Licensing

 

(Q) If Recruitment Agencies were like Taxis, which one would you be?

(A) You’re the unlicensed one!

If you think something should be done about this please add a comment.

When is Recruitment Consultancy really Recruitment Consultancy and not just People Placing on commission-only.

Employer: What do you do?

Consultant: I’m a Recruitment Consultant.

Employer: Ok so you advise me how to recruit - right?

Consultant: Well not exactly. I find people for your jobs.

Employer: So if there was a better way to find people, would you recommend that?

Consultant: No I only get paid to place people with you, not for pointing you in another direction.

Employer: So where’s the “Consultancy” in that?

Consultant: Pay me to advise you on how to optimise your recruitment processes and I’ll show you.

Now that recruitment has changed so much, should People Placers look to offer more Recruitment Consultancy regardless of who actually finds the candidate?

What the Recruitment industry must learn from Steve Jobs.

There’s stuff you’re happy to pay for and stuff you begrudge paying for. Think about that one for a second - the list of examples forms quickly in the mind! I’m pretty sure iPhones fall into the first category and life insurance falls into the second.

What about recruitment consultancy?

Well, we have all experienced the moment when a client hires a great candidate and just for that moment they’re not thinking about the cost, they’re thinking about value. Unfortunately the moment tends to evaporate the next time they get a commission-driven sales call or an over-sold candidate.

What Steve Jobs did so well was create a product that resonated with a generation. It was so cool people couldn’t wait for it. They queued around the block for it. As Recruitment Consultants we need to do the same for our clients so that, when we call, they are dribbling with anticipation.

What product or service can we offer that resonates with this generation?

I believe it involves turning our backs on the volume cold-calling “Big Biller” self-interested mentality and taking an holistic consultative approach to recruitment: what’s in the best interests of the client? How can we help make this company better at hiring? How can we reduce their hiring costs? You may never introduce a candidate to them directly again!

This is what I am now doing with www.rsg1000.com. Its recruitment consultancy but not you have known it!

It’s not going to be easy and for many it will be beyond their capabilities but I believe the answer to the question above is:

“Give your client the coolest recruitment strategy they’ve ever seen, upgrade it regularly and leave them feeling in awe.”

Let me know what you think?

Those that would like to become involved should email me david@rsg1000.com

What has the King of Tonga got to do with Recruitment Agencies?

I think we have all accepted that Social Media and the In-House recruitment model have taken root and we need to adapt our recruitment agency offering accordingly.

Does this acceptance mean that a large part of the £20 billion per annum spent on agency recruitment will disappear? The answer depends on to what extent agencies evolve new services to generate new revenues that will replace those that will inevitably be lost.

So what might Recruitment Consultancy look like going forward?

New Services:

Agency recruitment has traditionally been a single outsourced function. Your clients are now exercising the option to take that back in-house. However there are new challenges they will face. These challenges are actually bi-products of the very changes that triggered the move back in-house in the first place. They include: fast-evolving social media, software, technological and cloud based recruitment tools. We may also see: agency licensing, professional qualifications for in-house recruiters, national recruitment agency networks, global recruitment agency alliances. In 5 years time there will be many more. If your client wants to remain recruitment-competitive they may well seek expert help in choosing and integrating the best resources. Are you equiped to provide it?

Greater Accessibility:

What Agencies must also do is overcome market fragmentation and become more accessible. We need to create a supply side where 1000s of great agency recruiters no longer have to shout to be heard.

Due to the nature of the job, the way you are rewarded and zero barriers to entry, fragmentation is inevitable as Recruitment Consultants ultimately seek and value their independence. However there is a possible solution.

The one-stop Recruitment Network who's members cover: all Recruitment Agency sectors, Contractor management, Social Media consultancy, HR consultancy, In-House consultancy, New Product reviews and Global recruitment solutions offers the client an accessible resource that meets all possible needs. It also goes a long way to removing the now redundant PSL.

Like the King of Tonga ruling a tiny kingdom may not be what it once was.

The Word is not Enough!

Recruitment Consultancy in most peoples’ eyes involves the successful introduction of a candidate to a company resulting in an agency earning a fee.

But this isn’t Consultancy!

Consultancy is about providing advice, in this case about how to best approach recruitment, irrespective of where the candidates eventually come from.

In the old days the way you best served your client was by finding and delivering the right candidate. Nowadays, in spite of the fact that agencies are in a shrinking market, fortunately there’s much more to talk to clients about.

