I was going to call this post “What’s the Point of Recruiters?”. However, I really don’t answer the question so I’ve stuck with a less contentious title.
At TruLondon last week Mervyn Dinnen and Steve Ward ran a session called “The Anatomy of a Modern Day Recruiter”. It was one of the primary reasons I attended the event and it did not disappoint. The question they really asked was what’s the point of recruiters and how do we humanely dispose of the 50% of the them who are a total shower.
It was pretty much agreed that recruitment agencies add value when they have knowledge of a market and access to hard to find people within it. It was pretty much agreed that no one benefits from the “bums on seats” recruiters who place easy to find candidates in straightforward roles, badly.
These “finger in the air” stats we talked about might interest you; 20 years ago (when I was a recruiter) a decent perm recruiter was expected to bill £10k plus a month. Apparently the same is true today. 20 years ago a new consultant got a basic of £18-20k and apparently the same is true today.
The best we came up with during the session was the suggestion that if you are running a recruitment agency what about having fewer BETTER consultants, paying them more, teach them more about their niche and allow them to be truly consultative? Not sure how exactly we dispose of the generalist recruiters relying on the low hanging fruit but I suspect Merv and Steve have a few ideas!!
PS If you don’t already read Mervyn’s excellent blog please do check it out, starting right back in 2009 with this little gem: Incentivising Tomorrow’s Recruiters – its Feedback, not Fees
Average salaries and quotas might not have increased on average but that says more about the increased prevalence of lower skilled recruiters as a matter of necessary as many jobs that would previously have been filled via an ad in a local newspaper or down the job centre is now outsourced to an agency.
We’re a small, specialist recruiter in the health and safety sector. We add value to clients and candidates though excellent matchmaking skills and thanks to our network of contacts we’ve built up over the years. We also focus on providing the best quality service possible and, if the process hits a bump in the road, we’re on hand to mediate and get the deal done.
best wishes
Steven
https://bryan-armstrong.com/