Determinants of job seekers to select recruitment agency for new job vacancies Author - Affiliation: Phan Xuan Binh - MBA Co- program between Solvay Brussels School and HCMC Open University , Vietnam Nguyen Minh Ha - Ho Chi Minh City Open University , Vietnam Corresponding author: Phan Xuan Binh - kim.npt@ou.edu.vn DOI:10.46223/HCMCOUJS.econ.en.1.1.120.2011

Abstract

The most important determinant of organizational effectiveness is the ability to attract, hire, and develop capable talent. The ability to attract and retain superior 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 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. 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:
• 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 very long time to fill the vacancy or to find out the right candidate.