Hospitality Agency - Frequently Asked Questions

· Who pays the hospitality agency fees - the job seeker or the employer?

Normally the agency charges fee only from the employers, their service is free to job seekers. This ensures they have a large data base of candidates.

· What would the employer expect to pay for the service of finding a candidate for their job vacancy?

Most hospitality agencies offer a service that charges a fee only if they succeed in placing a candidate in a job. No results - no pay. For casual, seasonal workers there might be a set fee for each job placement, while for permanent professional staff, many agencies work on a fee which is based on percentage of the candidate's annual salary.

· How does the hospitality agency find their candidates?

Recruitment agencies advertise in the papers, on their website, in the window and inside their premises. They also work with hospitality training institutions where they recruit graduates or apprentices, and, of course they have their own data base of job seekers who register with them and are listed with the agency until they find work.

· Will a hospitality agency verify applicants' qualifications and work experience?

Yes, this is one of the main tasks of a good recruitment agency. They have the experience, knowledge, access and connections to be able to check and verify certificates, documentation, references and work-places to ensure all the information supplied to the employer is true and correct. They also have the experience to detect information that looks unrealistic or suspicious in applicant's resumes, and confirm every credential. A reputable recruitment agency will scrutinize all the information on the resume and make sure they are presenting the employer with a reliable and trustworthy candidate.

· What stage of the recruitment does the Hospitality agency get to?

That depends on the requirement by the employer who posts the vacancy. The agency could provide the employer with a short list of candidates, which the employer can then contact and invite for interviews. Or they can go all the way through with the process and select the final one or two candidates they deem best suits the job.

The same applies for the interview stage. The employer might require the agency to conduct the first round of interviews with candidates, and then select the ones that are most suitable. Or just check the resumes and provide a list of candidates that best match the job description. It all depends on the arrangement and fees decided upon by the agency and the job provider.

· Do hospitality recruitment agencies provide skills tests for job seekers?

Most hospitality recruitment agencies have basic skills tests in a wide variety of occupations and fields in the hospitality industry, designed to reflect the industry's standards.

Personality assessments are also offered by many agencies - a tool to test those all-important skills that are not recognized as qualifications, but are essential for any worker in the hospitality industry.

These are offered to job seekers who register with the agency, and appear on their data base. This information is accessed whenever a match is made between a vacancy to be filled and the job seeker's data.

· Are there advantages to direct hiring, by the employer, not through an employment agency?

Cost seems to be the biggest advantage for employers placing a "wanted" ad, although if the hiring process ends up being long and tedious, then the man-hours invested in the search for the right candidate might well outweigh the investment in the recruitment agency's fee.

If the job provider has the time for the recruitment process, than they can reach a wide audience and prospective employees through web sites dedicated to job seekers and the recently-developed social networks such as Facebook and linkdin. For a small fee, or sometimes even for free, they can access job websites which offer CV databases for employers, with access to a huge number of potential candidates, without advertising the job publicly.

Some job providers feel that only they know the exact requirement of the job, and want to go over all the applicants' CVs so that they will not miss out on any candidate that could be the right person for the job, rather than let someone from the hospitality agency do that job. It is time consuming task and the employer might need to use his or her experience at the workplace and their intuition, to offset the lack of resources and recruitment experience that a professional agency can offer, but many employers have found good reliable staff this way.

Whichever way you choose to fill that job vacancy, a thorough recruitment process that will meet the needs of both the job seeker and the job provider, will ensure a happy boss with happy staff and happy customers.

Leith James has been a chef for over fifteen years and knows the secrets of effective business management with a book titled "The Secret ingredient to finding hospitality staff". His vision is to improve hospitality quality and educate employers on effective hiring techniques through personality assessments. Read more articles like Hospitality agency - Frequently Asked Questions or Get instant Access for the Free hospitality mini course at [http://www.hospitality1.net/]