# Recruitment agencies?



## Ramjet2012

Can anybody recommend reputable recruitment agencies?? Moving from UK to NZ ...


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## escapedtonz

Depends what your field of expertise is ?

Also, consider looking and applying for jobs yourself as agencies aren't as good as you think. They work on commission.
Unless you're one of the best candidates on their books they won't waste any time / money looking for jobs for you and approaching potential employers for you.
You'll still have to do a lot of the leg work, research etc yourself and have to force the agency to act on your behalf.
In my experience they were useless.
Gave up on them after 6 weeks and started applying for vacancies myself and within another 6 weeks I'd had 4 or 5 interviews and 2 written offers on the table.


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## Song_Si

as above; what your field of expertise is? 

reputable. Many have 'reputations'. There are a few (very few) international companies for specialised positions, who may be hired to head-hunt for a specific role.

Like real estate agents (another parasitic occupation), it can be more a matter of an individual consultant then the company they work for. 



> In my experience they were useless.


well, yes, in many instances. Adequate for short-term temp workers where advertising/interview and selection processes are not practical time-wise, but for careers I'd suggest in most cases do the work yourself. 

*******

2000-2008 I worked as in-house recruiter for medium-large organisations (3000 down to 800 staff) in NZ; one of my performance indicators, and this was linked to annual bonus, was reducing or eliminating the need for recruitment agency candidates.

20% of first year's salary was fairly standard fee at that time. Some had 'introduction fees' on top of this, plus costs of whatever advertising they undertook on employer'e behalf. 

They may advertise non-existent roles in an effort to build their talent pool; once you have signed with an agency you are 'theirs'. 

Working for a nationwide government Ministry, apart from attempt to cut back on recruitment costs, some branches simply did not have a budget for recruitment agency fees, therefore could not accept their applications.

For govt/large organisations there should be clear recruitment processes, there can be no 'short cuts' and each candidate assessed against the required competencies; there is no advantage from being an agency candidate (in fact the fee can be a disadvantage) - esp for govt where there should be very clear selection criteria as an appointment may be subject to appeal. 

If you do choose to enrol/contract to an agency - check a few things. Do you have a consultant working for you, or are you simply being added to their candidate pool 'in case something comes up'. Ask who their major clients are - do they have any preferred supplier relationships with companies in your sphere of work? How long has your consultant worked in the business? How often will he/she contact you with progress?


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## topcat83

Good insight, Song-Si.
And our company definitely doesn't use agents - we post our ads directly onto Seek.


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## Ramjet2012

Thank you. We are using ' the immigration group' to help with the PR application. They have their own recruitment agency they use, at a fee, and is our choice wether we use them. 
Maybe this is the best way forward for us... As if they can't find us a position ( suitable position) then we can't proceed with our PR application ... As the companies are linked it is in their best interest ?


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## jsharbuck

If you are lucky a recruiter will market you for a few days. If no response, given that most work on 100 percent commission, you are filed away. 90 percent of recruiters do not make it to the year point and so you are likely to get someone inexperienced and probably unable to overcome the fee issue of 20 to 33%.

We answered an ad in May through a recruiter out of Auckland for a Boiler Engineer Department Head. We went through the interview process and had an invite to come for an on-site interview in June. When my husband met with the department heads, he was presented with a totally different job description. The job not only did not exist but turned out to be the bosses job description. Let me assure you the screw up was totally the recruiters fault. We were given a few days while the company discussed the issue and he was offered and accepted the other position.

The recruiter listed dozens of jobs filled but I suspect they were job orders he may have taken but were filled by the companies or by other firms. It worked out for us but no thanks to the recruiter. Make sure that you interview your recruiter. What experience does he have, does he specialize. Ask for references but also be aware for frauds. Also beware that on site interviews are paid or by the candidates and are reimburse only with a job offer. I would take the opportunity to call on potential companies and set up your own interviews while you are over here. 

