I want to become a freelance recruitment consultant
If you are thinking about becoming a freelance recruitment consultant, you will be self-employed and offer your freelance recruitment services to your portfolio of clients. Being self-employed will allow you to work with your own goals on the recruitment jobs entrusted to you. Your results will depend primarily on how hard you work and how you organise yourself.
What training do I need to become a freelance recruitment consultant?
To become a freelance recruitment consultant, you should preferably have completed at least three years of higher education. Recruitment consultants tend to have studied social sciences, human resources, management, business or psychology.
However, a university degree is not enough to make you an effective and formidable freelance headhunter. Before creating your recruitment agency, we recommend that you build up substantial experience in recruitment or human resources. Having worked in a recruitment agency or the recruitment department of a company is a prerequisite in order to have demonstrated to your peers that you have the expertise and methodology to make you a credible professional in your field.
To further develop your recruitment knowledge, particularly in relation to new technologies, you can do a course on sourcing or conducting a recruitment interview, organised by a public or private body. In addition, in order to be capable of handling all the complexities creating a business involves, you can also choose to do a course in creating your own business, aimed specifically at freelancers or micro-entrepreneurs.
What legal status does a freelance recruitment consultant have?
To become a freelance recruitment consultant, the business creation stage is unavoidable.
You can start out with micro-entrepreneur status. As a micro-entrepreneur headhunter, you will be registered as a sole trader (entreprise individuelle - EI). However, to be eligible, you must have an annual turnover of no more than €70,000. Otherwise, you will need to opt for the status of single-person limited-liability company (entreprise unipersonnelle à responsabilité limitée - EURL) or single-person simplified joint-stock company (société par actions simplifiée unipersonnelle - SASU).
I want to create a recruitment agency
If you plan to create a recruitment agency, you must first of all have a passion for the recruitment sector and be an effective businessperson in order to hold your own against the competition. Your academic background can be the same as that of a freelance recruitment consultant. But you can boost your skills by taking a qualification in leadership, marketing and/or entrepreneurship.
The activities of a recruitment professional can be divided into two main categories:
- Sales canvassing
- Sourcing and qualifying candidates
Growing the business of your recruitment agency
It is strongly recommended that you build up quite a large portfolio of clients before creating your recruitment agency. To achieve this, you can:
- Make use of your professional contacts
- Approach companies in your town or region (by phone, email or post)
- Take part in recruitment conferences and events
- Adopt a suitable webmarketing strategy (professional LinkedIn account, white papers, webinars, etc.).
It is also highly advisable to write a business plan before you create your recruitment agency, including precise financial projections. This study will force you to assess the market in your area and approach prospective clients accordingly.
Finding the right candidates for your clients
Although sales canvassing accounts for a considerable proportion of your work, your true know-know as a recruitment agency lies in sourcing and supporting candidates.
If you already have a pool of candidates you have met through previous professional experiences, staying in touch with them can pay dividends, as following up on the best candidates is what being a good recruitment consultant is all about.
As well as taking care to maintain relations with the candidates you have already met, it is vital for you to establish a sourcing strategy. Making sure you are equipped with new technology is essential in order to reach the widest possible talent pool, particularly among digitally minded candidates.
Professional social media platforms such as LinkedIn can prove to be a real goldmine for identifying and getting in touch with potential candidates.
What legal status should my recruitment agency have?
In order to officially create your recruitment agency, you must think about the legal status that best suits the type of business you want to create. Getting assistance from a public-service player CCI, Pôle Emploi, etc.) or a private consultant (accountant, lawyer) will allow you to familiarise yourself with the criteria to be taken into consideration (tax issues, capital requirements, number of partners, liability, involvement of personal assets, etc.).
You will then have several possibilities, such as:
- A single-person company (entreprise individuelle)
- Limited-liability company status (société à responsabilité limitée - SARL)
- Simplified joint-stock company status (société par actions simplifiée - SAS)
Creating a recruitment agency to become a Hunteed partner
Thanks to our digital platform, each freelance recruitment consultant or recruitment agency can access recruitment jobs without doing any sales canvassing. No financial commitment is demanded and the relationship is subject to acceptance of Hunteed’s General Terms of Use and Sale. You must have a valid legal status before you can bill Hunteed.
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