The Types of Recruitment Agencies And How To Find the Right One

by Julian Hartley

The Various Recruitment Agencies and How To Find the Right One

Recruitment agencies are also known as recruitment firms, recruitment companies, and staffing agencies. Before you can choose the right recruitment agency to meet your needs, taste and preferences, you need to be able to distinguish them from one another and learn how they differ. If not, you put yourself at risk of choosing the wrong agency and wasting time and resources which you could have saved if you just had invested a little time in doing some research. With that in mind, here are the different types of recruitment agencies out there:

Recruitment Agencies or Staffing Agencies

This type of recruitment agency provides different types of services for their clients. Recruitment agencies or staffing agencies collaborate with law firms, corporations, restaurants, and many other companies, business and factories in a wide variety of industries in order to fulfill their recruiting needs. These agencies typically focus on entry level or mid-level management positions while other types of agencies put their attention towards high level executive positions.

Temporary Agencies

Temporary agencies work in the same manner that recruitment agencies do except that they focus on contractual work or temporary employment. This type of recruitment agency typically has many candidates with a diverse set of skills who are available to fill any temporary positions. Temporary agencies can either provide employees in one specific industry or for several different industries like clerical, technical, manufacturing or creative departments. The staff members who work at temporary agencies need to be able to meet the needs of their many clients and manage their human resources duties as well. This has the tendency to be tedious for them as more often than not; they are responsible for sorting out the payroll for their employees as compensation for the employees is coursed through them and not directly received from the employer.

Generalist Recruiting Agencies

As opposed to temporary recruiting agencies or specialized recruiting agencies, a generalist recruiting agency acquires personnel for a variety of industries. They are responsible for filling positions or job openings for many different companies. Generalist recruiting agencies are likely to be composed of recruiters specializing in the different industries that they cater to such as health care, industrial or human resources industries. These are only a few examples. Recruiters can also be categorized according to levels such as entry level, executive or mid-level positions. Some generalist recruiting agencies also offer additional services to companies like on-boarding or employee retention programs.

Specialized Recruiting Agencies

Last but not least, specialized recruiting agencies are the type of recruitment agency that services several types of industries. They offer services for specific industries and position levels. Some specialized recruiting agencies call themselves either technical recruiting agencies or executive recruiting agencies. In certain cases, specialized recruiting agencies are preferred by clients or companies as they are extremely adept and knowledgeable at their field of choice. If a person has worked as an independent recruiter in the past and has intensive experience, a specialized recruiting agency would be an ideal place to apply to.

This post was written by Julian Hartley

Julian Hartley is an expert in recruitment agencies and global outsourcing.  He current works for DinaliC.com.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

StaffingTips July 8, 2012 at 12:21 pm

Great article! I’d add that the most important thing to keep in mind about any agency you’re thinking of applying at is to do your homework: research the agency, ask around for recommendations, check reviews online, just as you would any other company you were interested in working for. And be very wary of agencies that charge you a fee to register or apply for a job – the “better” ones are paid by their client companies, not their employees.

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Idella Gudmundsson February 20, 2013 at 5:21 am

Just wanna state that this is very useful , Thanks for taking your time to write this.

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