The Recruitment Industry deals with a lot of negative press, a bad reputation that comes from complaints about unhappy experiences, high costs and how recruitment agencies are unnecessary and not reacting to the current changes in the workplace. Recruitment companies come in many shapes and sizes and as with any business sector, you will have those who are incredibly ethical, professional and provide a great service and you will also have those who sadly do not. But this is not just the reserve for recruitment companies, as with all businesses, there are the good, the bad and the very ugly.
The focus for every business should be about offering a great product or service that provides real value for money, and nothing gives me more pleasure than to know that someone I placed as an Account Executive goes onto become an Account Director at the same company 5 years on. Using intuition and empathy, just as I did when I started my career in the 90’s, spending time to profile my clients, fully understand the candidates I represent, these skills are as relevant today as they were when I first started in recruitment.
In 2018, there were 39,232 registered recruitment agencies in the UK, so there is obviously a place and a need for these businesses. As a small recruitment business, my company provides a consultative, bespoke service to our clients and the costs involved working with us represent value for money, the repeat business we have from our clients clearly demonstrates this.
Competition quite rightly, has always been fierce and we now have hiring platforms boosting their profiles by being negative about the traditional recruitment industry. Then they state facts like its free to advertise with them, that’s not unique to them, it’s also free to advertise with recruitment companies, the charge comes when we place a candidate with a client, just as they charge when they place with their clients. They work in an automated way, we work in a bespoke way, different ways with different results for different needs.
Recruitment should be about representing candidates in the best possible and positive way, giving insight to a future employer about why the individual is the right fit for their business. Instead of asking someone to speak into a camera to capture their personality, we prefer in-depth interviewing giving insight to an individual’s reasons for wanting to join a company, we explore a person’s background and motivations, experience and knowledge using our training and expertise to best match individuals to businesses.
There is a place for hiring platforms and online recruitment agencies but without a doubt, there is a vital and important place for companies such as mine in the recruitment industry, where we tailor our service to the different and unique individual needs of our clients and candidates.
As Michael Oliver, Marketing Manager at Client Server Says:
“Automation might speed up the hiring process for an organisation but filling jobs shouldn't be an exercise in expediency. A good recruiter reads between the lines and teases out a candidate's motivations/aspirations. Only then can they find the 'right' person for a role. There's not an algorithm on Earth that can do that.”
Claire Newman FIRP Cert RP | Director & Founder | Bluetree Recruits
