How to use Recruitment Agencies

Having worked recruiting legal professionals inside a law firm and also within a recruitment agency I believe I am well placed to offer a perspective on how you can work effectively with agencies as a client or candidate. Frankly I am appalled at the lack of professionalism that I have seen and heard of in some agencies. Typically though I think that many firms quickly establish a group of agencies that they prefer to deal with. However it is harder for candidates to develop the same appreciation as they dip into the market quite infrequently.

Many candidates I see comment on the poor practice standards of agencies they have contacted but by the time they have realised it has often been too late. Recent examples of their lack of professionalism and integrity include:

· One candidate was dismayed to find that his CV had been sent to a firm by the agency that had placed him two months previously when quite clearly he was no longer looking for a position. He would have been unaware of this had a friend in the firm not expressed their surprise that he was looking to move again so quickly.

I have seen this happen on a number of occasions and this is a tactic that an agency can use to mislead a client into thinking that they have a large number of potentially suitable candidates available and so discourage them from contacting further agencies for additional candidates.

· Another candidate confirmed that he wished me to act on his behalf. Having identified a suitable opportunity he agreed I could send his details to a client. The client decided to arrange an interview but when the papers were sent to their HR department they had already received them from another agency. The candidate had not given this agency permission to send his details to any firms but when he checked back with the agency he found that they had mailed his unsolicited CV to every large and medium sized firm in the East and West Midlands. The CV had been sent without discrimination and many of the firms did not practice in his niche area.

This blanket mailing approach is widely practised but not for the benefit of candidates. Unsolicited CVs generally devalue a candidate and irritate recruiters. The CV is also not tailored for different firms and positions and if a firm does not have a role at that specific time but three months later one becomes available they will question the quality of a candidate who is still looking.

I could recount endless examples of poor practice by recruitment agencies, suffice it is to say that we are determined to be different. We believe we achieve this by:

· Interviewing all candidates

· Only forwarding candidate details for specific notified vacancies (we do not mail candidates details unsolicited under any circumstance).

· Providing accurate and detailed Curriculum Vitae and other relevant information for the client. (We do not omit elements of the CV if they could be seen as less than ideal).

· Gaining candidate’s express permission to forward their details and ensuring a genuine interest in the role available.

However if you are working with other agencies I offer the following good practice guidelines:

· Read the terms and conditions of all agencies very carefully – there will be some variation.

· Develop your own protocol.

· Select and work with preferred agencies (who accept your terms).

· Agree with your preferred agencies that:

1. They will be notified of any position where their assistance is needed. This means that other agencies not on the preferred list are not notified.

2. Any speculative CVs are discarded or retained as the agency’s “property” for a limited period only (eight weeks?).

3. The same information is sent to the preferred agencies at the same time.

4. Candidates put forward will:

Meet the specification

Have indicated their interest in the position

Have given permission for their details to be submitted

5. In the event that more than one agency submits the same candidate the fee will apply to the agency that first submitted the candidate for the notified vacancy. This will mean that speculative CVs and CVs submitted for previous vacancies will not be considered.

6. They will specifically inform you if they submit a candidate who does not match the criteria.

7. They will not follow up the application unnecessarily.

8. All communication will be routed through a designated individual.

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Improving Recruitment Practice

Essentially there are two elements to consider when establishing good recruitment practice. Firstly, the candidate management process – administration, communication and organisation and secondly, the assessment of the candidate. Equal importance should be placed on both of these elements to produce the best outcome, a new recruit with attitudes and values that are closely aligned to those of the firm, who has the experience and skills to enable them to perform effectively in the role and crucially, believes the firm has the values, professionalism and scope to enable them to achieve their career goals.

The various stages of the recruitment process provide information for decisions by both the employer and the potential recruit. Traditionally, however recruitment decisions have been seen as a management prerogative but a more reciprocal approach generates more effective results.

Throughout the process candidates choose between organisations by evaluating the developing relationship between themselves and the business. This takes place in the correspondence from potential employers, their experience of the selection methods used and in the information they gain during interviews. Candidates will decide not to pursue some applications. Either they will have accepted another offer or something in the process will discourage them and they will withdraw. It may of course be that candidates make wise decisions on their suitability and continuing would waste time. However, it may be that potentially excellent recruits were lost because of the way in which information was presented, lack of information or the ‘feel’ of letters and meetings.
Some good practice points include:
- Reply, meaningfully and fast. An acknowledgement is not a reply.
- Think about what the candidate wants to know. How long will they have to wait for an answer? If you invite them for an interview how long will it take, what does it involve, do you meet travel expenses etc?
- Prepare thoroughly for interviews. Read the candidates details, familiarise yourself with the post to be filled and understand the specification of the ideal candidate. A good candidate will have prepared and will recognise when their interviewer has not.
- Do not keep candidates waiting under any circumstance. If you are delayed ask a colleague to meet the candidate and explain the reason for your lateness and provide some relevant reading material.
- Always offer unsuccessful candidates feedback on their performance. Whilst candidates will be looking for development areas good practice dictates that you should balance negative with positive comments and seek to build their confidence.
- Confirm positive outcomes quickly with candidates. The speed of the response is often seen as indicative of your enthusiasm and commitment.
- Do not forget about a recruit once an offer has been accepted. Start to build their expectations/understanding/commitment to the firm with information on the plans that have been made for their arrival.

