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.
