In the recruitment marketplace we all hear stories about fees and percentages from both sides of the counter. Clients, who perceive recruiting their next key manager as a risky business, want to know exactly what they’re getting for their money; we, as consultants, hear tales from both candidates and clients about agencies supplying inappropriate CVs from massive databases, and search being conducted at what we know is an unfeasibly low cost. Someone somewhere is cutting corners, but who?

When it comes to clients paying fees up front, we know that some people have legitimate concerns, which need to be addressed before their perception of risk can be turned into trust. Here are some frequently asked questions:

‘Why should I risk spending money up front with Dickinson Smith Buss when agencies will supply me with CVs for free?’’

‘Why is consultant managed recruitment so expensive?"

‘Why does the process seem to take so much time?’’

‘What’s been happening and why am I seeing a shortlist of only 2 or 3 people?’’

"What have I paid for when I haven’t made an appointment?’’

None of these questions is unreasonable. That’s why we’ve decided to set out transparently below exactly what is involved in a Dickinson Smith Buss handled recruitment assignment. We’d also like to remind you of our approach to fees:

• Every assignment we undertake will be handled on a fixed fee basis.
• Built into this is our commitment to you that our fees are results related after the first authorisation stage, which means that you only pay a shortlist fee when there is a shortlist, and only pay an appointment fee when there is an appointment ‘ so the risk to you is minimised.
• You pay a fixed percentage of the agreed best estimate of an appointee’s first year earnings, and this figure is capped even if he or she is appointed at a higher salary level
• If appointed at a lower level, then we adjust the final stage fee downwards.
• Even when, unusually, an appointment is not made the first time round, we guarantee to keep going until you tell us to stop

So, here are the key stages in Dickinson Smith Buss's assignment process, together with estimates of the typical time spent on each element:

• Taking a comprehensive brief at a face-to-face meeting that usually involves the direct line manager plus an HR representative but may involve further discussions with other interested parties; ½ day Consultant
• Where necessary, consulting with colleagues, recruitment advertising advisors, search researchers, and sometimes compensation and benefits specialists before preparing a full proposal in which we set out in detail our recommended approach, including specific media recommendations, where appropriate, plus costs and timescales; ½ day Consultant
• Preparing a Candidate Briefing Document comprising company background, job description, candidate specification and benefits statement, which is used with candidates at the interview stage but which also forms the basis for agreeing the detailed brief with our client; ½ day Consultant
• When the assignment involves Search, briefing the researchers on the company and background; compiling a target list of companies in association with our search researchers and agreeing those with our client; 1 day Researcher ½ day Consultant
• Using researchers to identify potential candidates by researching the relevant management structures in the target companies; discussing those structures with our client and agreeing the key target individuals for the next stage; 2-3 days Researcher
• Through the researchers, initially, making approaches (often confidentially at this stage) to the targets to ascertain their interest in a potential move and the appropriateness of their background and experience; 2-5 days Researcher
• Following up with those that express interest, frequently in the evening, to further develop their awareness of the role and to check out their backgrounds in more detail; inviting the best candidates for face-to face interview; 1-2 days Consultant
• When the assignment involves advertising, drafting an advertisement for the recommended media plus the Internet and, when the client has agreed the copy, placing it directly in the publications and onto the agreed Internet sites; ½ day Consultant
• Receiving and sorting the response to the advertisements ‘ typically involving around 150 CVs for initial assessment, lasting 1-2 minutes per CV, then 30-50 for detailed reading, lasting 5-10 minutes on average per CV; 1-2 days Consultant
• Inputting all candidates to our assignment management database; inviting suitable candidates for interview and rejecting/holding the others; 1-3 days Administration
• Conducting an in-depth, structured interview with each of the selected candidates from all sources (typically 8-15 candidates depending on the assignment and the nature of the response), in which they are assessed in detail against the key success criteria for the role, as set out in the brief; in the case of Search, this will probably involve travelling to meet candidates in a convenient location and therefore only 1 or 2 candidates in a day; 2-5 days Consultant
• Writing up and analysing the interviews before recommending a shortlist of the best candidates (and only those we believe are capable of doing the job); 1 day Consultant
• Producing full reports on those that our client agrees to meet, which summarise their strengths but also highlight any areas for further investigation or where we believe there is still room for development; 1 day Consultant
• Arranging the shortlist interviews; briefing and de-briefing candidates before and after those meetings; ½ day Consultant
• Assisting as required in the final selection process; supporting the negotiations with the preferred candidate whilst ‘keeping warm’ any reserves ‘ may often involve several lengthy conversations with client and candidate to help bring about a satisfactory outcome; ½ day Consultant
• Generally doing whatever we can to ensure a successful outcome, including all candidate management and communication; providing regular feedback on progress throughout the assignment, either verbally or by e-mail; project management to ensure things happen when they should; ½ - 1 day Consultant
• And, keeping going until we get a result or you tell us to stop, which could, on occasions with a very difficult assignment, mean repeating some or all of the above to produce a second shortlist, but we continue on the same fee basis.

We hope that you’ll agree that this demonstrates the thoroughness of our approach, and our proactive (rather than a reactive) stance to steer and project-manage our clients’ recruitment activities. What our summary also demonstrates is that a professionally conducted recruitment exercise is indeed time-consuming, can be delicate because it’s ‘up-close and personal’, and requires energy, tenacity and commitment to secure a successful outcome.

But what about those challenging questions at the top of this article’ Well, in the light of the above explanation of a typical assignment, we hope that you can see why the process is time-consuming, and what happens to put together a shortlist even when you might be seeing only 2 or 3 candidates (the availability and responsiveness of candidates inevitably influences the outcome). On the unusual occasions when an appointment doesn’t happen, you’ve paid us, on a results-related basis only, to conduct a thorough process, and we keep on with it until we secure the right person and you pay no more in fees until that happens.

Is consultant-managed recruitment expensive? We believe that we ask for a fair reward for unstinting effort, and we link fees directly to results. If you, or your human resources personnel, were undertaking the stages above, it would involve costs (probably not fixed) in terms of time and resources with no guarantee of a successful outcome ‘ time and resources that could be applied more cost effectively in other parts of your business. Agencies may promise you a pile of CVs (and that’s exactly what they’ll deliver) with no money upfront, and a fee payable only on an appointment. You may be lucky and find ‘a needle in a haystack’, but the reality is that your next key manager is very unlikely to be sitting on a database waiting for an automated process to find her/him. Even if you find several potential candidates in this way, you’ll still have to invest your time and resources in a comparative selection exercise, and there may be a surprisingly hefty appointment fee at the end for your agency contact, who may only have made one or two phone calls on your behalf. If things go wrong, you’re back to square one.

Of course, nothing in life is risk-free, but by fixing our fees at the outset, by linking them directly to results, and following processes that give a total quality experience to our clients and candidates, we share that risk confidently.

We’d welcome your reaction to our explanation of the way we conduct and charge for a Dickinson Smith Buss recruitment assignment. Click here to send us your comments so that we can include them in future update articles.