Recruitment Agencies

[Stingray]

Hi Everybody,

since the crisis began most jobs on offer go through a recruitment agency. The ones of us with no permanent job are so to say at their mercy.

Dealing with this for more than a year, I started wondering about some aspects of this business. So I would like to ask the pprune community:

Can you help me with some answers to the following questions?

1.) Why are so many agencies recruiting for the same jobs? There must be more than 5 agencies offering contracts with Korean for example? Why would an airline want to work with multiple recruiters?

2.) Who is defining the requirement for the jobs on offer? Is it the airline or the recruiter or both? Unfortunately the requirements seem to be so standardized that you only have a chance to get a good contract if you have a certain experience profile. Abilities apparently don't really matter, it's just the xxx hours on type and so on.

3.) What is your opinion: are these recruiters good for us pilots, and/or the airline?

I feel that they are making it harder, I would so much prefer to talk to an airline directly.

[P-T]

The way I see it is that the agencies tend to be giving me useless information on a daily basis. I get emails offering me A330 command jobs when I'm a low hours B757 FO and that's just the latest example.

I haven't found any of them useful or even helpful when I speak to them. Every flying job I've gone for and had interviews for have come direct from the airlines website. I find this the best source of info and even when my experience wasn't quite what they were asking for at least then you can talk direct and try and convince them to consider you anyway.

Doesn't quite answer your question but that's the best opinion and experiance I ahve on the issue.

[Capot]

answers to the following questions1. Because the airlines try to set up a situation in which each agency tries to undercut the rest, and ask several to supply for the same job. This usually guarantees the worst service from the agency/ies that get the job, but the bean-counters go home proud of their work.

2. The agency can only recruit to the specification provided by its customer, while doing its polite best to get the customer to provide one at all, apart from "gissa Airbus/Boeing pilot".

3. If the agencies were not there, you would have to spend your day trying to contact directly the people you think may need your services; if and when this succeeds you're on your own with tax, terms, insurance, etc etc if you are a contractor, to say nothing of the fact that the agency must pay you promptly while an airline that employs you directly feels no such obligation.

There are good agencies, bad agencies and crooked agencies. Your skill is identifying a few good ones that their airline clients trust, and doing all you can to make it easy for them to sell your services. And yes, the good ones do earn every penny of the mark-up. The bad ones don't. A good agency will have large cash reserves against the fact that they pay contractors on time while their customers take 2 months if they don't collapse outright. A bad agency can only pay you when their customer pays.

[TRon]

Also...Old recruitment trick.

1. Advertise a bogus job, or one you filled.
2. CV's flow in
3. Call each person. Ask them their experience, where they want to work etc.
4. Ask them where they have been for interview already. Who did they meet. What were they asked.
5. Thanks goodbye, email ever now again mass email to make them feel you are doing something bu reality they are doing nothing.
6. Call the company you just gave them where you went to be interviewed, ask specifically for the decision maker you met at your interview bypassing the gatekeeper often..'Hi I'm bloggs from Crooked Recruitment and I understand your hiring for F/O's, I have 1000 type rated, readily available F/O's on whatever your offering minus £100 that can start yesterday. Oh and we are cheaper than Parc Aviation...'

Standard trick..There are a lot more sinister and frankly illegal practices in recruitment which I wont go into, but that is the industry..

[Bruce Wayne]

in addition to the above, A recruitment agent I know is getting excessively p*ssed off with being asked to fill available openings and providing suitable candidates, that are never called forward for an interview and then being told the opening is not available 'now' and having to go through the same procedure a couple of months down the line.

His take on it is that recruitment agents are providing data of 'potential candidates' available for a 'potential position' that does not exist, it is merely a way of providing data to negotiate current contracts down wards and leaving the employer in a position to re-negotiate rates with the line if your wont do it for 'x', there's 'y' amount of people right now who will.

Also, many jobs that they are presented with already have candidates selected, however, the employer is fulfilling requirements in advertising a job, even though, technically its not available.

it's p*ssing him off as if his company doesn't fill vacancies, they don't earn income either.

[michaelknight]

Latest one is I have seen "NEW AND IMPROVED T & C" and they are the same as two years before.

I also saw conditions from an agency recently where 2 years ago hotel accommodation was provided now it's not. :*

MK

[Stingray]

Thanks guys, that gives me some explanations for all the weird stuff happening out there !

[pyracantha]

Agencies.... happy to speak to you whilst you are earning them money, but as soon as anything even approaches hard work, they just shut-up shop and hope you go away. I wonder how many of these 'premier' agencies have laid off their consultants lately, probably none as they use it as a tax dodge anyway. They are down there with Estate agents and Polititians.

But now the major companies have HR departments, not personnel departments, they need someone else to do their hiring and firing. An agency can fire you with scant regard to employee's rights...... Redundancies? Thing of the past.

[al446]

It is politicians not polititians. Sorry to be pedantic. And employment agencies are almost lower than any other form of life on this planet, they come just after war criminals. And some airline CEOs.