The Role Of Recruitment Agencies In The Retail Sector: Reasons, Selection Criteria And Importance

Role of the Recruitment Agency in the Retail Sector

Select one of the above mentioned sectors, conduct research and write a report addressing the following questions:

• Identify the role of a recruitment agency.

• Discuss the reasons why an employer in this sector would choose to use recruitment agency.

• Discuss the criteria an employer should use to select an agency to recruit

The role of the recruitment agency in the retail sector:  Recruitment agencies main role is to provide the best staffing for the client companies. Mainly three things have to be done by a recruitment agency for staffing. Firstly screening and testing of the employee is done by the agency. In this part agency not only goes for a background check and reference, but also seeks the ability of a candidate of typing, specific skills in retail sector and to determine the proficiency in problem solving (Simplehrguide.com, 2015). Secondly, flexibility in staffing is done by a recruitment agency. Recruiting seasonal or temporal staffs are very challenging in the retail sector, and in some particular season high business opportunity is there and the requirement of staffs are also there but in contract basis. Such kind of needs in staffing can be solved by the recruitment agency. Finally helping the human resource department is another role of a recruitment agency. Processing for a new candidate for a company takes a long time which can divert the HR focus from other vital areas of development and benefit of employee, payroll, where agencies can give the very best candidates among a vast population of candidates to the company for a face to face round of interview (Roberts, 2013).

Why choose a recruitment agency for the retail sector: Various issues are there in case of staffing in a retail sector. Followed reasons are some of the main issues for which the HR faces a time management problem and negligence happens in the other HR functional areas like staff management, payroll management, and standard operating process development (Bowden, 2013).

A huge number of staff: Retail sector includes the departmental stores, fashion stores, grocery stores where many executives are required for billing, customer service, security check, and store management. As the number of the employee is huge in retail sector, and the requirement of new staffs are often coming in the company. HR does not have the flexibility to search for the employees so often. That’s why the retail sectors want to go for a recruitment agency for their need (Brun and Moretto, 2012).

Reasons why an Employer Chooses a Recruitment Agency

High demand: the Retail sector is a big sector where a maximum number of employee is there in comparison to other sectors. According to a report from UK, 206000 locations are there for retail and the largest sector that gave the most employment provided around of three million in the whole UK (Cosgrove, 2014). For such numbers, a high demand always stays there in this sector, and searching of suitable candidate takes a long time as well as a big headache. It is better to go to a staffing agency for the ease of the candidate selection.

In-hand rich resources: Finding a perfect candidate according to the company job role is a lengthy and time-consuming process. In a short time span, such research cannot be accomplished. But a recruitment agency can give a pool of candidate as per the requirement of the company, as they only focus on the staffing process for an organisation. Only a face to face round of discussion can give the option to the company whether to take the individual or not (Keeling, McGoldrick and Sadhu, 2013). Recruitment Company previously discusses the job role and responsibility of a position with the candidate and evaluates the skills and other knowledge of the candidate as per requirement. After this, they can find and provide suitable candidates to the company and company nothing to do with the previously taken steps other than providing a brief description of the position to the agency.

Proper selection: Qualification and other job experience demonstrated in the resume can be checked thoroughly by a recruitment agency. Retail industry requires higher customer satisfaction. Relevant experienced candidates are mostly asked by a retail industry. The fast learner is also asked quality in a retail industry. To search all the criteria within an applicant, a recruitment agency is very much needed.

Recruitment of seasonal or temporal staffs: In retail industries there is a big hike of customers in some particular seasons as like festivals and occasions, where the requirement of staffs are in greater number in comparison to other time of the year. To get such staff, it is the very difficult job for the company as the staff cannot be taken on a permanent basis on the company’s payroll (Kharbeche, 2013). As a staffing agency has done previously such kind of recruitment, it will be easier for them to find such individuals. Some positions in a retail industry need a person to look after continuously. In case of those staff if gets out of his job responsibility for two to three month in a case of any injury or health-related issue, the family problem or another issue.

Criteria for Selecting an Agency to Recruit

Confidentiality: Sometimes it is required for a retail sector company to hide the company details not to create the bias in the mind of a candidate regarding any aspect of the company. Confidentiality is not possible if the recruitment has been done from the company’s HR end. This thing can be avoided through the recruitment by a staffing agency, where the applicant stays unaware of the company till the last round of screening. The applicant only knows about the job details and the offerings from the company’s end (Le et al., 2013).

It is not easy to collaborate with a recruitment agency for any retail company. The need of staffs in a retail industry has some difference in need, so a selection of agency depends on some facts discussed below.

Expertise: choosing an agency should depend on the expertise of the agency. The retail sector is one of the biggest areas for employment, so need of staff is greater than any other sector. The work process or job profile is mainly on the accounting or in customer relation part. Managing the customer relation, it is difficult job and search for such executive are also difficult (McNeill, 2012). So those agencies who have already known the background and relevant information in the work process and can screen candidates according to the needs are would be the best recruitment agencies. Agencies who are expert to provide quality candidates in required quantity are asked for the requirement purpose.

