The landscape of recruitment in practice is changing and in 2022 we’ve seen firsthand the enhanced results that clients see when they invest in a retained recruitment relationship.
These partnerships are built on trust and when a client makes the wise decision to outsource their recruitment for a particular post or multiple posts on an ongoing basis to just one experienced partner, they see results. And they see them quickly.
So, in today’s article we wanted to consider what a good retained relationship actually looks like and why they work so well. Let’s consider an actual case study.
Eenie, Meenie and Partners (of course we’re going to protect the identity of our valued clients!) approached us after receiving one of our weekly newsletters.
This firm had been recruiting reactively for almost a decade and were feeling the impact of that. Namely they were not prepared for the retirement of up and coming key staff and had made hasty appointments over the years due to a lack of time and money invested into their recruitment processes.
Having learned the hard way that this kind of recruitment no longer works in such a candidate led market, this firm were open to learning more about how we could work with them on a retained basis. So we were delighted to help them understand that:
- A retained recruiter will look for qualified people not actively seeking a new role in practice. They will showcase your firm, the benefits and financial package on offer to a passive market of potential candidates. This means the pool that you can fish from is so much deeper.
- A retained recruiter will focus on finding you quality candidates as opposed to a quantity of candidates. This means you’ll spend less of your valued time sifting through inappropriate CVs or interviewing accountants who won’t be the right fit.
- A retained recruiter will work to understand your business and what makes it unique. They will hold your firm’s needs at the forefront of all the work they do and all of the candidates they meet.
- You’ll hear about the best candidates before your competitors.
- You’ll shift the way you look at recruitment for the better and benefit from stronger talent attraction and a clearer strategy to bring on future talent and succession plan.
- In short, you’ll have more time, better people working for you and in the long run, though you’re investing more on your recruitment, you’ll reap the financial rewards of better hires.
Liking what they were hearing, our Partners at Eenie, Meenie et al quickly decided to sign up for a retained recruitment programme with us. Initially we focused on boosting their engine room team.
We were able to have in depth discussions with them about what rewards they could realistically offer that would really enhance their offering and help attract the best of the bunch.
For this client, flexibility, study support and a hybrid working arrangement for many staff were changes they could make that would benefit both employer and employee. We took their job descriptions and benefits and turned them into high performing job adverts.
These job adverts were boosted by our marketing team who got to work preparing digital marketing campaigns and projects on social media to attract the right pool of talent. We also threw all of our SEO resources at these roles.
Within a week we were able to present a shortlist of suitable candidates to our clients who were already delighted by the time they’d saved and the potential accountants they were to meet at interview.
Fast forward another week and the Partners were hosting second interviews for two of the best candidates and just days after that, an offer was made. The successful candidate started at the beginning of this month.
Now, this first experience of working on a retained basis with Public Practice Recruitment Ltd has led us one step further into a partnership based on trust.
We now represent this client on an ongoing retained basis, trusted with always being on the lookout for talent at a variety of levels and ensuring their best interests are represented whenever we find it. By shifting their mindset to one of ‘constant recruitment pays off’ this client is now winning more business, suffering far fewer operational headaches as a result of workforce gaps and most importantly, making a lot more money! Far more than they invested by trusting us!
Our client has absolutely no doubt in their minds that retained recruitment works for practices large and small and our Managing Director is available to discuss the varying levels at which it might work for your firm.
In a world where there are quite simply not enough accountants, leaders just can’t afford to take their eye off the game and by investing in a partnership with us, we’ll always be scouring the field of talent on your behalf.
To learn more about the benefits of retained recruitment reach out to us today for a no obligation call.
