Fixed-rate agencies offer a cut-price recruitment solution for retailers

With lots of good candidates in the job market, it can be galling to pay thousands of pounds to a recruitment agency to find the perfect person.

But the recession has lead not only to more available talent but also a new breed of recruitment companies, which are promising to do the job of a traditional agency for a fraction of the cost.

Such retail recruitment specialists are working on a fixed-rate recruitment model, whereby they claim they will source candidates and fill any role for only a few hundred pounds. They include companies such as CVWow - whose prices start from £299 - Recruitment Revolution and IDTalent Direct.

Rick Southcott is director of IDTalent Direct, which was set up about 18 months ago by recruitment specialists with a traditional recruitment agency background.

“Five to 10 years ago everybody was outsourcing recruitment. Now, in the next step, people are starting to build up talent managers internally who will directly source talent, reducing the traditional recruitment agency reliance,” he says.

So how do fixed-rate recruitment agencies manage to cut costs so dramatically? Unlike traditional models, where the agency is only paid upon placement of a candidate, fixed-rate agencies are paid on every job.

However, fixed-rate agencies leave the process earlier - typically advertising, managing responses and filtering CVs to provide the retailer with a shortlist of three to five possible candidates from which point the retailer will manage the interview and selection process itself.

Southcott says the model is a valuable one for retailer recruitment teams with direct sourcing strategies. “It is easy for retailers to put jobs onto job boards but they will get a volume response and to manage that in terms of customer experience - not to mention shortlisting and filtering CVs - is a tough job,” he says.

Technology also helps to keep the price low and - unlike traditional agencies - fixed-rate agencies deal in volume. “It doesn’t tend to be ones or twos,” says Southcott.

As retailers look to cut recruitment costs - and as the move to recruit in-house continues - the fixed-rate agency is likely to increase in popularity. “There are a lot of flat-fee businesses out there that have started in the past 12 to 24 months having recognised the shift in how people are recruiting,” says Southcott.

For IDTalent Direct, retail currently accounts for about a quarter of its business and it works with a number of high street retailers but the company specialises in IT and finance roles. Later this year it will also launch a sales, marketing and HR recruitment division, and it looks like more retailers are likely to be switching to the fixed-rate model.

What You Pay For

A fixed-rate agency charges for

  • Advertising the position
  • Managing the response
  • Filtering CVs down to a manageable handful

Not included is

  • Interview arrangement
  • Offer management