Personnel consulting and recruitment

The possibility of outsourcing recruitment processes relieves many companies and HR departments. SMEs in particular often lack expertise or the capacity for efficient recruitment.

But at what point does external support in recruitment make sense? How much does a recruitment agency cost and how do recruitment consultancies find candidates? And: Is there a difference between a personnel consultancy and a recruitment agency?

We would like to try to answer your questions about recruitment agencies below.

What is a recruitment agency?
In Switzerland, a distinction should be made between cantonal and private recruitment agencies. While the former are supported by public funds and are primarily aimed at employees, private recruitment agencies try to work profitably and focus on the needs of their customers. But in the private sector, a distinction must be made between staffing companies. On the one hand, there are companies that place employees with employers for a limited period of time. Here, the worker can either be employed by the client of the staffing agency or receive his salary and employment contract directly from the staffing agency.

What does a personnel consultancy do?
On the other hand, there are also personnel consultancies such as Batterman Consulting. Here, employees are mostly placed with their clients on a permanent basis. They also deal with a wide range of recruitment and employer branding issues. Additional services such as active sourcing, interviews, assessments and on-boarding are usually offered. Once the contract between employer (client) and employee has been concluded, the HR consultancy has completed its task and withdraws from the existing relationship.

At Batterman Consulting, we support clients and candidates even until the end of the probationary period. Overall, we focus on exclusive assignments from our clients: Here, we directly approach candidates locally, nationally or internationally who are not actively looking for new challenges. We make preliminary clarifications, conduct the first interviews with the candidates, accompany the onboarding and support our clients in the decision-making process.

When should a staffing agency be called in?
Based on the above figures, one can see the relevance of recruitment agencies. Obvious is the interim business, because short-term changes, failures or undercapacity require a quick response. With interim employees, such gaps can be bridged quickly and efficiently. But why do companies need support in finding permanent employees?

Companies often search for suitable successors for a long time without receiving a suitable application. Especially in the area of professionals with many years of experience and executives, applicants often lack the necessary experience. Personnel consultancies, such as Batterman Consulting, can provide support here by actively approaching candidates.

For companies, it is therefore a matter of weighing up the costs: against the placement fee of the personnel consultancy, there are the costs of the company's own recruitment process, the costs due to miscasting and the costs if deadlines are not met.

How much does a recruitment agency cost?
The calculation of the fee for a successful placement depends entirely on the personnel placement / consulting. A fixed fee per placement or a fee based on the candidate's annual income is conceivable. Recruitment agencies often charge a little less than consultancies, but they also have a reduced range of services.

How do recruitment agencies and recruitment consultancies work?
As with any other company, job advertisements are placed via various portals. This is often more favorable for placements than for companies with a low number of employees and fluctuation because of the high number of advertisements per year.

However, especially for positions in the management area, often only a few applications are received in this way. Active sourcing, as mentioned above, can be used to draw the attention of suitable candidates to the vacancy. They are found and approached via social media channels such as LinkedIn and Xing and by telephone.

Whether it is worthwhile for you to outsource the filling of your vacancy is a consideration of various cost and benefit factors. We would be happy to provide you with an offer for your vacancy. Please do not hesitate to contact us.