A recruitment agency, otherwise known as an employment agency is a system designed to help people find employment with ease.

In its simplest form somebody looking for work will visit an employment agency and hand them details about their skills and qualifications in a Resume. The agency will then try to match the Resume with potential employers who have also registered with the agency. If the skill set matches that of the employer then you will be contacted and most likely get a traditional job interview. There may be several potential employees referred to the employer through the agency, so you are not guaranteed the job.

Most towns have some kind of employment agency or job center from which the unemployed or those between jobs can look for work. Many have IT equipment and software where the potential employee can do their own job search and Resume matching from a database of unfilled positions rather than leaving your Resume with them.

With the rise of the internet there are now many recruitment agencies online that work in pretty much the same way. You register an account with the agency’s website, fill in details about your Resume and skills, then it becomes visible in the database. Employers can then search the database via skills, location etc to best match a potential employee for the job. Some also work in the opposite way, where potential employees can search employers and job positions. Many local newspapers that traditionally printed job positions now publish them on their online equivalent often in the same manner as online recruitment agencies.

Another recruitment agency type system that has popped up over the last few years online are freelance auction sites, where companies that require temporary work, such as articles, web design etc post the job details and freelancers bid on the price to accept the project. The lowest bid or the one that best meets the employer’s needs will win. This often results in very low paying work and isn’t as effective as a proper recruitment agency.

In this day and age it is quite important to have a recruiter or a database system to help find you a job. By yourself, using older methods it takes much longer to find a potential job, whereas agencies can quickly match your skills with employers with a few button clicks, plus they have the experience of positioning people properly in the workplace.

A similar system known a temping, usually matches low skilled workers with temporary jobs on a consistent basis.