This week we had an industry first as as the heads of the two leading trade organisations meet live online for the very first time to discuss the future of the recruitment industry. We were joined by Ann Swain, CEO at APSCo and Kevin Green, Chief Executive at the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and the show was hosted by Alan Whitford (who did a sterling job of keeping the conversation on track). As is our normal format Mark Stephens from the Technology in Recruitment Alliance and F10 Group founder, Louis Welcomme from Colleague Software chipped in their thoughts and questions.
I think we managed to cover a lot of ground in just over one hour and there was a good amount of synergy of thought from Ann and Kevin.
You need to watch the video to pick up all the detail but some of the things they touched on were the regulation/compliance issue, the sensitive topic of whether the REC and APSCo might one day join forces and/or work together on initiatives, safeguarding the client and candidate relationship, the changing business model needed to survive in the recruitment industry and the things that keep a recruitment agency owner awake at night.
Ann has previously spoken about the changing business model at one of our events in 2011. You can watch part of her presentation here where she suggests you need to be niche, temp focussed, and global; her ideal recruitment agency name is Saga Life Sciences Interim International Group! Kevin has also spoken about this at one of our events (his slideshare presentation is here). Kevin also suggests you find a niche, look at the low cost model OR go “traditional plus” (loads of info on the slides!).
The main themes they talked about which are keeping member organisations awake at night are:
– Making sure they have the right staff internally.
– How to expand and compete in a growing market.
– How to make the best of technology.
These are all issues that we are finding recruitment owners want to talk about at our own events too. Our Directors events often touch on the first two (and our next event is 8th May!) and our tech showcase event certainly covers the last one (next event 5th June)
Finally they talked about the issue of promoting the recruitment agency market to the end-hiring businesses. APSCo have an ongoing programme of activity in this area (there is loads of information on their website about External relations & public affairs) and the REC have recently launched their Good Recruitment Campaign which has been developed to promote the critical importance that good recruitment practice plays in organisational success.
Future events include
- 7th May – Tony Restell, Founder of Social Hire, and Clair Bush, Dan Martin and Steve Barnhurst from Broadbean – Is there still a role for job boards?
- 21st May – Mike Taylor, MD of Web Based Recruitment and Matt Alder, Digital, Social and Mobile Strategist at MetaShift – How should recruiters be using mobile?
- 18th June – Sandy Khan, Founder of MBA Arena – Talent Storytelling
You can sign up here.