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Interview Questioning

Interviews are still the most commonly used selection tool but their effectiveness is entirely dependent on the quality of questions asked. All too often candidates are able to predict questions and so also prepare the answers that they believe you would like to hear. Good interview questions will demand that the candidate thinks on their feet for the answer and consequently the response offers a greater insight.

The key questioning techniques are:

Biographical - The most widely used approach where the candidate is asked about episodes of their earlier life for example, education and career history. This is the simplest technique as the discussion can develop from the information provided by the candidate on their Curriculum Vitae. It also enables crucial information concerning exam grades, salary levels and employment dates to be checked. However it is in many cases overused and can encourage lazy interviewing and indeed candidates are often well practised in presenting themselves in a positive light when asked biographical questions.

Situational - This is when candidates are asked to project themselves into a given situation and describe how they would react. The situation could be based on an incident that actually happened or an event that could possibly occur.

The incident should be relevant to the job in question. Situational questions are good at exploring the ‘what if…’ however, what a candidate may say they would do in an interview may be different when faced with the situation in real life. It is therefore important to ask the candidate to demonstrate how they used similar approaches and skills in their previous roles.

Behavioural - This is an effective technique when you wish to explore how candidates approached a task previously. Their past behaviour is examined in depth and they are encouraged to reflect on their skills and abilities. The approach relies on the theory that past behaviour is the best predictor of future performance.

Behavioural criteria are identified by considering the features of a successful postholder, for example competencies such as communication, planning and organisation and team-working could be used as the basis of a series of questions. This technique takes time and preparation and interviewers need to listen carefully to responses given. Responses then require evaluation against a rating scale and the evaluation needs to be consistent across candidates.

Criteria Based - These questions use the essential tasks and duties identified in the job description as their basis. Candidates are asked to consider how they would approach particular elements of the role. The benefit of criteria based questions is the thoroughness of exploration of the key performance areas. However, it can create a stilted structure and questions do need to be probed in depth. Without this follow-up a skilled interviewee could give apparently adequate answers which in reality, are superficial.

The Recommended Approach - Recognising the inherent strengths, weaknesses and limitations of each questioning style the most effective approach is a combination of all question techniques. This will enable a thorough review of the candidate’s background and career history with biographical questions, an assessment of personal style and behaviour with situational and behavioural questions and examination of technical/job knowledge and experience with criteria based questions.

This appears to be demanding but with preparation it is easy to achieve and it will ensure that you get the best from candidates at interview.

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The Importance of Checking CVs - Your Candidate’s CV – Truth or Fantasy?

There have been a number of high profile professionals forced out of their jobs because they lied about their qualifications. Often these CV inaccuracies have often gone undetected for years. For example, the Chief Executive of a Midlands NHS Trust was forced to quit his job recently. He had spent years in Chief Executive roles in several hospitals claiming he had a 2.1 degree in Management Science from a top university. The reality was quite different, as he did not have any degree qualification. His deceit only came to light when two Hospital Trusts merged and he secured the Chief Executive position of the newly-formed organisation which ran routine staff record checks.

If your firm takes CVs at face value you need to think again. Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel has found that one in four businesses withdrew a job offer because of CV fraud last year, and a similar proportion sacked someone for the same offence.

CV checking firm – Recruit with Confidence supports the CIPD’s findings. Their research shows that 28% of CVs contain some errors. It is common for 2.2 degrees to be raised to a 2.1. They also found that 4% of CVs contain very serious errors including university qualifications that do not exist and disguising time spent in prison.

If you do not conduct proper checks how do you know if your recruits are competent or even who they really are? Candidates rely on prospective employers not checking up on what they write or say, and take the opportunity to embellish, or completely reinvent the truth.

Employing honest, qualified people is critical to the success of your firm. To understand a candidate’s background you must:

· Write to educational establishments and ask them to confirm the dates of their study, examinations taken and the grades achieved. Go back two steps, for example, for a graduate check ‘A’ Levels and degree and for an LPC graduate check degree course and LPC course.

· Confirm basic employment details (dates, position, salary) with all previous employers or as many as practicable with mature candidates.

· Ask your candidate to provide the address and daytime telephone number of a personal and at least one professional referee. Written references are pointless for anything other than basic information. Develop a checklist of relevant and appropriate questions and go through them over the telephone. If your referees are reluctant to talk remember that if the individual has done a good job you will always get a positive signal.

· If you find any discrepancies or warning signs investigate every aspect of the CV thoroughly. Typically if a candidate has decided to embellish their details there will be more than one aspect of the CV changed.

