Job Agencies In The UK

With an exponentially increasing global population, the job market is a highly competitive industry with an average of 506 applications for ‘low-skilled vacancies’ in 2021 as per UK’s Job Search Stats in 2022. This article will outline the modern recruitment model and the role of job agencies to help you understand what it takes to stand out when job seeking.

What Is a Job Agency?

In a modern employment model, a ‘job agency’ or a ‘recruitment agency’ are institutions that act as the ‘middlemen’ between jobseekers and employers. Their role as intermediaries between employers and potential employees allow companies to outsource the labour of employment for a fee.

Recruitment agencies do this via online portals and advertisements to attract jobseekers into applying for the specified roles offered by a company. If a jobseeker chooses to apply by submitting a CV and cover letter, the recruitment agency is tasked with filtering said applications to find the most suitable candidates for the role in question. If a suitable candidate is found and is successful, they will be contacted and cordially invited to attend an interview with the company.

Benefits Of Outsourcing Recruitment

The main benefit of outsourcing recruitment to an external agency for a large corporation is that it allows them to solely focus on their strategic objectives as a business whilst allowing a specialised company to oversee their recruitment process. This means that a company would have ‘one less task’ when they employ a recruitment agency.

A negative to consider is that engaging the services of a recruitment agency is costly and would only be a viable option for multinational or global corporations that can afford to do so. This could be of concern to smaller or medium-sized corporations looking to compete as they would have to worry about the additional, time-consuming process of recruitment whilst their larger competitors soar ahead.

A social benefit to note with the modern introduction of recruitment agencies is that a new sector of jobs has been created that did not exist in the past. Job agencies require manpower and manual labour to function as a corporation and to effectively connect jobseekers with their prospective employers.

Industry Giants

As the tech industry is an ever-growing sector, most major companies are looking to employ individuals with ‘technology-related’ skillsets such as digital marketing and sales, IT, and software engineering. With this in mind, the top recruitment agencies in the UK tasked with liaising between jobseekers and employers specialise in the field of technology.

Recruitment agencies such as Silicon Milk Roundabout and Myriad Recruitment focus their efforts on helping tech start-ups develop their businesses by connecting them with individuals that possess the appropriate skill sets. Larger companies such as the Huntress Group and Propel specialise in a variety of areas including advertising, media, e-commerce, IT, accounting and finance to aid both start-ups and global corporations in strengthening their respective workforces.

For more information regarding the top recruitment agencies, specifically in the legal sector, have a look at the ‘Top 5 Legal Recruitment Agencies in UK’ article.

A Consumer’s Benefit

With the social, economic and corporate benefits of recruitment agencies discussed, you may be wondering, how does a recruitment agency help the average jobseeker?

As recruitment agencies specialise in overseeing the process, they put in the extra effort of ensuring job advertisements and descriptions are thorough for consumers. By doing this, the jobseeker will have a clear understanding of the jobs they apply for to determine whether they would be suitable candidates for the role.

The Applicant Tracking System

As competition in the job market is rapidly increasing due to global population growth, recruitment agencies have introduced an automated system in recent years to assist and speed up their process of filtering applications. This is referred to as the ‘Applicant Tracking System’.

The Applicant Tracking System or ‘ATS’ is an artificial intelligence algorithm implemented by recruitment agencies to scan through CVs submitted by jobseekers. These scans search the submitted resumes to determine whether the candidate has the relevant qualifications, skills and characteristics described in the job description.

As the empathetic, human element of this process has been abolished, it is important for jobseekers and applicants to understand the importance of producing an adequate and competent CV by catering it to the roles they apply for.

If you require further assistance in your application journey and legal job seeking, make sure to have a look at the ‘Training Contract Application Tips’ article as well as The Legists’ sample of an ideal CV. Best of luck!

This article was written using the following sources:

• https://entrepreneurhandbook.co.uk/recruitment/
• https://www.expatica.com/uk/directory/working/job-agencies/
• https://standout-cv.com/pages/job-search-statistics-uk

By Sufian Amizi