Determinants of job seekers to select recruitment agency for new job vacancies
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
77
dETERmINANTS OF JOB SEEKERS TO SELECT RECRUITmENT
AgENCY FOR NEw JOB vACANCIES
By Phan Xuan Binh1 and Nguyen Minh Ha2
The most important determinant of
organizational effectiveness is the ability
very long time to fill the vacancy or to
find out the right candidate
to attract, hire, and develop capable talent. Keywords: recruitment agency; job seeker;
The ability to attract and retain superior job vacancies; recruitment consultant
employees can lead to sustained competitive
advantage for organizations. This is difficult
due to the shrinking availability of qualified
labor. The use of recruitment agency (RA) or
employment agency allows human resource
departments to target and identify quality
candidates with more efficiency. RA, kind
I. Introduction
The research objectives are to identify
what factors influence job seekers to select
recruitment agency in Ho Chi Minh city
when they look for new jobs and to suggest
some recommendations for improving
performanceandqualityofservice.Database
of consultancy, is normally understood
as third party recruiter that finds jobs for
people seeking them and finds people to fill
particular jobs3. Some RA focus their efforts
on executive, managerial, and professional
positions (white and yellow collar workers).
These firms are split into two groups: (1)
contingency firms that charge a fee only
after a candidate has been hired by a
client company and (2) retainer firms that
charge a client a set fee whether or not the
contracted search is successful. Most of RA
in Vietnam apply contingency basis.
is collected through two steps (1) qualitative
research by face - to - face interviews to job
seekers and group discussion to recruitment
specialists (2) Quantitative research
conducted by questionnaire. The main
method is quantitative.
II. Literature Review
Definitions
Jobseekerorjobapplicantorcandidate
is defined as who is actively looking for a
job. Job seeker may be an unemployed or
on-the-job person. Job seeker in this article
only focuses on white and yellow collar
workers.
Majority of foreign and big local
companies use RA as one of the key
recruitment sources to attract middle to
senior level employees despite there is
maybe higher expenses of this source than
using other recruitment sources in some
extents below:
Recruitment sources: Recruitment
can focus on the internal labor market (i.e.,
pursuing staff already employed by the
organization) or the external labor market
(i.e., pursuing applicants from outside the
organization). Internal candidates can be
recruited through internal job postings,
word-of-mouth, or internship programs.
Organizational practices used to recruit from
external labor markets include employment
advertising, employee referral programs,
job fairs, college campus recruitment,
employment agencies, rehiring former
employees, or networking (Zottoli &
Wanous, 2000)
• The job vacancy is top confidential
and recruiter cannot launch the public
recruitment
• The vacancy requires very short time
to fill
• The limited staffing resources of
recruiting department or
• The limited candidate pool in some
industries or function which may cause
1 MBA Co- program between Solvay Brussels School and HCMC Open University. Head of Recruitment, Supply Chain – FirstAl-
liances – Executive Search & Selection Firm.
2 Ho Chi Minh City Open University
3 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 2000
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
78
Recruitment agency or employment that accompany each possible action. When
agency: Dessler (2002) had clearly defined job seekers look for new job openings, the
three types of employment agencies: (1) opportunity cost is time, money and efforts
public agency operated by government; he/ she has to spend to search information,
(2) agencies associated with nonprofit prepare application documents and attend
organization; (3) privately owned agencies. interviews. Other invisible cost which is
difficult to measure is the privacy to be
disclosed during the interview. Most of the
recruiters are aware of their responsibilities
and commitment to keep the candidate’s
information confidentially. However, they
can’t promise totally to follow this rule due
to the job change of their staffs who involve
to recruitment process.
Private employment agencies are
important sources of clerical, white-collar
and managerial personnel. Most are fee
paid job in which employers pay the fee.
They charge fees for each vacancy they
place. Executive recruiters or Executive
Search and Selection agency are special
RA retained by employers to seek out
top management talent for their clients.
Executive Search and Selection agencies
only focus their efforts on executive,
managerial, and professional positions. In
the scope of this research, the service of
Executive Search & Selection is analyzed.
Principle 3 - Rational people think at
the margin
A rational decision maker takes an
action if and only if the marginal benefit
of the action exceeds the marginal cost.
This principle is the consequence of
these above principles if applying to job
seekers’ behavior. As we have explained
the opportunity cost of job seeker when
trading off their current job for new job
vacancies, job seekers consider to choose
kind of recruitment sources which cost
them less and bring more benefit than
other sources. Furthermore, job seekers
who handle high level positions are much
afraid of revealing privacy. For them,
referrals, headhunting or recruitment
agency are more trustworthy sources than
walk-ins; to post their resume on online
recruitment website or directly applying.