The options and choices hiring companies must consider to remain recruitment competitive are complex and demanding: In-House? Agency? RPO? ATS? Facebook? Twitter? Mobile?

Consultancy is about helping these companies get the best blend of resources, optimising their effectiveness and syncing them with internal resources. It’s about delivering the best recruitment outcomes.

Recruitment is evolving.

Calling yourself a “Consultant” is not enough.

If you choose to do so, you have to become a Consultant.

Don’t complain about agencies if you haven’t given enough thought as to how you use them.

One of the problems with using agencies is that there are so many of them and they’ll all tell you how good they are. So what you’ve done is adopt a PSL and engage with a few good suppliers and block the rest out….. Is that really the way to get the best out of the market?

That was fine in the 90s but the world has moved on.

Now you’ve got smart phones, LinkedIn, In-House recruiters, you download music, cars run on electricity and Man City won the Premiership….come on things have evolved! The way you use agencies must evolve too.

Inflexible models like the PSL must give way to faster, leaner, better agency recruitment mechanisms in the same way newspapers have given way to online and desktops are yielding to tablets.

I’m not suggesting you don’t have relationships with agencies but working with 25 agencies paid purely on results, on a PSL is the worst of all solutions for all concerned.

So if there’s a part of your recruitment you’re going to use agencies for:

1. choose a single recruitment partner,
2. take your time finding them,
3. pay them on a monthly retainer,
4. review the relationship as you would any company employee and
5. let them optimise the outsourced element of your recruitment by:
1. working alongside your In-House team,
2. complementing your social media strategy,
3. monitoring new recruitment tools and processes,
4. partnering with and managing external agencies and
5. developing a global network of potential suppliers.

Remembering that the external agency market is huge by comparison to a company’s In-House recruitment team, clever management of that external resource could pay huge dividends in a company’s efforts to hire the best available talent, at the right price and in as timely a fashion as possible.

Licensing – The 10 Commandments

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The recruitment agency sector is a broad church facing unprecedented challenges on all sides. Now is the time for every Recruitment Consultant who cares about the industry to step forward and help shape change from within.

In order to achieve change I believe the current representative bodies (IOR, REC, APSCo and others) plus the government agencies (GLA, EAS and others) plus the growing number of networks (IRG and others) should harmonise their individual policies around a set of broadly accepted, fundamental principles and in line with current legislation.

The “stick” would be provided by the above mentioned bodies issuing revocable licenses to Recruitment Consultants and promoting the benefits of Employers of using licensed Consultants only. The “carrot” would be the raising of standards, strengthening of value proposition and the improvement of the industry’s reputation.

If you wanted to effect change, what would your 10 Commandments be?
Here are mine. 

1.      All Recruitment Consultants (you) must pass a common entrance exam covering law, best practice and compliance before receiving a license.

2.      All Recruitment Agencies (firms) should self-certify that they and their Consultants comply with the relevant licensing obligations for that year (they may change from year to year) and make themselves available for inspection

3.      You will send a summary of “Expectations and Rights” to every candidate you represent.

4.      You will not send a CV unless you have written authorisation from the candidate regarding both that client and that job.

5.      You will provide timely and honest feedback to all candidates you choose to represent.

6.      You will send a summary of “Expectations and Rights” to every Client you work with.

7.      You will agree and sign Terms of Business with all clients prior to submitting CVs to them.

8.      You will not advertise a job unless you have written authorisation to do so from the client regarding that job.

9.      You will represent all jobs in writing accurately.

10.  You will not call anyone for at least 1 year if they have expressly asked you in writing not to call them.

You cannot claim to be professional unless you belong to a trade body!

The thing about …isms (sexism, racism etc) is that the attitude spreads rapidly amongst stupid people who believe their status is enhanced by it. So for example a sexist remark, enforcing the speaker’s sense of superiority and the victim’s inferiority, is quickly adopted by stupid men (mostly, although it could equally be stupid women) as a kind of peer group position.

The same is true of “recruitmentism” as exemplified by various HR bloggers including Neil Morrison who refers to Recruitment Consultants as “the gutter rats of business”. The HR community quickly adopts this position as a way of falling in line with “HR thought leaders” without thinking for themselves how insulting it is to the many perfectly good Recruitment Consultants who perform a valuable service.

As with all … isms the solution is education. Recruitment agencies and their representative bodies need to educate and inform the marketplace about: what they offer, how they add value, how they intend to maintain professional standards, how their Consultants are developing themselves professionally etc etc.

