If you are a Manufacturing or Engineering business and have decided to retain the services of an Executive Recruitment partner in order to help your locate and recruit a key individual into your company, you are possibly asking yourself "which recruitment company do I choose?" With the UK Recruitment Market estimated to be worth in excess of £23billion annually, with a myriad of recruitment companies offering what at first glance looks like exactly the same service, it is sometimes difficult to know which company to opt for.
Selecting an appropriate Executive Recruitment company to run your project is in itself a critical decision and getting it right can make the difference between having a thorough, professionally run campaign or a badly coordinated campaign with your organisation being unprofessionally represented. Therefore before you choose a recruitment company there are a number of recommend steps that you should take.
Steps to selecting an appropriate recruitment company
The first step would be to get a few recommendations from people who have utilised the services of sector specific head-hunters who operate within the Manufacturing and Engineering market. Working with a recruiter that specialises in the placement of manufacturing and engineering jobs, who has a good understanding of the nuances within the sector is vital, otherwise how would they able to benchmark the abilities of a candidate? It is also worth considering speaking to people who have experienced manufacturing and engineering recruiters as a candidate, and asking questions such as: How professional was the company? What was the communication like? How did they represent their client? Did they demonstrate a thorough understanding of engineering and manufacturing? Would you class them as experts in manufacturing and engineering recruitment?
Once a number of possible manufacturing and engineering recruitment companies have been identified, the next important step is to have initial conversations. Like any project, the compatibility of the project team is critical and by having a short discussion you should get a feel as to whether you could work with these businesses or not. Following these calls you now should have two or three potential recruiters who you should then meet face to face.
Within these face to face meetings it would be advisable to give the recruiters an insight into your organisation and the role you are looking to fill before then asking the recruiters up front as to how they would run the assignment and fill the job.
Typically in these meetings, organisations will often spend time discussing the technical aspects of the role, the desired skill sets, the desired knowledge base of prospective candidates and their qualifications. However, in order to get the best out of your recruiter, there is other important information that you will need to pass on.
Information to pass on during your meetings with executive recruiters
Firstly you should give the recruiter an overview of your organisation, tell them the company life story, where you have come from, where you are looking to achieve, what your business strategy is. Then you should look at how you are going to achieve this, through what means, what are your tactics. Then you should consider the objectives, when you are looking to hit certain milestones, when will you get there and how these milestones will be measured. Furthermore it is worth discussing your company's succession plans, what are the limitations of the other people within your senior management team, what are the strengths. As part of the brief it is also important to highlight the development and training that will offered to the successful candidate, what guidance and direction will they get, if this direction will be given by you, other internal resources or will this training be outsourced to third party providers.
By spending time discussing the above, you will yourself develop the "recruitment policy" for this appointment. The recruitment policy which is typically made up of 3 key areas: Motivations/ Aspirations of the individual, the desired skills and desired qualifications are what the recruiter will need to be armed with in order to run the project successfully.
The key areas to cover in the brief
- What your organisation does, its turnover, number of employees, hierarchical structure.
- The history of the business.
- An overview of your competitors.
- Your organisation goals/ business strategy.
- Your company's business tactics i.e. how your organisation is to achieve the company goals.
- The business objectives, when milestones will be reached, how they will be measured.
- Your internal succession plan.
- The job description.
- The person specification
- The timescales you have set for your recruitment, the candidate start date.
Questions to ask the recruiters following the brief
At this meeting, make sure you also ask the agency about their own business - how long has it been operating? How much experience do the consultants have within the manufacturing and engineering sector? What areas within the industrial recruitment market do they particularly specialise in? What recruitment process will they adopt? Can they recruit online as well as by traditional means? What are their charges? What are their success rates on retained assignments? How do they interview, do they use competency based interviewing techniques? What media will they advertise in? Do they know which media gives the best results when seeking manufacturing and engineering candidates? Which job boards give best value for money? Is this an assignment for traditional media?
All of these questions will help to form an opinion as to whether this agency will be a good one to work with. See if you can get some references or case studies on similar projects they have completed in the past. It might also be appropriate to introduce the recruiter to other key stakeholders in this hire, individuals who will have a decision as to which candidate you opt for as these people might have slight variations on what they feel are important considerations.
Use this meeting as an interview; look at how the consultant questions you about your business as a guide to whether or not you think they can get the relevant information out of prospective candidates.
Once you have seen several executive search agencies, set out the pros and cons of each, taking into account how you interacted with the consultants as well as the bare facts about their business. If you feel like you've established the beginnings of a good relationship and their business has taken the time to understand yours, and has all the things in place to provide a good recruitment service, then you're likely to get what you want from them.
