Recruitment Industry Sales V's Service
When you think of the Recruitment Industry and even look at the most basic of details, it comes quite clear that those working within in it make-up only a small portion of an extraordinary, substantial and impressive industry spanning 195-countries globally. This industry now contributes towards the UK economy to the tune of £19.4bn annual turnover in the UK alone. Even though the recent recession has hit the industry hard and cost the industry £8.3bn per year, this is one the few industry sectors to remain vibrant and is one of the few industry sectors to start showing growth through Quarter 4 2010 and throughout 2011.
On a global platform the Recruitment Industry is still valued in-excess of £ 256872bn per year making a massive contribution to the global economy market, creating millions of jobs per year and helping to stabilise economies across hundreds of countries worldwide.
When I first joined the Recruitment Industry, the main focus was on service and the long term jeopardy of the relationship with the Client and Candidate with the effects of which on the Company. It was clearly defined as what was to be described as “The Recruitment Wheel” which was a three-spoke wheel connected to “Hub” of the wheel. Each spoke represented the Client, the Candidate and the Company, all connected to the “Hub” which was the Consultant (Recruiter etc.). This method clearly outlined and demonstrated the importance of service levels within each of these areas and the negative effects that poor or negative service had one the whole “Wheel”. It demonstrated that where service levels from the Consultant dropped to either of three areas, this spoke would snap and the Recruitment Wheel would collapse.
The Recruitment Industry prided itself on providing a “Service” to its clients with an emphasis on adding value to their business/life. This in turn resulted in repeat business and continued growth for the company. So, although the investment period in to building the relationships was longer and the return period on the investment took longer, the relationship between the Client/Candidate and Company was stronger and lasted considerably longer than that of the modern day comparator.
Over the period that I have been within the Recruitment Industry, we have seen the emphasis on service replaced with a much stronger emphasis on Sales Activity. I have also become acutely aware of the shift in training styles within the Recruitment Industry moving from a mix of Soft Sales, CV matching, CV Writing and Customer Service to pure sales technique’s with little or no attention paid to any other element of training. I believe there is a strong argument in embracing a stronger training programme as originally designed and intended. This type of programme ensured that the Consultants were adequately trained with a sense of providing a valued service to the end user with a emphasis of producing value added services to ensure that the Client recruited the right person the first time, the Candidate secured the right position with the right company and the Company maintained and grew its turnover and business value.
Over the last five-years we have seen a great increase in the so called “Rebate” system which is only activated where a Client is introduced to and accepts a Candidate which within a short period is established as unsuitable for a variety of reasons, the main of which is either due to inadequate skills/experience or due to the Candidate resigning their position. I am convinced that we have seen such an increase in “Rebates” purely due to the shift in training received by Consultants where it has become standard for Consultants not to communicate with Clients or Candidates, to submit as many CV’s as possible to Clients in a vain hope that at least one will be of interest to them.
Five-years ago, each Recruitment Consultant would be required to attend 10-full days of training within their first month of starting followed by additional 16-days of training over the following six-month period and finally reducing to 12-days per year thereafter. These days on average, each new Recruitment Consultant receives less than 4-days training within their first month, and less than 5-days per year thereafter. The reason behind this is simply because the training programme has now been changed to the degree whereby skills and customer service no longer are included to any substantial or even basic level and have instead been replaced with various sales techniques.
I believe as a result of this practice we have now seen a serious decline not only in the services levels of the Recruitment Industry, but additionally the diminution of the relationship between the Consultant, Client and Candidate which in turn has consequences including the loss of income to the Company and the reduction in reputation to the Recruitment Industry to the extent where the Recruitment Industry and those working within it are now described as “necessary evil” or “last option to be used” and an increase in In-House Recruitment teams designed to reduce the use of Recruitment and Staffing Companies.
The real shame of all this is the fact there are still many thousands of people working within the Recruitment Industry who do operate on a higher level but are drowned out by those who do not. Equally, here are many working within the Industry who both want and desire to operate on a higher level including increasing service levels for their Clients and Candidates but simply feel that they do not have the time to devote to this level of activity because of the their employers requirements of providing high level Sales Activities. The debate is, does will companies read this and agree or believe that the practice of reducing the quantity of Sales Activity in favour for increased Service Levels will in the long-term not only increase their revenue but also increase their sustainability for the future? Or, will they disagree completely and maintain that the only answer to maintain profitability and sustainability is to maintain the level of Sales Activity as currently deployed?
What are your thoughts on this? What in your opinion is the right way forward? Am I over analysing or have I managed to highlight the root cause of the current Recruitment Industry problems and the reasoning behind the current attitudes towards those within it from the Clients and Candidates using its current services?