Over time this will make a huge impact on how the market views recruiters but will not work unless it is done collectively, as one industry and as such will require leadership by the IOR and other bodies and most importantly the overwhelming support of all recruiters.

If Recruiters really want to do something about how they are perceived in the marketplace they must join or form groups that can truly influence change. Personally I’d join the IOR as they have a progressive agenda. Annual membership for a Consultant is only £49! thats less than dinner for 2 at Pizza Express!!! 

http://www.theior.org.uk/ior-membership?r=member

But if you don’t join any group I don’t think you can claim to be “professional”.

6 factors that will shape the agency sector.

In spite of the fact that agency recruitment is under attack on all sides I have no doubt it will survive if only because agencies are “independent” and able to supply any employer whereas in-house recruiters are not. This critical distinction is what agencies should now focus on whilst building candidate-orientated as opposed to client orientated businesses.

The days of working for “clients” who don’t return your emails, don’t pay you on time and regard you as a necessary evil, to quote some of the recent LI discussions posted by embattled recruiters, are over. Now is the time to take back control.

1. The SME market.
   Ask yourself the question: Why do employers use agencies? The “It’s easier than trying to do it ourselves” reason seems to be evaporating as many employers find ways to engage and attract new hires directly. But is this true of all employers or are the well-known brands enjoying the benefits of social media recruitment but in fact the less-well-known employers are lost in the ensuing noise. The agency sector must use its unique independent status to offer the SME sector access to candidates.
   
   
2. The Candidate’s the Client?
   Are employers clients or are candidates clients? What I mean is who do you represent? A Sports Agent will represent his/her client the sports person. So if Wayne Rooney goes to City, his Sports Agent will represent him and City will pay the Agent. Exclusive candidate representation is the way forward which will give agencies a much stronger position in the recruitment process, allow them to deal with any end-user and provide candidates with a better service.
   
   
3. Social Media.
   How does SM work for agencies? Recruiters needs to build and engage with their candidate communities using high quality, relevant content and their independent status to attract candidates who want to understand what’s happening in the fast changing SME markets. Those that are best at it will attract and work with the best Candidates.
   
   
4. Competitive pricing.
   The issue of fees is a tricky one because all agencies feel that they work hard for their revenue whereas many employers think the opposite. It’s the Pied Piper story all over again and we know what happened there! The truth is that agency fees can only fall sustainably if agencies are able to: reduce operating costs and/or increase candidate placements. Building SM candidate pools and joining new channels to the end-user market provided by 3^rd party websites will help agencies become more competitive.

5. Education.
   This is tied up with number 6 and is all about raising standards and being seen to raise standards. Not investing in the CPD of recruitment consultants is a false economy. It’s about individuals taking time out to learn new stuff and being progressive as an industry. Education provided centrally also helps get the industry on the same wavelength.
   
   
6. Leadership.
   Someone needs to find a way of representing the interests of both the bigger players and the thousands of small firms that operate in the market.  They also need to energise and unify the sector by rolling out initiatives designed to help agencies evolve. Recruiters have endured years of poor or zero representation and so winning back their support and subscriptions is challenging but nevertheless an essential part of taking a big step forward.

Agency recruitment needs a game-changer like the Internet!

Most people don’t address the “what if” scenario until it’s too late: what if the banks go bust in Spain, what if global warming melts the ice caps and what if Zuckerberg has a Ratner moment?

The big problem with such scenarios is that the outcomes are usually catastrophic.

A similarly dangerous scenario is converging on the agency recruitment sector and yet nobody within the sector seems to be taking any steps to avert it. Why?

The first problem appears to be that Recruiters don’t think there is a problem! They broadly accept the market is changing but are reasonably happy that the outcome will be the survival of the fittest (that means them) and the extinction of the mad, bad and sad.

The second problem is that Recruiters (In-House and Agency recruiters) are reluctant and even suspicious of new ideas and models proposed by 3^rd parties. I bet there are fewer than 10 Agencies/In-House teams in the UK that have someone monitoring emerging new recruitment products and services for value.

And finally the third problem is that the industry does not have an innovative and representative leadership. We need leaders who consider the "what-if" scenarios and find solutions to the problems now being faced by every recruitment firm in the UK, Europe and Globally.

If nothing is done the most profitable agencies will probably survive but there will be a lot of pain for everyone along the way and you’ll continue to do the same things you’ve been doing for the last 10 years but in a much smaller market.

