Groundhog Day

When Robbie Cowling was motorcycling to his Basingstoke workplace from his home in Essex and each day passed on the other side of the road a motorcyclist going the other way, the thought occurred to him that if the other guy was an IT contractor like himself and they swapped jobs they’d save themselves both the 3 hour commute!

Robbie goes on the found Jobserve and become one of the architects of the single most significant event in recruitment history; the introduction of the Job Board. Whilst the move from print to digital significantly reduced the cost of attracting candidates, it did not however change the agency process – Groundhog Day.

The basic process is the same whether you’re in executive search or recruiting temps: take a job description, source possible candidates, identify the best candidates and introduce to the client. It is usually transacted by a small group of recruiters and may involve a very large and far-flung group of potential candidates who need to be “identified” (relatively easy), “approached” (time-consuming) and persuaded or “engaged” (tricky).

The reason the recruitment sector reminds me of Groundhog Day is that (with some exceptions) each time an agency takes a brief it starts the process from scratch. This is arguably because the candidate market is in a state of constant change and the best available candidate 6 months ago may not be the best available candidate today. This is where the “consultancy” in Recruitment Consultancy comes.

However…

Collectively the estimated 100,000 recruitment firms in the world know virtually all the candidates in every market “personally”. They’ve all been contacted! Every SAP Consultant in Spain, every Lawyer in Israel, every Accountant in Australia, every Engineer in the UAE has been identified, approached and engaged! The gold’s not buried! It’s all been mined and is selling in the market. All you need to do is find the right Recruiter that’s already got the right Candidate.

In the same way as someone living in Essex and working in Basingstoke doing exactly the same job as someone living in Basingstoke and working in Essex makes no sense, so too does the concept that the traditional highly engineered approach to recruitment is the only way to use the agency sector. There’s a massive resource of existing relationships out there that you could tap into in a matter of hours.

http://vacancy-clearing.com

Now seeking business partners to act as Associates (sector experts) and Country Managers (distribution channel leaders). See website for details or email david@vacancy-clearing.com 

Work for us and build a new global recruitment model

The agency recruitment model has not changed much in 25 years. Employers choose agencies they feel confident will represent them correctly and can deliver the candidates they need. The process uses a small number of agencies (a PSL or preferred supplier list) to break down a large potential candidate market and deliver the best available hire.

The problem with this PSL model is:

1. There’s a chance a small number of agencies will not find every candidate,
2. It often takes a considerable amount of time to engage and deliver candidates,
3. It’s expensive compared to other options now available to Employers.
 

The PSL is the backbone of the market and is where the “Consultancy” in Recruitment Consultancy comes from BUT,  I believe we need to also offer Employers alternatives.

Vacancy-Clearing.com is a unique recruitment agency introductory service

We can introduce an Employer to the Recruiter that we know already has a relationship with the best available andidate for the Job. See website for the How!

1. It has great geographically reach because it’s online and is open to all agencies,
2. It’s fast because these Recruiters are not looking for candidates, they’ve already got them,
3. It’s low-cost because there's no cold-calling or candidate sourcing involved.

The Opportunity: Country Manager and Associate.

We’re now looking for Country Managers in all major recruitment regions (UK, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, UAE, USA and others) to build and manage teams of Associates (sector experts) across all the major agency recruitment markets (IT, Finance, Legal etc).

Associates will take charge of a particular sector reflecting their expertise (eg Accountancy/UK) and be responsible for: promoting V-C through Social Media, selling to existing and new contacts, screening CV traffic on all advertised jobs and managing agency feedback.

The model anticipates 1 Country Manager and up to 30 Associates (1 sector expert for each market). You will receive a substantial monthly share of advertising revenues generated by your sector/country. Unfortunately we’re not able to offer a salary as we’re a start up.

If you’re interested in a new venture and you have the required agency recruitment background and would like further details please drop me an email to david@vacancy-clearing.com

How to overcome agency sector fragmantation

 

As I result of reading this interesting piece from NPA I thought the membership debate might enjoy another perspective.
http://www.npaworldwide.com/2012/05/24/3-key-diferences-npa-bountyjobs/#.T79HQlL-6qw

With 10,000 firms in the UK alone with an average size of 5 Consultants each (if you remove the big players that average number of Consultants is even lower) it’s not surprising that one of the first words used about the agency market is “fragmentation”.

The problem with the market being split into so many small suppliers is that it becomes inefficient: lots of firms cold-calling the same employers, pitching the same candidates, advertising the same jobs, tripping over themselves to secure revenue, being almost invisible when you want to find them and with virtually zero inter-agency communication.

From an employers perspective this fragmentation creates problems too. If they want to cover the markets from a geographical and sector basis and they want the best agencies on the job (arguably the niche independents) they’ll need to appoint quite a few of them. However this might only equate to 1 or 2 Consultants per job group (eg Finance roles in the UK or IT in Spain) , which in a tight global skills market be like trying to download video without broadband.

The independent recruiter is the backbone of the industry but we must find a way to reduce operating costs, improve efficiency and increase communications if we are to compete. One solution would be for agencies to form or join groups, which could coordinate the activities of its members more efficiently without threatening their independence. By joining a group you automatically raise your profile, build buying power, create a new business channel and open up a communications with other suppliers.

Apart from the obvious ones like the IOR, APSCo, REC etc I thought it might be useful to start a list. Please add any you can think of in the comments section