Death Of the Recruitment Agency? We're Going Nowhere!

I don’t know if you’ve been looking at many of the recruitment blogs out there, or studying the recruitment industry news… but there are many people right now who are trying to say the “Death of the recruitment agency” is near (mainly anyone working for one of the online recruitment technology firms / job boards / in house recruitment / RPO firms etc…)…. which we all know is NOT going to happen! They are saying that because they believe that many companies are going to be using all the latest “social technologies” now in order to attract candidates directly, as well as outsourcing their recruitment to RPO firms where they don’t want to staff it themselves.
Well… one thing that won’t change is the fact that most candidates will always want a “personal” interaction with someone they can view as an unbiased coach to them through their search for their next role. In house recruitment teams and RPO / Managed Services firms can never provide an unbiased opinion on the roles they are trying to fill, as they are personally employed (or retained) by the company they are working for. There is a lot more to the recruitment process than simple candidate attraction; which is mainly what all of this new social technology hype is really focused on. Candidates will always prefer to have a helping hand when going out there into the market place to find their next role… someone to guide and coach them through the minefield that will be ahead of them. They need someone on their side, fighting their corner… someone who knows them inside out and is always working with their best interests at heart. In house recruitment teams and RPO’s will never be able to offer that to any candidate as they can never be independent…. And that’s where we come in as recruitment consultants / agents….
Sure, we may have to battle with in house recruitment teams trying to fill their own roles and keeping us at a distance, we may have to take a bit of bullying from RPO firms who barge into our clients and start calling the shots – but at the end of the day, are candidates going to get the level of coaching and support they need throughout the recruitment process by simply going direct? I don’t think so… and that’s why we will ALWAYS be needed. Now more than ever is the time to start strengthening your relationships with your candidates… and if you can keep them on your side, offering them unbiased assistance (even when they aren’t actively looking for work) then we will always have a stronghold on OUR industry. Attracting the right talent is key to any business, and if we are the ones holding all of the aces, then internal recruitment teams and RPO’s will have no choice but to continue to work with us!
Think of it like a celebrity or a sports professional – they have their own “agents” for very good reasons, and it’s not just because they have a chance to earn a lot more money…. they want to ensure they have a “partnership” with someone they can trust to find them the best opportunities and help them to further their careers. These are long term partnership in most cases, with celebs and sports professionals picking up an agent early on and then rarely changing that agent during their entire careers. Why should it be any different in our industry? Don’t you think candidates would benefit from having a recruiter act for them like an “agent” – who they can work exclusively with, safe in the knowledge that their agent will always be fighting to ensure that their careers go as well as possible?? Who do you think sports agents put first – their clients (being candidates to us), or the clubs that they are trying to get them into? Sure, their needs to be a good balance of care on both sides, but all agents know that if they don’t have the best clients on their books (candidates again!) then they will have less a chance of getting the big clubs to bite… which means they won’t get paid.
So… I say let’s just leave the internal recruitment teams to have their 5 minutes of fame right now whilst companies are cutting costs… same with the RPO’s. But when the market changes and these companies start having to fight to attract candidates which are in demand… as long as we have strengthened our service offering to the candidate market then we can be sure that we will not fall down by the wayside. Get smart, start treating your candidates like they deserve to be treated, and just maybe you can make it as one of the new breed of recruiters that the candidate market will start to depend on!
Written by Sean O’Donoghue
Founder
The Independent Recruiting Group

Taken from an article on www.irg-uk.com written by Sean O'Donoghue founder of 'The Independent Recruiting Group'. The original article can be viewed here