Challenges of a Recruitment Consultancy
  • March 3, 2018
Author: Ankit Pareek

All organizations, however big or small, go through their shares of ups and downs in today’s dynamic and volatile business environment. Economical, Technological and Social disruptions can hit us, much quicker and harder than we can handle. Foresight, adaptability, and agility have become the most sought-after strategic deliverables for all core teams.

Recruitment Consultancies are usually very small in size, and in their quintessential B2B (Business to Business) model of functioning, are prone to collapses in tough market situations. Uncertainty prevails in almost all core functions of a recruitment firm i.e. Client acquisition, candidate acquisition, candidate show-ups, candidates joining, and even in receiving payments from the clients. A job consultancy, mostly, has access to limited resources, and generally doesn’t have a ‘cushion’ to sustain for too long without generating the revenues, hence margin of error is very miniscule. So in this tough situation, every challenge has to be dealt with, at the right time and in the right manner. So, let’s hereunder understand what the challenges of a job consultancy are, and how to overcome those challenges effectively.

Clients – Identify, whom should you work with?

It’s indeed a challenge upfront to get good clients, however it is so very important in a job consultancy to choose the right organizations to work for, just taking whatever comes your way would create so many bigger challenges later on. You need to make a niche for your consultancy, not all recruitment consultancies can work for all industry segments. Do a thorough market research to identify your niche industry segment, as well as what will take you to acquire clients there. Remember, Saying ‘NO’ to a potentially time-wasting client is as important as acquiring a promising client.

Employees – Identify, who should work for you?

Now that you have acquired your desired client and dream assignment, you need good employees to deliver on that assignment. Identifying, attracting, retaining, and maintaining good employees is tough job for all organizations, more so in a recruitment consultancy because of its small size. Every job consultancy wants to hire experienced candidates with great English fluency, and there’s nothing wrong in it as well. However, don’t fall in a trap of stereotyping, instead hire as per you assignment requirement, and you might end up realizing that a fresher recruiter, with great energy, is able to reach more BPO candidates than the experienced one. So, don’t run after the best recruiters, instead seek-out for most suitable recruiters.

Professionalism – This will be your competitive edge.

Every big-small city of India and world over, there are recruitment consultancies in abundance, and many more are coming-up almost daily. Here, what will set you apart and keep you growing is, your ‘Professionalism’. Set such error-free structures and processes in place that there’s a positive impact in all internal and external transactions. Don’t over commit to your clients and employees ever, and be ethical in all your practices.

 Use of Technology – It will cut down your costs in longer run.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning are buzzwords in the recruitment industry, however how many of us really understand them?, leave alone utilizing them in our day to day functioning. It’s very important to have a right “Applicant Management Tool’’ in your job consultancy. It will keep your crucial data preserved, and would structure the entire recruitment activity at your consultancy. Treat the cost of a tool as an investment, and it will save your much more cost in due time to come.

Keep Growing – That’s only way you can sustain.

It’s very common to become complacent with your small successes at your job consultancy. While it’s good to celebrate every small success, it’s more important to set higher vision. Remember, clients and employees want to work with a recruitment firm, which has a bigger vision for itself. A job consultancy has to constantly evolve itself to keep improving and growing.

 

Organizations are looking for job consultancies which are structured and responsive, and that’s where professional recruitment consultancies can cash-in. All the best, do mention your thoughts/suggestions/feedback in comment section here-under.

Recruitment Trends in the Year 2018
  • February 10, 2018

Author: Ankit Pareek

In the later part of last year, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation became the buzzwords in the recruitment industry. However, year 2018 is the time, when these things will be actually put to use. Recruiters across the world have realized that Artificial intelligence & Machine Learning can answer a lot of complex questions for them, and likewise automation through efficient tools will keep businesses responsive, effective, and most importantly competitive.

So, here is the list of some of the key trends set to revolutionize the recruitment and Jobs industry in 2018:

  1. Technology will improve the Speed of hiring.

Tools and Applications will be most sought after in the year 2018, and this is set to increase the speed of recruitment activities significantly. Automation of candidate follow-ups, candidate tracking, requirement matching, resume searching and resume matching will not only save time, but would also remove errors. So, it’s highly likely that use of tools such as Applicant Tracking System (ATS) would see a sharp upsurge. And, this also means that these tools are going to become more efficient and more-user friendly by the help of latest technological advancements.

Recruiters and Recruitment Consultancies, who till now, were avoiding using tools and preferring the traditional spreadsheets, would now have to embrace the new technology with open minds. Those who are late to open-up, will be legging behind for forever.

  1. Aided Decision Making Process.

Decision making of recruiters and hiring manages is going to be aided by the machines, yes you read it right. Machine learning and artificial intelligence would help in decision making, would answer complex puzzles faster than an eye blink, and would prove to be practical rather than mere mind-pleasers.

And most importantly, this machine aid is not only going to be useful in getting and providing jobs, but would also be very popular and talked about phenomenon across the hiring world.

  1. Change in how ‘Employee Wellness’ is achieved.

We have seen employee wellness being important for the organizations all throughout the recent past, however, it’s going to see a significant change in how this wellness is approached and achieved. More companies will go for flexi work hours and work from home options for employees, and performance based pay will be made more lucrative. Employee wellness is going to be as aggressive activity as recruitment has ever been.

360 degree feedback mechanism, which still is just a fancy term, would actually be followed by many organizations formally and informally. So, a concept on ‘Senior-Junior relationship’ is set to fade away, It’s going to be replaced by the ‘Colleagues of different abilities’ concept. Wherein, everyone is deemed to be worthy of mentoring and grooming the other, irrespective of the age, experience, and tenure in the organization.