Theory of choices
Mankiw, Gans and King (2002)
had explained some principles influenced
individual making decisions:
Principle 1 - People face trade-offs:
Making decisions requires trading off
one goal against another. This principle is
considered in the context of job seekers
those currently have a job or receive more
than one job offer. For the former case, they
only face trade-offs between their current
job and new job. The latter case requires he/
she has to consider all job offers and finally
accept only one. For all situations, job
seeker may be stopped their tenure during
probation period and become jobless. It’s
obvious that to gain the benefit of new offer
as more attractive remuneration package,
higher position, new knowledge exchange,
better working location, etc… Job seeker
has to trade off his/ her job security and
other obvious benefits.
Principle 4 - People respond to
incentive
People make decisions by comparing
costs and benefits, their behavior may
change when the cost and benefit change.
People change their behavior in respond
to the incentive they face. Job seekers will
choose which recruitment sources can offer
to them higher benefit for the same level of
job or they can use less resources to gain
the offer. They also consider which sources
they can get higher probability of job offer.
Principle 2 - The opportunity cost:
The opportunity cost is the cost of
something what you give up to get that item.
When making decision, decision makers
should be aware of the opportunity costs
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
79
Theory of Customer Behavior
Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) method,
measurement of scales tested by Cronbach
Apha value. After 02 times of analysing
data by Varimax rotation technique, 04
constructs are eliminated.
Sheth & Mittal (2004) classified
products and services into different sectors.
Recruitment services belong to business
sector including management training and
consulting services, employment benefits
services, etc.
The result of qualitative research
shows that there are 25 variables groups
into 04 key factors influence to the selection
of RA by job seekers when searching new
job vacancies:
Regarding to the roles of customer,
also Sheth & Mittal (2004) stated that
customer can play three different roles in
the marketplace transaction: User, Buyer
and Payer.
1. Job
vacancy
characteristics
&
attractiveness: The usefulness and
transparency of information in regard to
vacancy profile; Challenging job; High-
paid job; Preferred working location;
Convenience of job location
The user is the person who actually
consumes or uses the products or receives
the benefits of the services. In recruitment
agency, job seeker can be classified as User.
About the reasons for role specification,
Lack of Time and Free from service fee can
be discussed to feature why a certain group
of labor forces choose RA when seeking
for new job.
2. Recruitment agency characteristics:
RA has experienced consultants; Strong
customer – base and well-known
clients(recruiters);
of updated information on website;
Usefulness of the tests; Career
High
frequency
All customer behavior is driven by
needs and wants, by the value received
through the use, the acquisition of products
or services. Theory of customer behavior
explains why services value, service quality
are key factors which recruitment services
have to focus on to attract job seekers.
consultancy; Usefulness of consultancy
services; Quality of consultancy services;
High fill rate; Time to fill a vacancy;
Satisfaction to new offer.
3. Recruitment consultant’s competences:
Experience of consultants; Recruitment
skill of consultants; Conversation skill;
Foreign language skill; Appearance
and grooming; Consult to candidate
appropriate information about vacancy
and recruitment procedure and quick
feedback and advise appropriate
information/ next steps for candidates
III. Research methodology and
Findings
Research Methodology
Target of the research is white and
yellow collar workers currently working
for nongovernmental, FDI, big local
organizations in Ho Chi Minh city. The
targets have at least 03 years experience,
salary range VND 6 to 50 Million per
month. The convenient sampling method
is applied. There is 148 valid responds. A
questionnaire with 29 items aim to find out
job seekers’ assessment of job vacancies;
recruitment agencies and recruitment
consultant characteristics and influences
to their attention and selection RA when
searchingnewjob.QuestionnaireusesLikert
05 scales. Research result is analysed by
4. Convenience of interview by RA: Place
of the interview; Time of the interview;
Duration of the interview
Factors influence job seekers to
select recruitment agencies for new job
vacancies
The result of EFA shows that there are
04 key factors, in which 02 factors divided
into 02 sub groups, influence to the selection
of RA by job seekers when searching new
job vacancies.
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
80
Table 1
Factor loading result
Factor loading
Factor 1
Job vancancy characteristics & attractiveness
1,000
0,663
0,837
0,789
0,799
0,661
2,000
3,000
4,000
The usefulness and transparency of information in
regard to vacancy profile.
