Starting a recruitment agency from scratch, and without any previous experience, may sound like a foolish idea. However, in reality, it isn’t an immensely difficult task if you know where to look, even without spending an actual workday as a recruiter beforehand.
So, how do you do it? In this article, we’ll show you.
What Do Recruitment Agencies Do?
Simply put, recruitment agencies specialise in finding suitable candidates for specific jobs. The agencies are often connected to large employers, corporations, and other businesses that outsource to the recruitment agencies. Often, they are connected to employment agencies that cover job advertisements, contracts, accommodations, and payroll for these companies.
Let’s say you want to establish a recruitment agency in the EU to connect with Dutch companies because of the market shortage there in different sectors. In this case, you want to hire an employment agency instead of going to an employer directly.
It’s also common for recruiters to specialise in particular sectors or industries. Some focus on the IT sector, especially where there’s a huge demand for them, while others are looking for factory workers, drivers, and other blue-collar experts.
When talking about the legal side of things, recruitment agencies can have many legal statuses, depending on the jurisdiction or country they fall under. Most commonly, these agencies are LLCs, giving owners limited liability protection and more control over how they run the business and their taxes.
Agencies can also be partnerships, proprietorships, and you may find some experts working as freelance recruitment experts. All in all, there are several legal options you can choose from, based on your requirements and other circumstances.
Starting a Recruitment Agency Step-By-Step
Establishing Your Objectives and Industry
When starting, it’s essential to lay down the foundations. In this case, select an industry you’ll be focusing on. Without any previous experience, you can focus your attention on any industry you’d like, however, there are some considerations you should be aware of:
- Price: It’s natural to want to enter a well-paying industry. For instance, employers are willing to pay well for recruitment agencies to find programmers. As such, IT may seem like a good idea, but it might not be the best area without any prior experience.
- Demand: The more a company is willing to pay for a candidate, the harder it is to find said expert. Finding an IT expert with 15 years of experience may take you several weeks or even months. On the other hand, if you do manage to find someone, they may have unrealistic terms that won’t work for the employer. In contrast, finding factory workers is simpler. And even if the payoff is smaller, employers are usually looking for multiple people for several positions. Chances are, by the time you find the right IT expert, you have successfully recruited several blue-collar workers.
- Competition: There is a high number of recruiters, no matter the industry, so this is another factor to take into consideration.
Register Your Recruitment Agency
Now that you have an idea of where you’d start, it’s time to take action by registering your agency. Remember that each European country has its own regulations and laws regarding these processes, but it’s pivotal to follow the rules and adhere to the law.
Going into the legal specifics would be cumbersome, but the most obvious benefit of the process is that it will add credibility and authority to your name and brand. Employment agencies and employers often perform background checks before signing contracts, so having a registered agency is a must.
Establishing a Digital Presence
This might seem a bit far-fetched, but not having a commanding digital presence nowadays will surely doom your recruitment business. Now, we’re not going to discuss fully-fledged marketing strategies, but we will touch base on the importance of having your basic branding, company email, and website design out of the way.
Branding
First things first, you need a brand. Your brand is what gives character to your agency, and your branded assets, such as your logo, are what make you memorable and stand out from the rest. From color schemes to typography and messaging, branding can be a complex process, but it’s necessary to differentiate yourself.
Company Email
Next up, having a professional email address is also a must. It’s more or less the first thing people see during most online communications, and it reinforces your professionalism and expertise. The easiest way to go about this is with the help of Google Workspace, where you create your account, add a domain, create an email, and proceed to payment.
Building a Website for Your Recruitment Agency
To create your company email, you also need to build your website. While this is best left for professionals, you can also opt for a handful of inexpensive tools that allow you to create a basic site with your services, pricing, contact info, and other essentials.
On that note, did you know that you can build a website for free? Solutions like Wix offer you a myriad of features and even help you on the fly to add the necessary pages and features. On the other hand, you may also consider other platforms that are equally great, such as WordPress.
