Articles From the Team

You Get What You Pay For

I love new business; I enjoy working with Law firms that I haven’t had the opportunity to collaborate with and marketing their business to candidates. Equally, I cherish my existing and long standing relationships and of course they too were once new clients.

My job, as a legal recruitment consultant, is to bring you the right candidate for the opportunity your business is offering and to make your recruitment process a smooth one. I take my job very seriously; it’s the career that keeps a roof above my wife’s, baby boy’s and my head.

Therefore, it is essential that I provide you, candidate or client, a good service or you won’t work with me again and my success is built on repeat business, recommendations and knowing my market.

Recently I spoke with a client, who I had not worked with before, who has a vacancy they are struggling to fill. It had been live for some weeks and they had received few suitable cv’s and not interviewed anyone. The conversation very quickly was steered towards fees and almost instantly the client said the companies they are working with are charging ___% if you can’t match it there’s no point in the conversation going any further.

To paraphrase my response was – I have been working this market for some time now and I know that in the last 4 months there have been 2 other vacancies at this level. The first of those roles to go to market was filled within 3 weeks, the other is still live some 8 weeks on; both roles were offering more complicated work and a higher salary.

For me to work this role I will have to allocate significant time to understand your business, to source candidates, to register them (face to face where possible), to position your business in a way that candidates understand it and see the scope of the opportunity you have to offer.

The client interrupted and simply said, if you can’t match it there’s no point us going any further.

The following week we had enquiries from 2 of their colleagues asking us to help with the same vacancy.

That law firm is still trying to find a solicitor for that opportunity.

There are very real commercial reasons as to why we charge the fee that we do.

It’s not a number that we pull out of the sky but a figure that is based on the service I will provide to you (the client) and the candidates that I approach about your business.

I am able to make the introduction when another recruiter is not delivering or the organisation’s own search is not bringing in the right candidates.

I have been told, in the past and I’m sure I will hear it again in the future, “the other recruiter was working with us at __%, will you match that?” So often, in these cases, the percentage is low. And it doesn’t surprise me, if they were doing a good job you wouldn’t be speaking to me.

You wouldn’t need someone to pick up the recruitment weeks into you starting your search.

I will never understand why a client would want me to match the low fee rate of a recruiter that hasn’t delivered. (Apart from the obvious financials).

My work is consistent; I charge a fee that represents that.

My clients see the value in the service I and my colleagues at BCL Legal offer. They understand that employing good people is key to sustaining and growing their business.

There are recruiters charging low fees but do they register all candidates and appropriately screen them? Do they take time to meet with their clients and take detailed job briefs? Do they support both parties throughout the recruitment process? Do they deliver quickly and consistently?

There will always be a cheaper option.

If you were selling your house or car, would you go to the cheapest broker and expect them to sell your car or house for the highest price, market it appropriately; treat your details with professionalism and for it to be a sleek process? Likewise, when buying a car, there are many reasons a BMW is more expensive than a Fiat.

In the words of John Ruskin

“There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey.”

For more information contact BCL Legal.