I believe doing nothing is not the answer and agency recruitment needs a game-changer or two! We need something that only agencies can offer and which employers will find irresistible - like for example the internet!

Everyone knows what the internet is: It’s a collection of inter-networked computer systems that spans the globe. It’s the "system", offering huge efficiencies in terms of time, reach and cost, upon which progress and change seem to depend. Think of Google, Skype, Facebook and Twitter; none of these would have evolved without the internet.

If we could create the same type of "system" using inter-connected recruitment agencies around the globe, you’d have the recruitment equivalent of the internet to offer your clients and the best bit is that only the agency sector can offer it. All we need to do is connect it up!

We're not the only ones offering a solution but if you'd like to join us visit: http://vacancy-clearing.com

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

Why your recruitment business has zero resale value and what we can all do about it.

 

Unless you’re a Michael Page your recruitment business is worth nothing should you decide to sell it: which is a great shame because you spend years of blood, sweat and tears to get it going and even if you hired a few Consultants it’s worth little more than a couple of Rec2Rec fees if you do manage to off-load it when it’s time to move on.

There’s a very simple solution that I would ask the IOR to consider picking up and running with.  Licensing!

I have long advocated limiting the number of agencies that can operate in the market at any one time. At the moment anyone can open an agency from their bedroom tomorrow. Some would argue that the market will decide who lives and dies. That’s true but for years it hasn’t stopped the random emergence of agencies of all kinds of quality. There is a way to manage this situation for the benefit of all current owners in a more decisive way.

Think Black Cabs v Unlicensed Cabs and you’ll quickly visualise the problems and solution.

Nearly all the problems that beset the recruitment sector can be traced back to over-supply: volume cold-calling, CV spamming, poor training, corner-cutting , contingency fees, PSLs etc. If there were 5,000 licensed agencies in the UK instead of the widely touted 10,000 unlicensed ones, the average agency income would rise by 100%, the balance of power between client and agency would shift towards the agency and your licence would be worth something when you decided to get out.

Think about it.

How we go about Licensing will follow in another Discussion.

Agency Recruiters need to appreciate the benefits of collaboration.

 

It’s not uncommon for agencies to refuse client work because it’s not quite in their area of expertise. Equally a recruiter can source 10 good candidates knowing only 1 can get the job the rest are discarded.

Imagine you had 2 people on the road: the first is thirsty and the second is hungry. A passerby offers the first a sandwich which he throws away and another passerby offers the second some water which he too discards. A small shift in attitude and communication and everyone would be a lot better off.

This is an area of recruitment that is crying out for change.

Recruitment Consultants are not in the business of serving the interests of other Recruiters. However they are presumably in the business of doing good business and in order the optimise profitability it does make sense to collaborate at some level as the travellers and their benefactors should have done.

This can be achieved quite easily by setting up an independent “clearing house”.

Jobs that come your way but don’t match your expertise should be steered towards the clearing house. Candidates you spent time and effort contacting and engaging could also be placed through the clearing house.

It’s difficult to estimate how big this market might be but let’s try.

If there are 50,000 recruitment consultants in the UK alone and each advised their clients to post 5 jobs per annum (ones you would otherwise discard) on to the clearing house that would equate to 250,000 jobs or on average 5 extra revenue earning opportunities per annum for each and every consultant in the UK.

Remember that these jobs would otherwise almost certainly be lost to the market. The value of this recycling: well you do the maths...£1 billion?

The key is whether Recruitment Consultants can work collaboratively?

Why recruitment is a sales job, why that’s wrong and what you can do about it.

I had a conversation about salesmen and commission/bonus recently. It was actually about Investment Bankers but the principle applies to all jobs where a significant proportion of your income depends on making a sale. The conclusion was that salesmen have an “unhealthy” interest in the outcome of the process.

In recruitment where the product is a person/career/livelihood this unhealthy interest in the outcome of a candidate introduction is universally recognised and simply wrong. Candidates don’t like it, Clients don’t like it and even many Recruitment Consultants don’t like it! So why do we put up with it?

The short answer is over-supply: Too many agencies, chasing too little business.

If there’s not enough to go around, suppliers start to compete on price and eventually you end up with firms “winning” commission-only contracts.

In addition whilst Clients moan about agency fees being too high they must remember that the current model forces agencies to take all the risk. The cost of hiring via agencies could be much lower and outcomes more satisfying if Clients paid well-chosen suppliers less on results and more on effort and expertise.

That’s where we need to get to.

