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!