Lastly, once you have chosen your recruiter it is important to lay out the rules of engagement. What is the project plan, what timescales are you working to, how the communication shall be carried out.
This process itself will take time; however it is certainly a valuable step when looking to recruit a key individual who will have a huge impact on your business.
Selecting an appropriate Executive Recruitment company to run your project is in itself a critical decision and getting it right can make the difference between having a thorough, professionally run campaign or a badly coordinated campaign with your organisation being unprofessionally represented. Therefore before you choose a recruitment company there are a number of recommend steps that you should take.
Steps to selecting an appropriate recruitment company
The first step would be to get a few recommendations from people who have utilised the services of sector specific head-hunters who operate within the Manufacturing and Engineering market. Working with a recruiter that specialises in the placement of manufacturing and engineering jobs, who has a good understanding of the nuances within the sector is vital, otherwise how would they able to benchmark the abilities of a candidate? It is also worth considering speaking to people who have experienced manufacturing and engineering recruiters as a candidate, and asking questions such as: How professional was the company? What was the communication like? How did they represent their client? Did they demonstrate a thorough understanding of engineering and manufacturing? Would you class them as experts in manufacturing and engineering recruitment?
Once a number of possible manufacturing and engineering recruitment companies have been identified, the next important step is to have initial conversations. Like any project, the compatibility of the project team is critical and by having a short discussion you should get a feel as to whether you could work with these businesses or not. Following these calls you now should have two or three potential recruiters who you should then meet face to face.
Within these face to face meetings it would be advisable to give the recruiters an insight into your organisation and the role you are looking to fill before then asking the recruiters up front as to how they would run the assignment and fill the job.
Typically in these meetings, organisations will often spend time discussing the technical aspects of the role, the desired skill sets, the desired knowledge base of prospective candidates and their qualifications. However, in order to get the best out of your recruiter, there is other important information that you will need to pass on.
Information to pass on during your meetings with executive recruiters
Firstly you should give the recruiter an overview of your organisation, tell them the company life story, where you have come from, where you are looking to achieve, what your business strategy is. Then you should look at how you are going to achieve this, through what means, what are your tactics. Then you should consider the objectives, when you are looking to hit certain milestones, when will you get there and how these milestones will be measured. Furthermore it is worth discussing your company's succession plans, what are the limitations of the other people within your senior management team, what are the strengths. As part of the brief it is also important to highlight the development and training that will offered to the successful candidate, what guidance and direction will they get, if this direction will be given by you, other internal resources or will this training be outsourced to third party providers.
By spending time discussing the above, you will yourself develop the "recruitment policy" for this appointment. The recruitment policy which is typically made up of 3 key areas: Motivations/ Aspirations of the individual, the desired skills and desired qualifications are what the recruiter will need to be armed with in order to run the project successfully.
The key areas to cover in the brief
- What your organisation does, its turnover, number of employees, hierarchical structure.
- The history of the business.
- An overview of your competitors.
- Your organisation goals/ business strategy.
- Your company's business tactics i.e. how your organisation is to achieve the company goals.
- The business objectives, when milestones will be reached, how they will be measured.
- Your internal succession plan.
- The job description.
- The person specification
- The timescales you have set for your recruitment, the candidate start date.
Questions to ask the recruiters following the brief
At this meeting, make sure you also ask the agency about their own business - how long has it been operating? How much experience do the consultants have within the manufacturing and engineering sector? What areas within the industrial recruitment market do they particularly specialise in? What recruitment process will they adopt? Can they recruit online as well as by traditional means? What are their charges? What are their success rates on retained assignments? How do they interview, do they use competency based interviewing techniques? What media will they advertise in? Do they know which media gives the best results when seeking manufacturing and engineering candidates? Which job boards give best value for money? Is this an assignment for traditional media?
All of these questions will help to form an opinion as to whether this agency will be a good one to work with. See if you can get some references or case studies on similar projects they have completed in the past. It might also be appropriate to introduce the recruiter to other key stakeholders in this hire, individuals who will have a decision as to which candidate you opt for as these people might have slight variations on what they feel are important considerations.
Use this meeting as an interview; look at how the consultant questions you about your business as a guide to whether or not you think they can get the relevant information out of prospective candidates.
Once you have seen several executive search agencies, set out the pros and cons of each, taking into account how you interacted with the consultants as well as the bare facts about their business. If you feel like you've established the beginnings of a good relationship and their business has taken the time to understand yours, and has all the things in place to provide a good recruitment service, then you're likely to get what you want from them.
Lastly, once you have chosen your recruiter it is important to lay out the rules of engagement. What is the project plan, what timescales are you working to, how the communication shall be carried out.
This process itself will take time; however it is certainly a valuable step when looking to recruit a key individual who will have a huge impact on your business.
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