Getting there will take more than reducing the number of suppliers but that’s the start point. To do this you’ll need to split the supply side into “them” and “us”. The “us” will be made up of agencies that start to evolve rapidly through diversification of products and services and up-skilling their consultants.

Those that make up “them” will wither away as Employers start to recognise the benefits of “us” and the dangers of “them”. Those that remain will embed their Consultancies deep within their clients’ structures, they will charge fees geared more to time spent, they will belong to a representative body, agree to a code of conduct and carry a badge showing how and why they are different.

Once there is balance between supply and demand and bearing in mind it’s likely to be the best that survive, agencies will still win new Clients by “selling” their services but will earn revenues that are less dependent on “selling” candidates to clients and clients to candidates.

As always it’s your opinion and observations I’m after.

Imperfect model.

There's a shortage of Talent and the current model used by both In-House and Agency Recruiters is a long way from perfect. Filling roles does not mean you’re getting the best candidates it sometimes reflects low expectations.

This recruitment model is not perfect (though little in life is) because you’re asking a small number of Recruiters to identify, engage and deliver the “best” candidate from a potentially large, shifting and sometimes evasive pool of candidates. Done properly this can take months of man hours or fees.

And what is “best” anyway? Many Recruiters (In-House and Agency) will not be able to connect with all possible candidates so “best” is inevitable “of the ones we could find and persuade to engage”.

There is however a potential solution! It works a bit like a search engine.

If you want to find a webpage that contains the information you’re looking for you use a search engine and it presents you with a list ranked in order of relevance.

What if you could do the same in a recruitment context and find Recruiters that already have the Candidates you’re looking for listed in order of relevance?

Uniquely only Agency Recruiters can offer this because unlike In-House Recruiters, who are tied to one Employer, Agency Recruiters can make their Candidates available to any Employers.

In the changing world of recruitment this unique selling point is worth debating particularly in the context of a possible shift away from a Client-led to a Candidate-led agency model (like Sports Agents).

Agencies need to modify their proposition retaining Consultancy where it has commercial value and embracing other propositions that offer a unique competitive Agency advantage.

Apathy…the curse of the recruitment consultant.

The innovative TruLondon un-conference attracted little interest as far as I could see. I tuned in to the LiveStream along with, at its maximum, 3 other people to watch interesting topics discussed by the most un-inspiring people I’ve seen for a long while-who were mostly there to sell their product/personal brand. Apologies to anyone who was truly awesome I must have missed you!

Katie McNab of Pepsico speculated thoughtfully as to why so few recruiters attended the event which is dominated by “thought-leaders” and suppliers. See her blog at http://recruitgal.posterous.com/

Was it that TruLondon and the issues discussed are disconnected from the real world of recruitment? Maybe but I suspect this is also spiced by a liberal dose of apathy which recruiters seem to have in abundance.

When it comes to new ideas, policy, strategy, saving the industry and debating the issues; recruiters just don’t care! They are the equivalent of Sun readers: bit of media gossip, page 3 and good sports section…couldn’t give a stuff about Syria.

Well newspaper owners can’t ignore Sun readers as much as recruitment “leaders” and suppliers cannot ignore apathetic recruitment consultants. What they need to do is give them what they want.

And that’s more cash each month!

If the IOR, IRG, APSCo, REC or anyone else could do that they’d have applicants queuing out the door, leverage to ensure compliance and the attention of a fully motivated membership.

Show them the money!

In-House v Agency and how Agencies can win back market share

 The argument about the demise of agency recruitment seems to make the false assumption that the agency recruitment model cannot adapt. In-House recruitment is a copy of the Agency model and it is true that market share has been lost. However there are things that Agencies can do that In-House teams cannot copy and this is where we can help.

The traditional recruitment process model, whether your using In-House or Agency recruiters, is always delivered by a relatively small number of consultants. So it takes time to source candidates, make calls, screen, interview and process.

There is a faster alternative, which only Agencies can offer.

On a daily basis every agency consultant is managing say 25 unique active/passive candidates. All these candidates who can be assessed and delivered for interview with 25 phone calls. A network of 1000 consultants would therefore have 25,000 candidates all deliverable with only 25 phone calls. In-House consultants may be able to find 25,000 candidates but it would take a lot more effort to drill down and build a relationship with all the relevant ones. This is an amazing competitive advantage for agencies!

Vacancy-Clearing is a Job Board.…..but not in the conventional sense.

