Recruitment agencies get some pretty negative press at times. A recruitment agency by definition is “a business that is paid to find suitable workers for other companies and organizations”, so why is a business so simple prone to such negativity? Below are some of the key myths about recruitment agencies and some reasons as to why Sherlock is everything but your typical recruitment agency.

“Recruitment agencies just hurl CVs at you until one happens to be good”

At Sherlock this is definitely not true. We ensure to speak to clients first and gain a first-hand knowledge of what type of employee they are looking for. We ask a number of targeted questions to ensure that when we do speak to potential candidates, we are able to gain a specific insight into the candidate’s employment history. We back this up further through completing reference checks. Although character references are important, we also ensure to ask the referee questions tailored against the information we garnered from the client.

Although we do get a lot of CV’s into our inbox, it is about being quick and efficient in speaking to and screening the potential candidates. This takes a lot of time to ensure that we are getting the best possible candidates. A lot of the behind the scenes work does go unnoticed.

The recruitment process is fully transparent, any candidate related communication is recorded and stored and can be audited at any time so if there are ever any queries there is a full record of all communications. At Sherlock we would prefer to send no one to a client than send someone not suitable. We ensure we send candidates who fit the brief given to us by our clients.

“They do not know anything about the jobs they’re recruiting for”

Again, not true! As outlined above we ensure to target our clients focusing only on those within our sphere of competency, so we know what we are talking about. We differ from our competitors as we do not chance our arm at any job role across multiple industries. We specialize and cater to a niche sector which is the construction industry and have worked solely in this industry for the last 7 years. Our business consists of three primary recruitment desks, the mechanical, electrical and construction desks. Each desk is equipped with an account manager and recruiter dedicated to each sub section. We are in a unique position to provide unprecedented market knowledge and insight which enables us to provide a valuable and quality recruitment service.

“Recruiters take a fat commission check for doing a bit of admin work”

As the ultimate employer of the candidate supply to clients in the construction industry our hourly charge is inclusive of much more than the candidate pay and our margins. If there is a charge of €30 and the candidates pay is €20 the full €10 gap between the pay and charge rate does not go to Sherlock as is often believed. Holidays, bank holidays, PAYE and pension are some of the other costs included in our rates.

In addition to providing a full 360 recruitment service we also provide employee vetting, outsourced payroll management and health and safety upskilling and training. We are the key point of communication between candidate and client. We do not sit as a passenger on the recruitment journey, we add value to our clients through our comprehensive recruitment process. When a client invests in Sherlock recruitment you invest in a process as close to seamless as possible. The recruitment process we are selling reduces the fail rate of employment in a client’s business. We have Ireland’s most extensive database of skilled tradesmen and 93% success rate among our clients.

Having placed over 4000 candidates across a variety of construction sectors, managing payroll administration for over 250 clients and offering ancillary HR services to a host of other clients there is no challenge too big for our team here in Sherlock Recruitment.