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​You might not know this, but recruitment agencies have been around a whole lot longer than you might expect – almost 400 years to be precise. Indeed, the world’s first ever recruitment ‘agency’ was formed in London in 1653 and was called the ‘Office of Address and Encounters’. Sounds more like the name of a dating agency, to be honest.

Recruiters play a vital role in helping candidates to find the job opportunities that best reflect their skills, experience and career goals. Put another way, recruiters are matchmakers who marry up the right people with the right roles and companies at the right time. But how they do this is something that not all job seekers fully realise.

Employers increasingly turn to recruiters to fill their positions

The number of companies relying on recruitment agencies to fill their positions has been rising over the last five years, and one of the primary reasons for this is time. Time is a precious commodity that few human resources departments and hiring managers have very much of, and the recruitment process can be one of its biggest consumers.

Employers bring in recruiters like the White Horse team to take on many aspects of their hiring activity, from writing job descriptions and promoting the role to organising interviews and finalising offers and contracts. This saves the employer masses of time and can often speed up the hiring process itself with interviews-to-offer taking days or a few weeks rather than several weeks or even months.

Giving you the edge over other applicants

You will know from your own experience that looking for a new job is a job in itself. It takes considerable time updating your CV, searching for advertised roles, sending off applications, and attending interviews. If you have been out of the job market for some time, you may be a little rusty. This is where a recruiter can be invaluable.

They can help you create and refine your application based on their insight into what that employer is looking for in their ideal candidate. Recruiters will also be able to help you prepare for interview and give you advice on how to present yourself in a way that will position you as a candidate of choice.

Additionally, recruiters can provide helpful feedback on your interview performance and, if successful in landing the role, provide tips on negotiating your new salary and benefits package.

Enabling you to tap into the ‘hidden’ jobs market

The jobs you see advertised are a fraction of those that are available within your chosen discipline at any one time. Many more are ‘hidden’ from public view and the reserve of recruiters whose job is to go ‘into’ the market and proactively seek out those candidates who best match the needs of their clients, whther they be for jobs in HR, Sales and Marketing, Technology, Accountancy & Finance, Admin, or Operations.

Recruiters have a vast network of employers with whom they will have often long-standing relationships with. They can use these contacts to help candidates get a foot in the door at companies that could be a perfect fit for them but would have been unknown without the recruiter, as the positions were not publicly advertised. Recruitment agencies may not be your first port of call when it comes to finding your next role, and you may even have had a poor experience when working with one in the past. But not all agencies are the same.

The difference between a good and a great recruitment consultant is their ability to understand your career goals, your motivations, and your ideal employer. They will only match you to a role that is ‘right’ for you and the employer they represent. That’s why White Horse has continued to be the agency of choice for job seekers and employers alike for 35 years.

Perhaps we can help you meet your career goals in 2023?