It’s an Employer 2 Recruiter Job Board, which allows Employers to post Jobs and find matching candidates from Agencies using a crowd-sourcing approach. It’s not your core business but it is something you can help build and access for free whenever you want to. In-House cannot copy this because you cannot crowd-source on the In-House side.

You may be concerned about the realistic chances of you benefiting directly? Well image in the example above there are 1000 agency members. If we can attract 1000 jobs per month then statistically each member would make an extra placement and meet a new client each month. That’s something to consider!

Getting the message across is the problem and we need your help with 3 things:

1. Recruiters need to drive the message in the market by sharing it:
Buttons at http://vacancy-clearing.com

2. Recruiters need to sign up to build critical mass - it's free anyway.
Sign up at http://vacancy-clearing.com/agencies/registration.php

3. We need to find Regional Sales Managers to build the business.
Jobs posted at http://vacancy-clearing.com

Here’s a short Prezi to describe graphically where we’re going.
http://prezi.com/xxzvzsw5dfcp/a-brief-history-of-agency-recruitment/?auth_key=d07351c0b46e0ef735d533e8c64ac34a0b447bf2

By the way if you’d like your own Prezi designed by experts go to Mr Prezident they're really good.

A bit of extra-curricula is a must for all Recruitment Consultants.

This weeks EXPO was a great success and unlike previous years HR and Recruitment events, attendance or footfall as they call it was impressive. I enjoyed the opportunity to meet more people in 5 hours of coffee and post event beers than I would ordinarily meet in 3 months. Almost everyone will have come away as I did with upbeat feelings about the industry and the people in it.

So what made it a success and what imbued us with these positive feelings?

Simply put: people got involved. Where there’s participation there’s: atmosphere, a sense of purpose, sharing, passion and a feeling of identity.

Those that seek to unify and lead the industry were there: the IOR, TEAM, APSCo, ARC. Sean O’Donoghue of the IRG was spotted. There were some notable absentees including the REC and The Recruitment Society.

However it’s fair to say that even with the impressive effort the organisers put in to making the event a success, the numbers that attended would still have represented only a tiny proportion of all recruiters in London and the South-East. Why?

In all walks of life people are uplifted by belonging to a group that they identify with. The group supports them, offers tangible financial benefits and gives them a voice. This is more relevant in recruitment than in almost any other sector because the industry is dominated by small firms working in isolation.

If someone as cynical as I can go to an event and come away energised and positive, then you will too. But this can’t be just an annual adrenaline shot. We should participate in monthly events at least to keep up to date with news, developments, opportunities and innovation but most importantly to feel like we belong to something we’re proud of.

So join a group and get involved.

It’ll make a positive difference to you and your business.

Note:
Perhaps the groups mentioned above could add a link in the comments section to their membership pages?

Sorry if I missed anyone out!

Employee referral scheme news

Contracts/Deals: Broadbean partners with SocialReferral to launch Referral | News | Recruiter

New ways to get new business in 2012.

So cold-calling is less effective than it used to be and the recruitment consultant’s traditional markets are changing. If agency recruiters are now to forge new partnerships with the In-House recruiters at large Employers and develop new clients amongst the SME markets, how are they best to approach the task?

I think there will be 3 factors at play:

1. The number of agency suppliers will reduce.
   
   As you lose competitors within your space you should make every effort to acquire their clients. Perhaps you could offer the owner of the closing agency a financial incentive to make the introduction, buy the database or perhaps you can go direct. There will be an element of: “there’s a reason they’ve gone out of business here..” but nevertheless it’s still worth monitoring. Which are the ones to watch in your space?
   
   
2. Agencies will become better at using Social Media.
   
   Agencies will move away from websites saying things like: “We are the best at what we do…We put candidates before profit……We set up on our own because we wanted to do it properly…” and other such tosh and start developing Candidate and Client networks attracted by the quality of information and independent insight that their Consultants are able to share directly, via their website and via Social Media
   e.g. http://www.wearedylan.com

3. Trade bodies will serve their members more directly.
   
   The recruitment trade bodies like the IOR and REC will soon realise that they need to sell more directly on behalf of their members. This may take the form of new business portals along the lines of the Talent Puzzle and Reed Exchange model being set up by the IOR/REC and run on a Not-for-Profit basis. It’s easily done. This way, members will get a direct financial benefit for the membership subs they pay and it just might attract bigger membership take-up.
   Just started LinkedIn/IOR debate on this here: http://linkd.in/A3e1Ft