VA1
VA2
Challenging job
VA3
High-paid job
VA4
Preferred working location
Convenience of job location
Recruitent agency characteristics
Recruitment consultant influences
RA has experienced consultants
VA5
Factor 2
2.1
QD2
QD6
QD7
2.2
0,837
0,814
0,578
Strong customer – base and well-known clients
(recruiters)
High frequency of updated information on website
Services and efficiency quality
Usefulness of the tests
QD8
QD9
QD10
QD11
QD12
QD13
QD14
Factor 3
3.1
0,516
0,868
0,846
0,861
0,723
0,752
0,642
Career consultancy
Useful of consultancy services
Quality of consultancy services
High fill rate
Time to fill a vacancy
Satisfaction to new offer
Recruitment consultant’s competences
Recruitment consultant’s influences
Experience of consultants
RC1
0,744
0,858
0,679
0,626
0,627
RC2
Recruitment skill of consultant
Conversation skill
RC3
RC4
Foreign language skill
RC5
Appearance and grooming
Recruitment consultant and compliances
3.2
Consult to candidate appropriate information about
vacancy and recruitment procedure
Quickly feedback and advise appropriate
information/ next steps to candidates
RC6
RC7
0,941
0,937
Factor 4
IT1
Convenience of interview by RA
Place of the interview
0,854
0,913
0,653
IT2
Time of the interview
IT3
Duration of the interview
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
81
Factor
‘Recruitment
Agency
From the above ratio, we can estimate
that if job seekers are invited to interview
by RA, they have at least 20% probability
to be interviewed by recruiter. This ratio
is extremely high if comparing to the
application on online recruitment website4.
Higher convenience of interview is
absolutely an advantage for RA to approach
their job seekers and attract them to be their
candidates.
Characteristics’ is considered as the most
important factor. This result is rationale
and logic if considering the advantages
versus disadvantages of many recruitment
sources on the viewpoint of job seekers.
When coordinating to RA, job seekers
benefit the consultancy services. They
are provided appropriate information
about the vacancy, employer. Besides,
recruitment consultant advises them how to
leverage their pro and improve their cons
to increase the probability to be offered.
Another important thing is to assess the
correlation between new vacancies to
candidate’s career development, objective.
Recruitment consultant with consistent and
details information of employer, strong
recruitment competences can provide
efficient advice. These reasons prove that
variable ‘Career consultancy’, ‘Quality
of consultancy services’ and ‘RA has
experienced consultants’ are the highest
important assessment of job seekers
regarding to their overall evaluation of RA’
characteristics.
Variable ‘Time of the interview’ and
‘Place of the interview’ is highly concerned
by job seekers. This result is a point for
recruitment consultants consider when
arranging interview, especially who handle
supply chain – logistics segment.
Factor ‘Recruitment consultant
‘competences
This factor is very correlation
to other factor ‘Recruitment Agency
Characteristics’ and Factor ‘Convenience
of interview by RA’.
RA controls services quality by
well systematic operational procedures,
ERP system and qualified experienced
manpower. The compliances of recruitment
consultants gain the highest concerns of job
seekers. Job seekers highly appreciate the
details information and feedbacks about the
vacancy, recruitment procedure and results
of interviews by both RA and employers.
Factor ‘Convenience of interview by RA’
Referring the some models of
recruitment and selection procedure,
interview is the second step after candidate’s
resume is screened and invited to interview.
All candidates are obviously aware of the
high probability to be interviewed if their
resume sent to recruiter from RA. Some
standard operational key performance
Indicators (KPI) practiced by RA:
Compare to other recruitment sources,
job seekers if applying through RA receive
details feedback from recruiter. They are
recognized their strength their suitability,
then they accept their weakness and
improve it. Variable ‘RA has experienced
consultants’ is also high concerns of job
seekers. One of the influences of RA to job
seekers is the strong customer-base and
customers’ reputation. This result proves
that RA can differentiate its influences by
setting up exclusively partnership to some
key customers who have their significant
reputation and maintain strong relation to
other big recruiters.
• 3:1 is ratio between shortlisted
candidates versus 01 vacancy
• 5:3 is ratio between total candidates
interviewed versus to be shortlisted
(they are qualified to introduce to
recruiter)
• 2:3 is ratio between candidates are 01st
interviewed by recruiter on total 03
shortlisted candidates
4 Reference: number of viewers versus job openings posted on www.vietnamworks.com dated Dec 10th 2010
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
82
Factor ‘Job vacancy characteristics
and attractiveness’
It’s not surprised when job seekers
assess the influences of this factor to their
selection of RA is less important than other
03 factors. If the recruiters are not exclusive
client, the vacancy is posted on many
recruitment sources. So the attractiveness
of vacancy belongs to how job seekers
assess vacancy’s challenge (‘Challenging
job’). Item ‘Preferred working place’ is also
an important concern which attracts the
intention.
