eSift’s new flat-fee model changes face of recruiting

04-Feb-2009 | By Sue Weekes

Recruitment agencies must find new ways of servicing clients and create new business models, if a service launched by two recruiters takes off.

eSift.co.uk is an online recruitment advertising, response anagement and CV sifting business based on a £450 flat fee. It has been launched by recruiters Geraldine Cole and Claire Blackwell who have more than 30 years’ recruitment experience between them.

Cole, who spent 15 years at Brook Street and has run her own recruitment company, GCA Recruitment, since 1999, told Recruiter that eSift evolved in the past year in response to the changing needs of the market.

Two long-standing USowned clients were forced to take the direct recruiting approach via the internet but found they were inundated with applicants and struggled with the workload. Cole offered to help the clients and subsequently set up a pilot scheme based on this approach, which was well received by GCA’s client base.

“Five years ago, for a highstreet agency the internet was our best friend,” said Cole, who separated out the two businesses, eSift and
GCA, at the start of the year.

“It [the internet] is now a competitor for many agencies. For in-house recruiters the huge response, admin and lack of resource when recruiting directly means it can be hard for them to manage the process.”

eSift.co.uk takes a brief from the client. Its team of consultants place the ad on sites such as Monster, Totaljobs and reed.co.uk, then
recommend suitable candidates (clients receive an Excel spreadsheet of candidates marked with ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘possible’).

All of this, including ad placement fees, is covered by the £450 fee. Costs are kept low due to the rates eSift has negotiated with the job
boards. Employers can pay for additional services such as telephone screening and candidate referencing.

One of the early adoptors is Berkshire-based water treatment specialist, Treatment 4 Water. Gavin Jones, director, told Recruiter that the company found agency fees prohibitively high but using the job boards direct would have cost him two days’ personal time to manage
the process. “Outsourcing to eSift allowed us to focus on core activity.”

Cole acknowledged that other agencies could step in and offer similar services but believed this would help to define the new niche. “The
reality is that recruitment is changing,” she said. “There will always be a need for agencies at the executive search and selection end of
the market and for temps, but in the area of permanent placement, agencies are going to have to be more creative about how they service
a client’s needs.”

www.eSift.co.uk