Leeds entrepreneur launches recruitment agency
A YORKSHIRE entrepreneur has joined forces with the Breast Cancer Haven charity to launch a new online recruitment agency.
Carl Hopkins, the former chairman of the JDA Group has launched agencybods.co.uk.
The new service is designed to offer employers an alternative choice to large recruitment agencies or head hunters when it comes to finding the right staff .
Mr Hopkins will adonate £5 to Breast Cancer Haven for every relevant candidate that signs up to agencybods.co.uk.
His aim is to raise £5,000 for the Leeds branch of the charity before the end of the year.
agencybods.co.uk will seek to place the best candidates into the best suited positions for their skills but unlike traditional recruitment agencies, will only charge a flat fee of 10% of the candidate’s first year’s salary.
It will also share the risk by giving a 50% refund if the candidate does not pass their three month probationary period and agencybods.co.uk will not accept a successfully placed candidate’s details again within six month’s of their appointment.
Mr Hopkins said: “With agencybods.co.uk I aim to take the hassle out of recruitment for agency owners, placing only candidates that fulfil the job criteria. I would rather send no one than a no-body. It’s not about how many people I can send through the door but whether I can send the right person.”
Hopkins decided to launch the service based on the negative experiences he has come across in the world of marketing agency recruitment.
“Although there are some very good recruitment agencies, practically every marketing agency owner I know has had an issue with the way some of them operate and the list of contentious issues is endless: CV’s are simply passed on and not vetted, blanket mailings of candidates are sent out, there is little or no candidate preparation and half the time candidates don’t even know where their CV’s have been sent to. There are even more issues surrounding their fees: there is no shared risk with the agencies despite the fact that recruitment is a risky business. The payment terms are due before the end of the probationary period of the candidate plus there is no refund if said person doesn’t work out. Many claim their fees are transparent but I cannot find the rates on their sites, and they never seem to tell the candidates that they charge 20-30% of their first year’s salary to the employer, which makes their application look ‘unfavourable’ compared to a similar, or less skilled, direct application. So I decided to use my 25 years worth of contacts and experience of the marketing industry to do something about it.”
The agencybods.co.uk website will represent six different industry sectors ranging from PR to print, media to online and creative to direct marketing.
