Why are we still paying recruitment agency fees?

Let’s face it - how many hiring managers are fed up with paying inflated recruitment agency fees for a service, which literally involves an agent placing your vacancy advert on Job Boards and then filtering the responding CV’s through to you? Unless you have been fortunate enough to find a good agent, how many employers actually take any notice of the agent summary attached to a candidate CV submission? The reality is that if you receive a good CV, you will conduct an interview, irrespective of what the agent might say!

Well, the good news is that we finally have a solution to cut out the middleman – welcome SugarJobs.co.uk

Not another jobboard I hear you say! And yes, it would naturally seem daft to launch a brand spanking new on-line recruitment portal when there are already circa 800 Job Boards to choose from, let alone launching a new business in a recession!

So what is the logic behind SugarJobs and why enter into what would appear to be a saturated market? Well, that’s easy; despite the apparent competition, SugarJobs is truly unique and to explain why, let’s discuss the current recruitment options:

Option 1 – You can register with an agency and pay between 15 to 30% of the candidates annual salary offer. If the candidate does not work out, you loose your fee or the rebate terms are such that you cannot afford to give the new incumbent a decent chance to prove themselves!

Option 2 – You can use a traditional Job Boards (Monster, Total Jobs, CV-Library or Jobserve, etc...) and pay on a per-job posting basis. These boards are expensive and geared to servicing agencies (volume recruitment) so the likelihood is that you will spend anything from £500 per job posting and you have no guarantee of attracting response!

Option 3 – You can use one of the growing “fixed-fee” Job Boards. This service is half-agency and half-Job Board. On these portals, you will pay circa £660 to £2050 per advert for candidates to be sourced for you on the traditional boards.

The above options are less than cost-effective nor do they provide any guarantee in finding the right candidate. Frankly, it’s all a bit of a lottery and the likelihood is that you will have to repeat your job advert / fee paying several times in your quest to source the ideal person.

That is why SugarJobs have come up with Option 4 – an online portal to put employers directly in touch with jobseekers. The hiring manager joins as a subscribing member for a mere £1500 per annum in exchange for advertising an unlimited number of jobs (repeated or otherwise) and sourcing an unlimited number of candidate CV’s. And... that’s not all SugarJobs give you for your money – they will actively promote your company with banners and featured advertising links to your website.

You can also write a corporate summary to attract candidates, create CMS pages and set application filters to manage your job application response. Furthermore, you can opt for their Gold or Platinum membership, which includes use of internal resource to drive suitable JobSeeker traffic directly to your adverts. It’s nice and simple – an entire advertising and search & selection service at a fixed annual fee, no matter how many candidates you recruit! Goodbye expensive agencies and “per advert” posting boards!

Jobseekers benefit too. Registration on SugarJobs is free and candidates no longer have to be reliant on agencies – they control their own job seeking and application process without the “fob off” attitude many experience when registering with agencies.

Traditonal on-line advertising and agency placement fees are over rated and inflated! The recruitment budget for any business using these services is enormous! Which is why launching SugarJobs in a recession is not such a daft idea afterall!

SugarJobs allows you to control your recruitment budget - you pay a fixed annual subscription (half that of a single agency candidate placement fee) for unlimited advertising and CV search access. Furthermore, if SugarJobs fails to find at least one suitable candidate for you in a 12 month period, they refund your entire annual fee – You have absolutely no risk! What a fab idea!