innovation at its core. We take a consultative partnership approach with our customers and build bespoke models around their staffing requirements. 

Plus, our managers are sector specialists who already understand your business. This means they're better suited to recruit the ideal candidate for the job. If you want to work on a hiring strategy before deciding whether a specialist recruitment agency is best for your needs, make sure to check out our recruitment playbook below.

Create a cost-effective hiring strategy

It’s essential to have a strategy in place to determine who you need to hire, how you’re going to hire them and how to onboard new starters. In our playbook, we run you through plays and everything you need to consider to hire the ideal candidate for the job. 

To get started, click the banner below to access the insights.

Creating a cost-effective staffing strategy