RECRUITMENT AGENCY AND EMPLOYMENT BUREAU: WHAT IS IT, WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES?

Here you will learn:

• what is a recruitment agency (hereinafter referred to as KA);
• what is an employment agency (bureau);
• which of them should you contact to find a job and which of them should be paid.

What is a CA and an employment agency and what are their differences, we will reveal in this article. Until now, many job seekers and employers stubbornly call these two different types of companies under the same concept “recruitment agency”. And some employment companies often call themselves a “recruitment agency,” which contributes to the general misconception. Let us define each of these companies.

WHAT IS A RECRUITMENT AGENCY

A recruitment agency is a commercial organization that receives income from the employing company for selecting a candidate for a vacancy. The service provided by such a company is provided only to the employer as a client.

The service is not provided to the applicant, so the applicant does not pay the recruitment agency for his employment. And the very fact of employing a candidate with the help of a recruitment agency is the result of a completed application for personnel selection, the result of a successfully provided recruitment service for the employing company.

Recruitment agencies are interested in selecting for the client enterprise the most suitable specialist for the qualification requirements of the application. Employing companies pay such KAs a large fee for recruiting personnel, so they try to indicate the highest possible requirements for the candidate’s qualifications in the application for personnel selection. Recently, CAs that engage in personnel selection for companies are increasingly called  recruiting agencies and staffing agencies .

WHAT IS AN EMPLOYMENT AGENCY

An employment agency is a commercial organization that receives income from a job seeker for providing him with paid services in the field of job search.
Types of services:
1) searching and finding a vacancy for the applicant at the enterprise, where he then went to work;
2) providing the applicant with a paid certificate about the availability of vacancies at enterprises.

The service provided by such an agency is provided only to the applicant as a client, so the applicant pays the employment agency . The employing company does not provide the service, so it does not pay for the selection of a specialist who was hired with the help of an employment agency. Other names for similar companies: employment bureau and labor exchange .

There are two types of employment agencies:

Type 1 - they receive the main income from the fact that the applicant is employed, and additional income from related services, for example, from services for sending out his resume to employer vacancies. Receiving the main income from the fact that the applicant is employed motivates such agencies to carefully search for suitable vacancies.
2nd type - who receive income only from providing the applicant with information (certificate) about the employer’s vacancies, i.e. from providing him with information and consulting services.

I would like to note the peculiarities of the work of type 2 employment offices. Typically, such companies receive basic information about vacancies from open sources, such as the Internet. They find vacancies published by employing companies (direct employers), then duplicate these same vacancies in other open sources (for example, job sites) and receive a “stream” of people looking for work.

And since the income of such an agency is formed from providing the applicant with a certificate of vacancies, then, for a low fee, they try to conclude an agreement for the provision of information services with everyone who comes to their office. Next, the applicant, having received information about the vacancy, which is not always relevant (!), must independently contact the employing company. These agencies are not interested in employing a person who has already paid for their services. You can easily find bad reviews about such companies on the Internet.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EMPLOYMENT

If you are a job seeker, then you need to clearly define what kind of job you are looking for (in what specialty), then you can call all the CAs in your region and ask them about the availability of the vacancy that interests you. You can simply send your resume to KA by email. If some agency has an application from a client company for a specialist with the work experience that you have, then an employee of the recruiting firm (the recruiter who is working on this application) will promptly contact you and invite you for an interview. But at the same time, you will participate in a competition from several candidates for one vacancy.

If there are no offers from the KA, but you are ready to spend money for employment, then it is better to contact a type 1 employment agency.
Also, be sure to search for jobs using job sites. Finding a job through job sites is the best way to find a job today . Plus, it's free. Posting your resume and accessing vacancies from employing companies on all sites is free. You only need to post a competent resume and apply for those vacancies that suit you. Even if you don’t find suitable vacancies, you can always be found on these sites and offered a job by both direct employers and KA recruiters.

And if you represent the interests of an employing company and you need a qualified specialist, then you must understand that you can only receive high-quality personnel selection services on a paid basis. Those. by submitting an application for recruitment to a recruitment agency. If you need unqualified personnel, you can contact employment companies, preferably type 1, and inform them that you have open vacancies.