Best Practices to work with Dataworks
When Recruitment Partnerships Succeed (AKA best practices to work with us!)
Recruitment agencies often get judged on the quality of candidates they send. But after working on hundreds of searches across Europe and the US, I’ve found something else has a much bigger impact on success:
The quality of the partnership itself.
I’ve worked with companies where we’ve filled every role together, and others where even finding one hire felt unnecessarily difficult. The difference was rarely the market, but almost always the way we worked together.
If you’re investing in a specialist recruitment agency, here are the practices that consistently produce better hires, faster processes, and a far better experience for everyone involved.
- Give the Agency Ownership; Not Just Sourcing Responsibilities
- Let Recruiters Speak Directly with Hiring Managers
- Invest Time in the Brief
- Recruitment Works Best as a Partnership, Not Two Separate Teams
- Feedback Should Be Measured in Minutes, Not Days
- Trust Your Recruitment Partner’s Market Knowledge
- Let Recruitters Influence Decisions; Not Just Relay Messages
- Candidate Experience Is a Shared Responsibility
- Exclusivity Isn’t Essential. Alignment Is.
1. Give the agency ownership; not just sourcing responsibilities
The biggest mistake is treating a specialist recruiter as “just a CV supplier”… Uploading CVs into an ATS and waiting for updates isn’t where specialist recruiters create value.
Our value comes from everything that happens before and after the CV.
When agencies have ownership, they can:
- challenge assumptions
- qualify candidates properly
- advise on market realities
- sell the opportunity
- keep candidates engaged
- coordinate interviews
- gather honest feedback
- close candidates
If all we’re doing is sourcing CVs into a portal, much of that value disappears and you’re paying specialist recruitment fees for a service that’s much closer to CV sourcing. Often it’ll result in volulme without quality.
2. Let recruiters speak directly with hiring managers
HR and Talent teams are hugely valuable partners but they’re often acting as an intermediary.
The hiring manager is ultimately the person deciding:
- what “good” actually looks like
- which compromises they’re willing to make
- what personality succeeds
- what technical excellence means in practice
A 20-minute intake with the hiring manager can save dozens of hours later for the agency, and the talent team later down the process.
Without it, we are often forced to guess, and can send candidates that technically match the brief but miss the nuance.
3. Invest time in the brief
Most difficult searches don’t fail because there is no available candidate but because the brief wasn’t clear enough.
Before searching, everyone should understand:
- What is genuinely non-negotiable?
- What is simply preferred?
- Why is this role open?
- What problem is this person solving?
- What kind of personality succeeds?
- What would make you reject an otherwise great candidate?
The clearer the brief, the fewer irrelevant interviews everyone sits through.
4. Recruitment works best as a partnership, not two separate teams
The best client relationships I’ve had all shared one characteristic:
Transparency, not necessarily exclusivity.
Everyone knew:
- where candidates were coming from
- what the internal team was already progressing
- what support was needed externally
- who owned each stage
- what priorities had changed
Instead of competing against each other, we became one hiring team. This ensure the recruitment agency keeps working hard on the project, but also doesn’t waste their time if there are internal candidates already being hired.
5. Feedback should be given in minutes, not days
Candidates don’t usually disappear because another recruiter called them but because of slow processes and latency. A CV review should rarely take more than 24 hours. Reviewing a well-qualified CV usually takes only a few minutes. Interview feedback should be even quicker.
The interviewer already knows how the conversation went.
Waiting several days rarely improves the quality of the decision but it increases the chance the candidate accepts another offer.
6. Trust your recruitment partner’s market knowledge
Specialist agencies spend every day speaking with candidates in one market.
We quickly see patterns:
- salary expectations shifting
- competitors hiring
- skills becoming scarce
- candidate concerns
- interview processes losing people
If every piece of market feedback is ignored because “that’s not what we want,” you won’t likely hire quickly.
The best clients listen, challenge, discuss—and adapt when the evidence supports it.
7. Recruiters should influence decisions—not just relay messages
One of the biggest advantages of using a boutique specialist is that they develop a real understanding of both sides.
That means they should feel comfortable saying things like:
- “I think you’re overlooking this candidate.”
- “This requirement is unrealistic for the salary.”
- “You’re likely losing candidates because the process is too long.”
- “I’d prioritise this person immediately.”
If your recruiter never challenges you, they’re probably acting more like an administrator than a partner.
8. Candidate experience is a shared responsibility
Candidates don’t distinguish between agency delays and company delays – as a company, you need to be mindful of that! To them, it’s all one hiring process.
That means both sides need to deliver:
- quick communication
- clear expectations
- honest feedback
- consistent timelines
- respect for candidates’ time
Strong candidate experience isn’t just about employer branding. It directly affects offer acceptance rates.
9. Exclusivity isn’t essential. Alignment is.
Some of our most successful projects weren’t exclusive but they all had alignment.
Everyone understood:
- who owned what
- what success looked like
- how we’d communicate
- how feedback would flow
- where we could genuinely add value
You don’t need to stop your own sourcing but you need to entrust and empower your external recruitment partner .. or don’t bother!
Final thoughts
A specialist recruitment agency doesn’t simply send CVs. The best agencies become an extension of your business and they should reduce the workload on your team while improving hiring outcomes.
If the relationship is reduced to an ATS login, delayed feedback, and little access to decision-makers, results often become average.
But when there’s trust, transparency, ownership and fast communication, the difference is remarkable. The best recruitment partnerships don’t happen because one side works harder but when both sides work as one team.
A few additional points … just for fun !
- Defining success metrics upfront. Agree what success looks like (time to shortlist, interview-to-offer ratio, quality of candidates), not just “send more CVs.”
- Don’t change the brief every week. Evolving requirements are normal, but constant changes force the search to restart and confuse candidates.
- Be open to evidence. If 30 candidates consistently reject the compensation or don’t meet an unrealistic combination of requirements, treat that as market data rather than assuming recruiters aren’t searching hard enough.
- Limit unnecessary interview stages. Every extra stage costs candidates and increases drop-off, particularly for senior talent.
- Share business context. Recruiters sell more effectively when they understand the company’s strategy, challenges, and why the role matters—not just the job description.
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