Managing human resources is not an easy task. I am sure at some point we have all found ourselves in the situation where looking for work is taking its toll. I personally recall having finished my degree trawling the agencies, submitting CV’s, thumbing through papers and searching the internet and job centre for work. The reality is that at the same time, there were literally thousands of people in the same situation, all vying for work and a foot on the career ladder.
It was something that I moaned about constantly, begrudgingly following the same faces from one recruitment agency to the next, filling out forms at chatting about what wage I thought I was worth. There seemed to be a multitude of questions that I neither knew the answer to, nor wanted to know the answer to, but the employment agency was determined to get an answer.
What didn’t really occur to me was the massive task that lay ahead of these people to match me to the right job. Somehow I thought that they had my sole interests logged into their internal filing system and my dream job would materialise within a few hours. It transpires that this is not the way the system works and they actually have to juggle thousands of potential applicants on a database and match them up with their clients.
This is pretty big business, and quite often, I was informed by a stern looking clip board wielding recruitment consultant that if I was looking for that kind of work, I would have to be signed to their agency exclusively. I hedged my bets and figured that maybe they had my interests at heart above and beyond the other agencies. The truth is, they had probably invested in a better database management system and were confident that they could match me to my desired employment status and didn’t want another agency poaching their business.
Fair enough I say, the purpose of their existence is to provide a client with an employee, and a potential employee with work! Sourcing, selecting and screening is a task that needs to be conducted efficiently and accurately. The rate of positive matches determines the future of the employment agency themselves. Since it became apparent that they didn’t use a personally tailored system to meet my requirements – which involved keeping a picture of me on their desk as a permanent reminder of my currently unemployed status – I wondered just how on earth they go about matching personnel to position.
It transpires that a clever recruitment software system can be used, which basically logs in the details of all the folks looking for work, their skills, desired job status, and what they may be will to accept in the meantime. It also has all the client information on, from available positions, to profiles of preferred employees. Rather than a puzzle-style match the pair system, the recruitment software solution filters the information to produce possible matches for client and jobseeker.
This method is evidently more successful than the do it yourself approach that many unemployed people choose to undertake. It is also because the agency system is more successful that is making it even more difficult to source work under ones own steam. Many companies choose to only advertise through an agency as it saves money on having an in-house human resources team and it also save time and money when it comes to screening applicants. So next time you are trawling high street agencies in search of work, be thankful that a system is in place, weaving its wondrous web toward gainful employment.