· Make your background checking process clear to candidates. When recruiting in-house earlier in my career I found that every year circa 10% of CVs contained errors when the checks above were made. Interestingly though many candidates withdrew their applications when they were informed of the checking procedures (this saved my time and effort).

I appreciate this process takes time and resources but it is necessary due diligence if you are to protect your firm.

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Effective Staff Induction

The importance of new staff induction cannot be over emphasised. Once a new staff member has been appointed the future employment relationship is heavily affected by the way they settle into their new position. Poor induction training will mean that new staff get off to a bad start and may never really understand the business or their role in it. This may lead to:

· Poor integration into the team

· Low morale, particularly for the new employee

· Loss of productivity

· Failure to work to their highest potential

In extreme cases the new member of staff leaves, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2003 survey on recruitment and retention showed that 27.3% of leavers had less than six months’ service. Early leavers are not good for your business or the individual concerned. So what does effective induction training involve?

There are a number of key areas that must be covered as a minimum:

· The core duties and responsibilities of their role

· Department/office working practices and procedures

· Work protocols, guidelines or other relevant information (including health and safety information)

· Supervisory arrangements including who they should approach if they have a problem at work

· Basic terms and conditions of employment including working hours, annual leave and sick leave

In the modern law office there are issues that need to be emphasised (particularly with staff new to a professional law office):

· Client confidentiality

· Internet and email policy

· Law Society regulations

Most importantly though to build a positive relationship with a firm a new member of staff needs to understand your culture and values. Whist you may possibly cover the areas listed above in the first few days spend time after this to talk about the firm’s history and prominent people who have played a role in the practice. Talk about the values of the firm, the unwritten rules and why these have developed. Do not leave people on their own to work something out unless you have a reason for doing so. Involving other staff in the firm is a good way to address these cultural issues. Effective induction training should involve a large element of contact with other staff for the new person. Relationships and contacts are the means by which businesses function, get things done, solve problems, handle change and develop. Meeting and getting to know people in the firm is vital in the induction process. It is particularly important for senior staff – do not assume that they will take care of this for themselves – help them to plan how to meet and get to know all the relevant people inside and outside the firm as soon as possible

A professional and thorough induction is your new employees’ first impression of you and your firm and you know how important first impressions are.

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Will your Trainee stay?

I continually meet with soon to be qualified lawyers who are considering their career options on admittance. Whilst some are committed to their current firm and are interested in discussing the pros and cons of the specialist routes available to them many are determined to move on when they qualify. This determination to leave puzzles me because every new Trainee I meet is thrilled to be starting their training contract.

Undoubtedly firms recruit trainees to develop the skills they need in their business for the future. The costs attached to their development are significant particularly for smaller firms so to lose them at the point of qualification can be demoralising. Admittedly you have to be prepared to win some and lose others but if you are continually not retaining your trainees you need to find out why. Exit interviews are a must but obviously too late. The newly qualifieds I have interviewed identified many reasons for wanting to move on but commonly these factors were raised:

· Perceived lack of progression. Having started possibly as a paralegal and moved through to qualify their status and position in the office has not moved on. This is a particular issue in a smaller office where there is not a steady stream of trainees who fall in behind each other. One newly qualified said that they still felt like the ‘junior’ even though they had been working for three years in the firm.

· Specialist area focus. Often newly qualifieds are offered a position that would not be their first choice (or even their second). To compound the situation their firm has not left the opportunity to move into different areas in the future.

· Integration and identification with the firm’s values. More than once newly qualifieds have expressed their disappointment/disillusionment with the current process and practice of their firm. Partners and long standing members of staff maintain the status quo with limited acceptance of other’s ideas. They feel outside the circle of influence and as a consequence not part of the future of the firm.

· Personality clashes. Disagreements have been allowed to continue and as a consequence have become an issue. Partners have not stepped in to deal with the problem and the matter hangs unresolved.

· Fit with firm. Often whilst the newly qualified accepted a training contract with the firm their long-term ambitions are unlikely to be met. This may because the firm is in the wrong location or position in the marketplace.

All but the final point are issues that could have been easily addressed. Without oversimplifying, the secret of successful trainee management and therefore retention is effective communication. This demands a culture of honesty and trust, constant open discussion, an appreciation of individual differences and perspectives together with humility and humanity. Trainees need to be monitored, mentored, challenged, involved and rewarded. Interestingly, not one newly qualified moved to boost their salary but that does not mean it is unimportant. Their issues over salary tended instead to focus on the lack of transparency of salary scales and bonuses. Again then it is more an issue of communication.

Ensuring a trainee’s long term ambitions fit with the firm is unfortunately something that needs to be addressed before they join. LPC graduates are in a tough recruitment market and will sometimes accept a training contact that does not meet their career ambitions. Recruitment should therefore focus not on recruiting the ‘best’ candidate but on recruiting the ‘best for you’.

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