Recruitment agencies

Recruitment agencies run on vacancies, candidates, and placements. In the UK, you're balancing biz dev, resourcing, and placement—often across perm and contract. When vacancies land in email, candidates live in the ATS, and handover between teams is informal, jobs slip and fill rates suffer.

The operational reality in this sector

Agencies take vacancies from clients by phone, email, and sometimes portals. Jobs get logged in the ATS or a spreadsheet; resourcers and consultants work the desk. Handover between biz dev and delivery can be loose—a kick-off call, a shared brief, or "it's in the ATS." Candidate pipeline and status live across the ATS, spreadsheets, and email. The operational reality is reactive intake, unclear ownership, and "who's working that role?" when volume spikes.

Common friction we see

• Vacancies land in multiple inboxes; no single intake or job pipeline view.
• Job allocation is ad hoc—who's free, who knows the client—with no clear ownership.
• Handover between biz dev and resourcing is verbal or buried in email; brief and context get lost.
• Candidate and placement status live across ATS, spreadsheets, and email; reconciliation is manual.
• Too much time on "who's got this role?" and "have we sent the shortlist?"
• Clients chase for updates because internal ownership is unclear.

What this looks like in practice

A typical agency has vacancies coming in by email and phone. Someone logs them in the ATS and assigns to a consultant—often in a morning meeting or by shout. Handover is a quick brief or a forwarded email. Candidates are tracked in the ATS, but pipeline and client comms often live in spreadsheets or inboxes. When it gets busy, jobs queue, handover blurs, and the team burns hours on status checks. Clients notice when updates slip.

How we typically approach this

We start with discovery: we map how vacancies come in, how they're allocated, and how handover between biz dev and delivery works. We design workflows—intake, allocation, handover—that fit your desks and integrate with your ATS. We build or configure so vacancies land in one place, ownership is clear, and handover is documented. We phase delivery so you're not disrupted. Training and handover ensure your team can run it.

What changes after implementation

• One place for vacancies and pipeline; clear allocation and ownership.
• Handover between biz dev and resourcing documented; less lost context.
• Single view of what's in progress and what's at risk.
• Less time on triage and status, more on filling roles.
• Clearer client communication because ownership is visible.

Tools we commonly work with

We work with what you use: ATS (e.g. Bullhorn, Recruitee, Vincere, job boards), Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, Xero, and CRM or intake tools. We connect vacancy intake, workflows, and handover so you're not duplicating or chasing across systems.

A short example from the field

Illustrative example. A technical recruitment agency had vacancies landing in email and the ATS. Allocation happened in daily huddles; handover was often a quick brief. We built a single vacancy intake, clear allocation rules, and simple handover checklists that fed into their ATS. Consultants could see every live role and its owner. Handover improved and fewer jobs slipped.

FAQs

We use an ATS. Do we need to replace it?
Usually no. We integrate with what you have. The gap we fill is often vacancy intake, client handover, and internal workflow—so jobs and candidates land in one place and nothing drops between systems.

What about multi-site or remote teams?
We design workflows so everyone sees the same pipeline and handover. Remote and multi-site teams benefit from clear ownership and a single view.

We have perm and contract desks. Same system?
We can design for both. Workflows can differ by desk, but intake and handover often share a single pipeline. We'll map your reality and build to that.

Next step

If vacancy intake and handover are holding you back, we can help you capture every job, route work clearly, and hand over without the chaos. View our services or see how we work.