Table 2
Cronbach Alpha value of each factor
Cronbach’s
Alpha
Factor name
Items
VA1 The usefulness and transparency of information in regard to
vacancy profile
VA2 Challenging job
Factor 1:
Job vancancy
characteristics &
attractiveness
0,807
VA3 High-paid job
VA4 Preferred working location
VA5 Convenience of job location
QD2 RA has experienced consultants
QD6 Strong customer – base and well-known clients (recruiters)
QD7 High frequency of updated information on website
QD8 Usefulness of the tests
Factor 2:
QD9 Career consultancy
Recruitent agency
characteristics
0,876
QD10 Useful of consultancy services
QD11 Quality of consultancy services
QD12 High fill rate
QD13 Time to fill a vacancy
QD14 Satisfaction to new offer
RC1 Experience of consultants
RC2 Recruitment skill of consultant
RC3 Conversation skill
Factor 3:
Recruitment
consultant’
competences
RC4 Foreign language skill
0,849
RC5 Appearance and grooming
RC6 Consult to candidate appropriate information about vacancy and
recruitment procedure
RC7 Quickly feedback and advise appropriate information / next steps
to candidates
IT1 Place of the interview
IT2 Time of the interview
IT3 Duration of the interview
Factor 4:
Convenience of
interview by RA
0,866
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
83
Table 3
Reliability test results ranking by descending importance
Std.
devia-
tion
Sample
size
Factor
loading
min
1
max
5
mean
4,243
Recruitment consultant and
compliances
Factor 3.2
148
0,784
Consult to candidate appropriate
information about vacancy and
recruitment procedure
RC6
0,941
0,937
Quickly feedback and advise
appropriate information/ next steps to
candidates
RC7
Job vancancy characteristics &
attractiveness
Factor 1
148
148
1
2
5
5
4,062
4,018
0,502
0,571
VA2
VA4
VA3
Challenging job
0,837
0,799
0,789
Preferred working location
High-paid job
Factor 2.1 Recruitment consultant influences
QD2
QD6
RA has experienced consultants
0,837
0,814
Strong
and
customer
well-known
–
base
clients
(recruiters)
Highfrequencyofupdatedinformation
on website
QD7
0,578
Factor 3.1 Recruitment consultant’s influences
148
2
5
3,805
0,502
RC2
RC1
RC3
RC5
RC4
Recruitment skill of consultant
Experience of consultants
Conversation skill
0,858
0,744
0,679
0,627
0,626
148
Appearance and grooming
Foreign language skill
Factor 2.2 Services and efficiency quality
148
2
5
3,786
0,606
QD9
QD11
QD10
QD13
QD12
QD14
QD8
Career consultancy
0,868
0,861
0,846
0,752
0,723
0,642
0,516
Quality of consultancy services
Useful of consultancy services
Time to fill a vacancy
High fill rate
Satisfaction to new offer
Usefulness of the tests
Convenience of interview by RA
Time of the interview
Factor 4
IT2
148
2,333
5
3,478
0,544
0,913
0,854
0,653
IT1
Place of the interview
IT3
Duration of the interview
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
84
Independent sample t-test conducted suburbs. So job seekers who work in this
for 02 different responses working in industry are difficult to arrange interview
services and supply chain / logistics with recruitment agency within working
shows that there is statically significant hours or 01 hour after work due to distant
in assessing the influence and importance travel. To successfully arranging interview
of factor – ‘Convenience of interview with them, recruitment consultant has to
by RA’ by Supply Chain / Logistics be flexible in time and place of interview
respondents. In HoChiMinh city, most even interview scheduled on weekend.
of 03rd party logistics companies set up Candidates who work in services are more
warehouse system outside central city or flexible in interview if they are invited.
Table 4
Statistics on Independent –Samples T-Test – Factor 4
Factor 4
Equal variances not
Equal variances assumed
assumed
F
1,196
0,277
-2,236
96
Levene’s Test for Equality
of Variances
Sig.
T
-2,170
77,365
0,033
Df
T test
Sig. (2-tailed)
Mean Difference
Std. Error Difference
0,028
-0,248
0,111
-0,248
0,114
Table 5
variable’s mean in Factor 4
Services
Logistics/ Supply Chain
QD20
QD21
QD22
Place of the interview
3,43
3,38
3,29
3,55
3,70
3,59
Time of the interview
Duration of the interview
Iv. Recommendations
Solution 2: Enhancing the quality of
recruitment consultants
Solution 1: Setting up standard to
RA focuses on the quality of career
consultancy by enhancing the manpower
force. Hard skills of consultants as their
knowledge, experience and ethics should
be considered as ‘must’ requirement
because soft skills (communication,
negotiation, presentation, etc) can be
trained in short term.
“filter clients”
Most of RA have set up and practiced
standard operation procedure (SOP) to
control their services quality, especially in
qualifying candidates. However, standard to
“select” clients (recruiters) is not common
practiced. Unqualified clients may cause
strong impact to the reputation and services
of RA and lead to low efficiency because
clientsignoresomeproceduresinrecruitment
and selection such as providing interviews’
feedback; cancelling the job order without
clear explanation or inconsistent in their
requirements.
Solution 3: Communicate “Value
proposition”
Value proposition can be considered
to apply for this service in order to change
the perception of majority of job seekers
who never think of using this service or
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
85
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