Survival of the fittest – it’s a phrase that’s often associated with natural selection and the animal world; except it applies to the business world too. In the corporate, and more specifically the recruitment, context only the “fittest” companies will succeed. But what defines a “fit” company? The recruitment consultancies that will stay at the top of their game are the ones that don’t just put “bums on seats” but that offer added value services that make them an indispensable service to their customers.

The recession and the ensuing tough market conditions have meant that recruiters have had to work smarter and harder to survive over the past year. But as the recovery begins what are HR professionals looking for from their recruitment partners? And what can recruitment consultancies do to ensure that they are still valued as a necessary resource and an addition to the HR toolbox?

The answer is value added services which we believe will become increasingly important - and the main differentiator between the consultancies that thrive - and those that struggle to survive.

While recruitment consultancies are typically used for candidate attraction and matching, service levels today need to be far more holistic. Today’s HR departments have a huge remit and what they need is support from their recruitment partners which covers the three Rs: the recruitment, retention and release lifecycle.

To respond to this need, CBSbutler employed a specialist development and assessment consultant, which allowed us to add value by offering what is in effect a business process outsourcing service which can be mixed and matched according to an HR department’s needs.

By partnering with clients to provide support from organisational entry to exit and everything in between employers know that we don’t just place a candidate and walk away. From the employers point of view this ensures a consistent selection process and improved staff retention which obviously contributes to continued business success and profitability.

Let’s give some examples. Hiring mistakes can cost companies up to 60% of the first year’s salary, not to mention disruption to the business, so it’s important to get it right.

Recruitment professionals will always find a suitable candidate to the best of their ability, but how can you be absolutely certain that their style of working is going to be appropriate for the role?

By finding someone who has the cultural fit but can also do the job well both technically and ‘behaviourally’, retention problems will diminish instantly. Instead of relying on CVs and traditional interviews, we decided to offer a flexible range of online or face-to-face tests for either individual roles or large recruitment campaigns. These range from numerical and literacy testing for blue collar staff to personality profiling and psychometric testing for middle to executive management.

We also began to offer workshops on competency based interviewing (CBI), allowing clients to create their own “toolkit” and questions to suit their business needs. CBI can be invaluable - especially when it is hard to select a candidate on the basis of technical merit – for example when recruiting a graduate who has no previous industry experience where suitability based on a CV alone is not possible.

Competencies or qualities that the role requires are decided and evidence of those are sought in the interview - it gives valuable insights into an individual’s style of working and how they will act in future situations. For example to test leadership, the interviewer may ask for an example of a time when the candidate took charge, mustered support and achieved good Results. It also gives an evidence based audit trail that the recruitment has been fair and non discriminatory.

“The course highlighted the risks which could be eliminated in the business by using competency interviewing, so the Benefits of CBI were easy to see” said Simon Budd of SELEX Systems who took the course. “It was really practical and the role play allowed us to practice in a safe environment. More importantly the course and material was of a sufficient standard that if tomorrow a set of interview questions were needed we could go straight to what we have put together through the training.”

What we have also found is an increasing demand for assessment centres not only for initial selection but also for existing staff as it provides the opportunity to assess and benchmark individuals. And even when it comes to employees exiting the organisation, recruiters can play an important and useful role. It may be that a company is facing organisational change or downsizing programmes. Recruiters can provide on site redeployment or redundancy workshops on an individual or group basis. This encourages people to think positively about change as an opportunity and rebuild confidence.

As the market picks up and more jobs open up, recruiters will be fighting for new business. But it’s the ones that offer a truly comprehensive and valuable service that will succeed. The twenty first century requires innovation and offering part of the package just isn’t enough any more.

• http://www.cbsbutler.com