If you’re looking to recruit for your automotive industry business you may find yourself needing the help of an automotive industry recruiter or recruitment agency. But how do you choose the right recruiter to work with?
There are many things to consider when selecting an automotive industry recruitment agency. In this article I will take you through a check-list which will help you identify the best recruiter for your needs. This should ideally be someone you’ll enjoy working with and can trust to deliver the best outcome.
What do you need from a recruiter?
The level and type of service offered varies between agencies. A good place to start is to define exactly what it is that you need from an agency.
- What are the salary levels or grades of your vacancies?
- Are you looking for someone to help with multiple vacancies or a single position?
- What type of function(s) are your vacancies?
- How crucial are the role(s) to your business’ success?
- What are your time-scales?
- What level of service are you looking for – what’s important to you?
How to source a recruiter for your automotive business
Once you have defined your needs, you can start searching for the right agency to help you. A good place to start is to draw up a short-list of potential agencies. You then need to do your due diligence to identify the best agency partner for your business.
Initial research
- Ask your colleagues or peers
- Google search
- LinkedIn – see which recruiters are active on LinkedIn within your industry sector.
- Ask AI – type in as specific a question as possible to get the best results
Dig deeper to check credentials and specialisms
- Checkout their website and socials. Take a look at Julia Pennington’s LinkedIn page.
- Do their specialisms align with your needs. See Copeland’s recruitment specialisms.
- Is their social proof compelling?
- Do you have any mutual contacts – perhaps message someone and ask for a reference
Make contact with the recruiter
- Ask for an initial exploratory call.
- How quickly do they take to respond?
- Check who you are speaking to – is it the business owner or an employee?
- Do they ask you lots of questions? A good recruiter will have lots of questions for you too. They will want to be sure that they can offer you a good service and that your needs align with their skills and specialisms.
Questions to ask automotive recruitment agencies
Its good practice to have a pre-prepared list of questions that you ask all your shortlisted agencies. That way you will be able to compare them accurately and make an informed decision based on who you wish to work with. Making a simple spreadsheet is a quick and easy way to do this. Your choice of recruitment agency can have a profound effect on your business. You need to be confident in your decision and able to justify it to internal line managers or other stakeholders.
Here are 10 key questions you should be asking any potential recruitment partner are:
1. What’s your area of specialism?
Using an agency who specialises in your industry and job types will be a great advantage. They will know your market and be able to quickly understand your business and job roles. Additionally, they should be able to easily access the right candidates. Ask them what roles they have filled recently. At Copeland Automotive Recruitment we publish a list of our Filled Vacancies.
2. How long have you been recruiting in our industry?
A recruiter who has been working in your industry sector for a large number of years will be likely to have a greater depth of knowledge as well as a much wider reach and bigger network. For example, Julia Pennington, MD of Copeland Automotive recruitment has been recruiting for the automotive industry for over 25 years and has a LinkedIn network of over 24,000.
3. What other employers do you recruit for?
Get proof that an agency is the expert they claim to be. Ask them which other businesses they recruit for in your industry sector and the types of positions they have filled for these employers. Ideally they should be able to give you testimonials or case studies of previous work.
4. What services to you offer?
Some agencies will offer more then one level of service, this could include retained or contingency services. At Copeland Automotive Recruitment we offer different services to match the needs of our employer clients.
5. Do you work on a sole or multiple agency basis?
If you are looking to appoint more than one agency to work on a given vacancy, be sure to ask the agencies if they are able to work on this basis. Be aware that having multiple agencies working on your vacancy is not necessarily the best course of action as it can lead to agencies being less motivated to work on your role, the market being flooded with your vacancy, candidates being contacted multiple times about your vacancy (potentially lowering its value).
Many executive search agencies work on a sole agency basis. This will sometimes just be for a limited time period. There are a number of benefits to you, the employer of engaging an agency in this way – particularly for more senior or sensitive positions. These include;
- The agency is 100% motivated to work on your job vacancy and will prioritise it
- The market is not flooded and candidates will only be contacted once. This protects your company brand and image in the job market.
- You and your recruiter have control of the job. The recruiter can assess all potential candidates and only you send you the best ones – speeding up the time and efficiency of the hiring process
6. What is your recruitment process?
It’s imortant to find out what the agency will be doing for you and what you will be paying for. Your should need to know:
- What’s their briefing process at the start of a job? How will they ensure they have sufficient knowledge of your business, the job vacancy and candidate requirements?
- How will they source candidates? Will they just access candidates on their database or will they spread the net more widely and include marketing campaigns and/or headhunting to source the best people?
- How they will screen and interview candidates?
- How will candidates be presented to you – will they just send CVs or a detailed report to accompany each CV?
7. How long will it take to provide a candidate shortlist?
Beware of agencies who promise you a full shortlist in a very short time period (1 or 2 days). It takes time to do a proper job of sourcing, selecting and interviewing the best candidates. Using digital technology and efficient processes a quality search and selection process should be completed within 2 to 4 weeks – depending on the nature and complexity of the job.
8. What guarantees do you offer?
A standard candidate guarantee for contingency work may be 2 to 3 months – usually on a sliding scale rebate. For executive search or retained work you may be offered longer guarantee periods of up to 6 months or a money back option. Make sure you know exactly what the agency is offering.
9. What added value services do you offer?
A good recruitment agency, should be able to offer you support beyond simply sourcing candidates. This could include help with job description writing or advice on interview processes. It may also extend to providing advice on remuneration packages and benefits. The annual Copeland Automotive Industry Salary Guide is a much valued resource for our clients and candidates.
10. How much do you charge?
Finally the question you’ve probably been waiting to ask – how much do you charge? By asking the other questions first you should now understand what you will be getting for your money and be able to make an informed decision. Agencies typically charge a percent of the basic salary of the job being filled. This can range from 12% to 30%. You should also check whether the agency will charge you on a ‘success-only’ basis or whether they will charge an element of their fee as an up-front retainer.
As with any purchase, the cheapest is not necessarily the best. Most important is to ensure you’re getting good value for money and are being paid a fair market rate for the services being offered.
Next steps
If you’d like to learn more about Why Employers Choose Copeland and our recruitment processes, contact Julia Pennington and arrange an exploratory call to discuss how we can help you build your team.
Further Reading:
Automotive Industry Salary Guide
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