Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

RECRUITMENT AGENCY USERS FEEL LIED TO

An independent recruitment agency scoring website has discovered that 70% of people asked who had looked for work through an agency felt they had been lied to.

Despite the best efforts of the recruitment industry to improve its reputation 73% of people who were asked if they had ever felt lied to by an agency about a role replied yes.

1074 people who have been to a recruitment agency looking for a new role took part in the survey for independent agency scoring site HireScores.com.

Nearly 90%* of people surveyed felt the recruitment industry should do more to increase its transparency and more worryingly 56% felt that they had been pressured into going for a role by an agency.

81% admitted that they preferred to go direct to a company about a role rather than via an agency and just over 70% felt that online job boards and forums made the recruitment process easier.

Lisette Howlett is the MD of HireScores.com and commenting on the results she said,

“The results make for worrying reading for the recruitment agency industry especially the fact that so many people feel that they were pressured into going for a role”.

She continued,

“It is not all doom and gloom for the industry though as 85% of people said that they are willing and confident enough to give ‘totally honest feedback’ on agencies if the companies themselves are willing to listen and a confidential communication mechanism is set in place”.

Already over 12 thousand people have visited Hirescores.com and respected companies such as Unilever, Woolworths, Barclays, Corus, Nissan and Deutsch Bank have also signed up to the site in order to learn more about which are the best recruitment agencies to use.

Top recruitment agencies such as Michael Page, Angela Mortimer and Robert Half have also joined the site and are encouraging their candidates to give feedback via HireScores.com.

Candidates and employers are asked to score recruitment companies on a number of set criteria and from this the performance league tables are formed. Detailed feedback is also obtained and made available through confidential reports.

The site then enables companies and candidates to freely see which recruitment agencies are considered the best by people who have already been through the process of finding a new job.

Thanks to the feedback and scoring since the launch of the site a few months ago a league table has already been formed showing the top ten recruitment agencies according to people who have been through the experience to get a new job.

No1 – Johnstones Unique Recruitment Solutions
No2 – Parkhouse Bell Ltd
No3 – Whitehall Consultants
No4 – BLT (Beament Leslie Thomas)
No5 – Heidrick & Struggles
No6 – Seltek Consultants Ltd
No7 - PSD Group
No8 – Hays IT
No9 – Chapple Limited
No10 – Sapphire Resource Group

The Hays Group recently signed up to the site and Hays IT is its first division to make the top 10. Tops scores also continue to be gained by smaller niche agencies who are able to gain new clients and candidates though strong performance and excellent ratings.

For further info or to see the recruitment agency tables so far click on to http://www.hirescores.com

High-resolution images available on request.

END

Editors Notes:

Sample size 1074
*88.6% answered yes to the question: “Do you think the recruitment agency industry should more transparent (so you can see how agencies work)?”


For further info contact Andy on 01452 527898 or andy@10yetis.co.uk


- Hire Scores website is totally independent and not linked to a job board or recruiter which makes it ideally placed to provide such information

- Hire Scores is committed to fair feedback with checks and balances in place to support this

- Free to use for all with a strong and growing knowledge centre

- Lisette has over 20 years industry experience with such firms as ICI, Zeneca/AstraZeneca and Syngenta as well as local government and the public sector.

- Hire Scores is about creating a community in the recruitment and working space supported by a forum which uniquely seeks to bring together all the elements involved in recruitment and work.