Regarding hosting, Bleuhost has a few great plans that are fairly inexpensive, and adding a domain name will also set you back a bit. All in all, you don’t have to worry about previous experience in coding or website building. You will need several days to finish everything if you have never done it before, but you will have a good-looking website. There might be some other expenses, such as additional features or plugins that you want to add to keep your site secure. Either way, you can have your website up and running for no more than $200 a year.
Getting Clients
Now, it’s time to get your first client. This is where things start getting interesting, and here are a few considerations we’d like to highlight.
Decide on a Business Model for Your Recruitment Agency
How will you charge your clients? Will it be one-off payments or a fee per worked hour? What happens after the candidates have completed the paid work hours? Will then employers take them over free of charge or for a fee?
There are different types of recruitment models, and the employers will be interested in business-related specifics, so ensure that you have everything in place before finding your first client.
We’ve already talked about the straightforward nature of blue-collar recruitment. As such, look for clients who are looking for candidates who aren’t overly difficult to find.
Such employers, especially those in the Netherlands, often look for recruits through an agency, and they have experience working with people like you. They will be easier to contact, and they can likely use your help to fill out the positions they have.
How you pitch the companies is up to you, but some of the options include:
- Sending out cold emails
- Cold calling
- Contacting businesses through LinkedIn
- Connecting with agencies through Hire Abroad
In all of these cases (except if you join Hire Abroad), you have to think about what you are sending out and always be clear about your message.
The search and pitching may become cumbersome, and at times, you may even start to question yourself and whether you are in the right industry. Imposter syndrome can be a real problem, but if you do your job well and find qualified candidates that employers hire, they will be eager to recommend you to other businesses as well.
If the searching feels overly daunting, you can always join Hire Abroad. We already have thousands of open vacancies, and your services are much needed. You can start earning from the moment you register your agency, without the need to search for any clients!
As much as employers and employment agencies do a background check on your recruitment business, you also need to check the employment agencies. For instance, if you find clients in the Netherlands, see if they belong to branch organisations such as ABU or NBBU.
These organisations gather all the employment agencies and make sure that they follow all the rules and adhere to the collective labour agreement, but they also provide protection and ensure they have a say in constructing laws and agreements regarding employment and recruitment in this country.
Sign a Contract
Only after landing a contract with a client can you start recruiting. Discuss the client’s need and study the contract to be on the same page with the client and know exactly what is expected of you before you proceed.
Also, with the contract signed, you’ll know everything about payments and strategies for your recruitment. Some employers only want you to forward them to potential clients, while others make it necessary for you to interview them as well. These are all the details that you will agree on with your clients.
Search for People
This is where the fun begins! You’ve got a contract, the positions need to be filled, and all you have left is finding the right person for the job. The easiest way to do so is to create a job ad and post it on popular websites.
While posting may cost money, but it will quickly attract a substantial number of candidates. You may also publish job ads elsewhere, like on LinkedIn, to expand your search. Once you close the applications, you’ll need to sort through the CVs and see which candidates you will invite for an interview. For the latter, you will need to practice your interviewing skills to better assess your candidates.
After the interview, you can forward candidates to the client, with possibly setting up the meetings between candidates and the employers. Then, the candidate either gets picked or not. You can learn from every decline, see what was missing and better understand what your clients are looking for.
If they do select someone, congratulations! You’ve fully closed the loop. But this isn’t where it all stops. Many more vacancies and employers need your assistance.
As you gain experience and grow your network, it will be much easier to find suitable candidates. You’ll also be looking for multiple people for different businesses, but you will also know which candidates to choose and which to skip.
Hire Abroad Is the Perfect Place for New Recruiters
Work can get hectic in recruitment agencies, and often, your duties are less about finding candidates, but more about signing deals, process tracking, handling fiances and more. Things can get overwhelming, especially if you are planning to grow on the international market.
Hire Abroad makes most of these processes a breeze both for experienced and newcomer agencies. From providing a large pool of vacancies and clients from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germay. The user-friendly enables you to shift your focus on candidate search while simultaneously building your brand, and getting operational processes done.
We can help your new recruitment agency get off to a quick start or help you get out of the rut. Recruitment companies can join Hire Abroad free of charge! Do you have a recruitment agency and don’t know who to turn to for help? Have any questions for us?
Let’s talk!