  1. Diversity and Inclusion

Interestingly, in every corner of the world, including countries as traditionally rigid as Saudi Arabia, we will see diverse teams working and growing together. Intolerance was the buzzword in the years of 2016 and 2017, and diversity and tolerance will blossom and spread-out in the year 2018. Factually, all teams with diverse members have done better than conservative teams. People of different ethnicity, race, religion, creed, color and gender will be empowered in the year 2018.

We have already started noticing diverse teams, which are constituted by people of contrast cultures and origins, as well as the half population (the women) is certainly finding more opportunities to grow and prove themselves.

All in all, the year 2018 is going to be an exciting year to watch out for. We started seeing world economies do better recently, as well as technological advancements have been hard to miss. Hope, this all translates into a prosperous and happier world.

Do write your comments, would love to hear from you.

How to start and run your own job consultancy in India.
  • January 27, 2018

How to start and run your own job consultancy in India.

Author: Ankit Pareek

Well, I don’t want to bore you with my story, however let me still give you a brief reference on how the idea of starting a recruitment agency crossed my mind, and what exactly transpired when I actually executed the Idea. I will keep it short and practical, and hope you will benefit from our experience of starting a recruitment firm.

So, let’s go through the step by step guide on how we started a job consultancy.

  1. The Idea

I was heading the HR dept. of a mid-sized IT company, and was suddenly transferred from my home town Jaipur to Ahmedabad. And, that’s when I realized that I wanted to be my own boss and take my own decisions. I thought to metamorphose as a job provider from a job seeker.

  1. Market Research

First thing that we did was a thorough market research, we went to at least ten small-big, old-new, professional-not so professional recruitment consultancies in Jaipur, this helped us understand how they get business, how they work and what all is required to start and run a job placement firm. Response at most places was “You have such a good job, why do you want to get into the messy business of a recruitment firm?” and, “Probably, you’ve been sacked from your job and you have nothing to do”. So, got a lot of negativity to deal with. However, with all due respect to these people, one thing that we discovered was, that there were not too many qualified, experienced, matured people in manpower recruitment firms in Jaipur. And, thought, this is going to be my competitive advantage.

Lesson: Don’t just listen what people say about your Idea of opening a recruitment consultancy, weigh your passion and competencies against what is required for the job, and if you are confident that you fit the bill, GO FOR IT. Never start any business, just because you see someone else running it successfully, and never drop an idea because someone failed at it earlier.

  1. Business Name

In this digital world, having a website is so important for almost every kind of a business. More so, for a recruitment consultancy business. In past, people were deciding on a business name, getting it registered, and then getting a domain (website) name booked. Now, the process has changed, people first want to check availability of a suitable domain name, and then get the business registered accordingly. We chose www.zvalues.com as our domain name, and built a business name around it as Zvalues HR Solutions.

Lesson: Search availability of a catchy and professional domain name, prefer a .COM tld and get a simple yet professional website made. Your website should have a form where candidates and clients can submit their information. It should cost you about 10000 rupees. An employment agency doesn’t really need a complex website.

  1. An Office

We decided to open the job consultancy in an area which is close to our home, a locality where finding employees (recruiters) would not be very difficult, and found a decent office space in a mall. We didn’t invest much on furniture and furnishing, and spent only what was absolutely necessary.

Lesson: Recruitment Consultancy business initially can be run from your home if it’s an approachable location or you can rent a small office space. You generally don’t have too many visitors in a consultancy, so a lot of show shine is not required. Don’t spend too much on the interiors, furniture etc.

  1. Business Registration and Bank Account

Most job consultancies register as proprietorship firm, in most Indian states, you can easily do this registration online, without any visits to any govt. office at all. Proprietorship firms have least compliances requirements from govt., hence it’s the preferred choice for all small businesses.

You can also register as a Private Limited company, you need the professional help of a chartered accountant (CA) or some other agency. This has a lot of compliance requirements such as yearly audits etc.

Once, your registration is complete, and you get the registration certificate, Search online and ask a bank executive to visit your office, again in most cases, no bank visit is required.

  1. Job Portals Subscriptions

As a start-up recruitment firm, we found the prices of Naukri.com, Shine.com and Moster.com too expensive, however this is not something you can/should do away with in a HR consultancy business. We initially bought the subscriptions for a month, then for a quarter, and then finally started buying annual packages. We learnt from the experience that there’s always a scope of negotiations in the pricing.

Lesson: Give yourself time and negotiate real hard on the pricing, always go for the annual packages and always buy the premium package only, with all the regions and IT and Non IT data covered. 

  1. The Team

This is where we faced the most difficulty, experienced candidates didn’t want to work in such a small recruitment start-up and we didn’t have expertise to work with a fresher. So, the way out that worked for us was, we paid people a lot higher than what they were getting at their current jobs and hired 2 resources, Our first two employees.

Lesson: In a startup job consultancy, you can start on your own and can later add the team as per your requirements, be ready to pay higher salaries than the market standards initially.

  1. Getting the business/Clients

We started knocking doors of all the businesses in the town, some gave us business and some didn’t. Later, we stopped visiting clients’ offices and approached them through phone calls on their board lines and Linkedin messages only. Since then, getting clients has never been a big issue at all. We slowly made a niche for ourselves as experts of IT hiring.

Lesson: Add as many Linkedin connections as possible, for getting clients as well as the candidates you should have minimum 10000 relevant connections. Secondly, don’t shy away from calling board lines of businesses to ask for work.

  1. All the best

Financially, professionally as well as personally, it’s been a rewarding experience for us to run our recruitment firm. We are proud of our ethics and professionalism, and that is our competitive advantage in this fiercely competitive recruitment industry. And, we sincerely wish you hold the same values in your manpower consultancy firm.

All the best for your new job consultancy, do write me on contact@zvalues.com or in comment section here-under, would love to help you.