Best of luck


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## Song_Si

phew . . .I'm having flashbacks! four years since I left the Human Resources world and barely give it a thought these days. I may need hypnotherapy to recover from this!

*******

This is taken from a survey conducted in 2009 on New Zealand recruitment agencies - I doubt much has changed



> *The OCG Consulting survey of 11,000 candidates over the last six months examined the treatment the job seekers received from recruitment agencies compared to when they dealt with employers directly.*
> 
> Respondents were asked to rate their level of satisfaction in four categories on a five-point scale from ‘excellent’ to ‘poor’.
> 
> Recruitment agencies were rated poor more often than employers in every category.
> 
> In ‘overall standard of care’ a whopping 23% of recruitment agencies were rated poor, compared to 16% of employers.
> 
> The ‘communication skills’ (19%/14%), ‘follow-up’ (23%/20%) and ‘level of understanding’ (17%/11%) categories continued this trend.
> 
> At the other end of the scale, only 5% of employers and recruiters were rated as excellent for overall standard of care.
> source


and - quite insulting to zoo monkeys everywhere!!



> One respondent opined, “I get the impression that many (recruitment consultants) have no ability to assess the quality of my background and experience nor do they recognise from my CV how I have been able to change and adapt to roles.
> 
> “In short, I wonder if the monkeys at Auckland Zoo are given piles of CVs to stick pins in.”


and from a linked article



> OCG general manager Carol Dallimore says the “low entry level” to the recruiting industry is a big part of the problem.
> 
> “You have to sit an exam to become a real estate agent, but if you want to start a recruitment agency you can just waltz into an office and start one tomorrow.”


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## Ramjet2012

Oh dear ... Thanks very much for all your feedback. Lets hope I will be able to 'report' back good news in a few weeks or months time.


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## Song_Si

*Recruitment agency fees*

with reference to Post #3 - another approach from a NZ company to avoid the extortion of recruitment agency fees

$10,000 would be a huge saving on the usual 20% of first year's salry charged by a recruitment co - also note it is a 'first year bonus' which I am guessing means it is paid out after one year's employment. Compare this to the 20% fee which is 1. paid up front before employment starts and 2. generally non-refundable after three months employment - all the employer gets is an agent/_parasite_ offering to '_help you again?_'

___________________


> *Xero chases talent with $10,000 lure*
> 25/04/2013
> 
> *Xero is offering software developers in Wellington a first-year bonus of $10,000 if they skip a recruitment agency and land a job with the company direct.*
> 
> Human resources director Natasha Hubbard said the Wellington-based accounting software provider would continue to use recruitment agencies, which she said "served a purpose", but their fees were high.
> 
> Xero is enjoying stellar growth and took on 200 staff around the world last year.
> 
> Hubbard said it had 25 vacancies for developers on its books in Wellington alone.
> 
> "It is not necessarily about cutting agencies out but it is about enticing that great developer who might be quite passive about their next career move.
> 
> "They may be spoilt for choice, there are so many companies like ours that are in rapid recruitment mode."
> 
> Since developers were highly sought after, it was an "easy option" for them to outsource job-hunting to an agency, but it was always an advantage if people put themselves forward, she said.
> 
> Hubbard said Xero set up its own in-house recruitment team 18 months ago in part to help reduce the fees it paid to agencies.
> 
> It now employed four people to scour job boards and social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter, scouting for talent.
> 
> Julie Mills, Melbourne-based chief executive of the Information Technology and Recruitment Association, a trans- Tasman body which represents IT recruitment agencies in New Zealand and Australia, said she had seen similar incentives offered occasionally, but "certainly not of that value".


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## dshah

=Hi,
We are planning to move to newzealand on skilled migrant visa category. I am a software professional. I have heard that there are a few recruitment consultant or employment consultants in newzealnd who provide end-to end service to us so that we could get a suitable job. They have different packages for different services say of eg. CV making, CV + cover letter, CV + cover letter+interview preparation etc. and they charge according to the package selected. Just wanted toknow does this really help in getting a job there of its kind of a fraud


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