Jessica Comolly-Jones, Director, Specialist Sectors division, Rubicon Recruitment Group, answers your questions.

Q: What should an employer consider before deciding which recruitment agency to appoint?

Whether a business is recruiting for temporary staff/contractors or hiring to fill a permanent vacancy, the considerations before deciding which agency to work with are the same.

Generally, differentiators between recruitment agencies fall into three distinct categories.

Firstly the agency’s ability to attract, select and present appropriately experienced and qualified candidates within agreed timeframes. Secondly the agency itself; their credentials, employees, focuses and how they operate. Thirdly the useful added value they provide which sets their agency apart.

Q: What do employers and recruiters tend to look for in a CV?

With significantly, and very quickly, increasing unemployment in the UK post Covid-19 lockdown, it’s more important than ever for candidate’s CVs to make a positive impact immediately.

Employers don’t have time to read every CV they’re presented with and the following observations are relevant for both job seekers and employers:

1. Relevance – the CV needs to immediately highlight that there is potentially a good match.  Generic CVs rarely achieve this.
2. Achievements – as Bill Gates sensibly once said, “Five years’ experience could just as easily be just one years’ experience repeated five times.”  Achievers need their CVs to reflect the results they have delivered.
3. Clarity – if a CV is hard to read or understand it won’t be given any consideration whatsoever.  It needs to be clear, concise and easy to skim-read.

• Rubicon continue to support a wide range of businesses with their immediate recruitment needs as well as providing permanent staff, Contractors and Temps to a wide range of business in and around Dorset and Hampshire. If you need help, as an employer, a Temp worker, a Contractor and/or as a potential applicant for a permanent job, then please get in touch by calling 01202 680311 or emailing WeWork@RubiconPeople.co.uk