Press Coverage
Recruiters are failing to meet needs of own staff
Recruiter - 2008-04-30
Too many recruiters fail to practise what they preach to their clients about helping employees build careers when recruiting, and in attempting to retain their own staff, two high-profile recruiters have warned.
High staff turnover is expensive, and recent research into what recruiters want from their careers has found that their needs are not being met on a variety of fronts. Contributing to these parallel problems is a lack of strong leadership and management, according to John Rose, chief executive officer, The Kellan Group, and Zena Everett, director, Perriam and Everett.
Speaking at Recruiter's Annual Forum, Rose and Everett said that recruiters leave their employers because they do not offer such basics as appreciation for a job well done and they ignore the benefits of career guidance for staff such as mentoring and coaching. Further, they do not provide the structural environment that their staff want.
Recruiters are good at hiring trainees but are much weaker at hiring from competitors, Everett said. Employers in the recruitment industry fail to share inspiring case studies of success when wooing newcomers into their firms, even though such stories could convince potential recruits of the benefits of working for a firm.
"There's a disconnect between what we're selling externally and how we manage internally," Everett said.
Too few recruitment employers offer tangible rewards that are appropriate for a professional workforce, apart from salaries and commission. "If we want to make careers for people, we have got to offer career-type benefits," said Rose.
THE HIGH COST OF STAFF TURNOVER
When a consultant leaves a firm, the total cost is £62,000, by Rose's estimate. That figure includes three months without a consultant at an average of £10,000 in billings a month; £14,000 for induction, training and management time; and £18,000 to get a new consultant up to speed.
DeeDee Doke