Cost effective:  Companies or employers look for the cost spend in the time of recruitment and also the benefit out of the process, that means the number of quality candidate got hired in the process. To hire persons directly to the company needs to spend money in terms of advertising and other process for the announcement of the recruitment and the time consumed by the HR for this process, because time is so called money in the retail sector (Miulescu, 2013). Providing other things from the companies end in a time of the process also gets costly. In comparison to the whole process, the recruitment agency charge can be less, and the comparison between two recruitment agencies can be researched for the quality delivery with cost effective way (Mukherji, 2012).

Market Reputation: Choice of staffing agency must be done to the reputation of the agency. Search should be made on the provided facility, like; previously provided candidates who are working in the organization or in other and performing as per requirement and the retained the post for a healthy time. Reputation on the timeline for providing true candidates as per employer need and also judgement can be done from the previous experience. The number of passed candidates after the face to face discussion can give an idea about the quality of screening, and short listing can enhance the reputation and would be a factor of choice (Ramcharran, 2013).

Importance of Recruitment Agencies for Retail Companies

Legal issue:  Choice of the agency also depends on the legislations and laws. Chosen agency should work in a manner previously defined by the law. As like Private employment agencies convention, the defined organization is that which offers labour market facility, being an ordinary or legal person, free from public authorities. Services include gathering worker for a third party organization, managing the connection between applicant and employer. Those agencies that are fulfilling the criteria are can be chosen by the employer (Simplehrguide.com, 2015).

Equal employment opportunity is the conditions where employers cannot interfere in recruitment activity those are prohibited through regulation. Employers cannot discriminate any individual candidate on the foundation of race, sex, age, religion. Such kind of problem or issues should not come into the way of recruitment; otherwise there will be a gap between the recruitment agency and the human resource department. The tussle could get prominent when such matter happens. According to the civil rights act of 1964, applicants are protected from favouritism in some recruitment activity, such as; recruitment, hiring, compensation, pre-employment requirements and inquires as per title VII. Occupational health and safety stands for the injuries and accidents happened during work and a brief description of the compensation and measurements after mishap should be on the both parties. No conflicts should be there between them, or if there it should be clarified between the parties. Most common issues arise in term of payments and contracts. Correct data management should be performed in terms and conditions between them, like the total payment required from the end of the employee for the staffing purpose, and contracts with the applicants are to be done from the company’s end or with the recruiting agencies end on behalf of the company. These things should be clearly mentioned. Otherwise in time of payment or violation of any previously taken agreement can create a big blunder between them.  Beside those major issues, there are also some steps that can escalate the relations between the HR and staffing agencies (Small Business - Chron.com, 2015). Effective regular communication on the recruitment needs and honest processing of agreements can eliminate any argument can be overcome. A face to face meeting and a site round up can give the recruitment consultant a brief idea of the requirement and observation on the work experience gives the opportunity to find the potential candidate. Any false source should not be supplied to the HR Department from the agencies end, and quality data mining is required to get the confidence of a company. Pressure management should be handled with care by the agency, the relation will get enhanced between them or otherwise there will be some revenue loss, and the company will not be happy anyway with the recruiting firm (Wiemer, 2012).   

Reference:

Bowden, N. (2013). Electric Regulation: Electric Industry Retail Choice Revival-Jury Still Out. Nat. Gas Elec., 30(1), pp.29-32.

Brun, A. and Moretto, A. (2012). Contract design and supply chain management in the luxury jewellery industry. Intl J of Retail & Distrib Mgt, 40(8), pp.607-628.

Cosgrove, (2014). Global talent trends and the role of Recruitment agencies. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/pcosgrov/global-talent-trends-and-the-role-of-recruitment-agencies [Accessed 4 Aug. 2015].

Keeling, K., McGoldrick, P. and Sadhu, H. (2013). Staff Word-of-Mouth (SWOM) and retail employee recruitment. Journal of Retailing, 89(1), pp.88-104.

Kharbeche, M. (2013). Optimization Model For Modern Retail Industry. Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Proceedings, (2013), p.ICTP 041.

Le, H., Arch-int, S., Nguyen, H. and Arch-int, N. (2013). Association rule hiding in risk management for retail supply chain collaboration. Computers in Industry, 64(7), pp.776-784.

McNeill, L. (2012). Sales promotion in the supermarket industry: a four country case comparison. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 22(3), pp.243-260.

Miulescu, I. (2013). Personality Traits of Managers with Professional Evolution in Retail Industry. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 78, pp.235-239.

Mukherji, S. (2012). A framework for managing customer knowledge in retail industry. IIMB Management Review, 24(2), pp.95-103.

Ramcharran, H. (2013). E-Commerce Growth and the Changing Structure of the Retail Sales Industry. International Journal of E-Business Research, 9(2), pp.46-60.

Roberts, L. (2013). Agency and Industry: Charles C. Gillispie's "The Natural History of Industry," Then and Now. Technology and Culture, 54(4), pp.922-941.

Simplehrguide.com, (2015). Recruitment Agency Importance - HRM Guide. [online] Available at: https://www.simplehrguide.com/recruitment-agency-importance.html [Accessed 4 Aug. 2015].

Small Business - Chron.com, (2015). Importance of Effective Recruitment & Selection. [online] Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-effective-recruitment-selection-55782.html [Accessed 4 Aug. 2015].

Wiemer, K. (2012). Retail-Food industry perspective on the translation of the guidelines. CFW Plexus, (AACCI 2011 Annual Meeting).