Press Coverage
Does recruitment-to-recruitment need to sharpen up its act?
Minutes of Recruitment Society Debate - 2002-03-19
'Does recruitment-to-recruitment need to sharpen up its act?' was the question addressed by the Recruitment Society at its meeting on 19th March. Graham Roadnight, board director of recruitment consultancy Drax Group, and Zena Everett, founder of recruitment-to-recruitment firm Perriam & Everett voiced their opinions on the subject.
The relationship between recruitment-to-recruitment companies and the rest of the recruitment industry has been troubled from day one, said Zena Everett. The first consultants from the sector to attend a meeting at what was the forerunner of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) were asked to leave the meeting, for example. It is only in the last 18 months the REC has allowed recruitment-to-recruitment companies into the body - still only six are members.
Estimates of how many recruitment-to-recruitment companies now exist vary from 80 to 300. Recognised, if not always loved, in the UK, recruitment-to-recruitment is almost unknown in Europe and the US.
Both speakers and audience agreed that the recruitment-to-recruitment does indeed need to shake itself up and sharpen up its act. It also needs to improve its image.
Painting himself as a cynic, Graham Roadnight nonetheless gave concrete examples to back these views up. He spoke of two recruitment-to-recruitment companies that forwarded people's CVs to their own employer, resulting in those individuals' immediate dismissal. The recruitment industry has one of the worst misconduct records, he said, and the recruitment-to-recruitment sector does nothing to redeem that.
A psychology graduate, he argued that nurture rather than nature makes a thing rotten - the recruitment-to-recruitment industry has not done enough to ensure it "grows up" and behaves properly. Consultants in the industry offer a poor service in general, he said, with a few pockets of exceptional excellence. It is driven by desire for wealth rather than a concern for standards, he said, as evidenced by recruitment-to-recruitment companies "re-offending" when they have acted wrongly in some capacity.
Zena Everett exempted her own company from those tarred with the brush of "malpractice", of course. She put the recruitment-to-recruitment industry within the context of the recruitment industry more generally: "People see all of us as a 'necessary evil', and we're not doing enough to change that perception."
One of the greatest problems is the pursuit of the placement fee rather than a genuine commitment to being part of the industry long-term, she said, with all the implications for standards and reputation that demands. But clients too, fail to demand an appropriate level of service - many still treat recruitment-to-recruitment companies as suppliers rather than partners. Recruiters should treat the recruitment-to-recruitment firms as they would expect their clients to treat them. Both parties have to invest more time - and more faith - in the relationship.
The recruitment industry as a whole will only raise its profile, and its standards, when it is regulated 'meaningfully'. The industry needs a kitemark of quality, said Everett. Divisions within the industry, whether made between recruitment-to-recruitment and recruitment to other sectors, or between contingency recruitment and retained search, are mere distractions. Recruitment-to-recruitment has a lot to offer the industry, was the conclusion, but it has a long way still to come to fulfil its potential.
The Annual Internet Debate will take place at the next Recruitment Society meeting on 16 April.
