The role of a personnel consulting agency in the company's employer branding
Although from the employer’s perspective, cooperation with a personnel consulting agency usually has one goal – to attract the best possible candidates from the market, in reality the supplier’s activities also strongly affect the client’s employer branding, which is so important in a situation of a shortage of qualified employees.
Employment agency as the first point of contact with the employer
Employer branding (EB) is a vast and multi-threaded issue on the border of 3 fields: HR, PR and marketing. It applies equally to internal activities addressed to employees and external activities addressed to potential candidates. In both cases, the goal is similar – to convince the target group that a given employer is trustworthy and it is worth tying up with them for a long time. There are many ways to achieve your goal, starting from a professionally prepared career website and interesting advertising campaigns, through participation in fairs, ambassador programs, proper onboarding, ending with transparent internal communication, clear career paths or taking care of a positive atmosphere at work. This raises the question of what role a personnel consulting agency plays in these activities.
First of all, the recruitment partner is largely responsible for the candidate experience, i.e. the professional conduct of the entire process: reaching out to candidates, thorough preparation for interviews, ongoing feedback, and finally providing feedback along with its argumentation. The agency is therefore the first point of contact between the candidate and the employer’s brand, and thus has a huge impact on the client’s employer branding. Therefore, as part of the LeasingTeam Group, before starting a project, we always try to learn about detailed guidelines related to the client’s EB strategy, the company’s values and the way of communication. This allows us to ensure a consistent and expected recruitment process. In the current market reality, when in most industries the number of qualified employees is lower than the demand, the role of agencies in this area takes on additional importance, and in the case of mass recruitment it cannot be overestimated.
Speaking of mass recruitment, it is also worth mentioning temporary workers. Although they are formally employed by an employment agency, the fact is that they strongly identify with the employer-user, because it is for him that they perform work on a daily basis. As a result, they have a huge potential to spread a positive (or negative) opinion about the company. In this case, the employment agency plays an even more important role from the point of view of implementing the client’s EB strategy, because it is not only responsible for recruiting employees, but also has regular and constant contact with them throughout their employment, indirectly influencing their opinion about the employer-user.
Examples of synergy between recruitment and EB activities
Employment agencies, conducting regular recruitment processes, understand the labor market well, additionally having a huge potential of candidates. In order to get the one, the best one, they perform many activities aimed at a wide target group. By using the synergy of activities, as part of the recruitment process, it is possible to implement various elements of EB activities, e.g. promotion of recruitment videos, organization of dedicated meetings for candidates or mini-trainings – and thus not only interest potential employees in a specific job offer, but also in the company itself.
A few months ago, as part of LeasingTeam Professional, we supported our regular client in organizing a very interesting recruitment initiative. It was a kind of “date” with a future employer. Our task was to recruit a dozen or so candidates, in line with the designated competences and skills, while promoting the entire project among the target group.
Within 2.5 hours, the invited people had the opportunity to present their passions, views, dreams, but also to get to know
of our client – the way the organization and its key employees operate. All in a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere. What is more, candidates learned about the effect of the recruitment process on the same day.
The recruitment meeting was divided into 5 sections:
1 – Introduction (45 min.) during which the candidate got to know the company, organizational culture, and beliefs of the future employer.
2 – Knowledge workshop (15 min.), during which participants divided into groups were tasked with discussing a selected business topic – knowledge, opinions and the strength of argumentation counted.
3 – Soft skills workshop (15 min.), the aim of which was to discover cognitive, communication and behavioural skills while solving puzzles.
4 – Video workshop (5 min.), during which the candidate showed the real self through spontaneous and quick answers to several questions.
5 – Interview (10 min.), during which the candidate met directly with HR and business, being able to intrigue them with their thoughts, ideas, and passions.
An unusual recruitment meeting turned out to be a bull’s eye. Candidates gained new experience, got to know the employer well, and were able to empirically assess whether they fit into the organization. The client, on the other hand, found future employees, presented the company in an attractive way, but also showed that recruitment does not always have to be the same, predictable way.
It is worth using the potential
Although it is true that the main goal of a personnel consulting agency was and is to recruit the right employee, it is worth remembering that it can also effectively support clients in employer branding activities. Many companies still do not use this potential, missing dozens of promotional opportunities every day.
For the Home & Market magazine: Agnieszka Haponik, Marketing Director at LeasingTeam Group
Doświadczony analityk rynku pracy, specjalizuje się w badaniach nad trendami zatrudnienia i zmianami w strukturze zawodowej. Jego artykuły, publikowane w renomowanych czasopismach branżowych, pomagają czytelnikom zrozumieć dynamikę rynku pracy.
