"Success in the recruitment industry = Multiple Strong Relationships, Trust and knowledge of people, industries, jobs and organisations."
It’s a big industry and it’s growing.
The American Staffing Association, US Department of Commerce quoted sales of (USD$) 122.4 Billion in 2013 which matches the figures quoted by Staffing Industry Analysts who had $37 Billion for the UK and $21 Billion for Australia.
"The traditional or “old” recruitment model of smoke, mirrors and little value add was always broke – throw it out."
There has long been a culture of recruitment companies serving only “the client”. The client recruits the role, the client pays the bill, nothing else matters.
Wrong.
If you recruit like this you’ll offer nothing more than overpriced administration that offers next to no value. Even companies realise that this approach doesn;t work so why would they pay you to do it? As Liz Ryan says:
"Employers are learning to be smarter about their recruitment advertising. They are cultivating talent communities instead of throwing job ads at the wall like strands of spaghetti and hoping some of them stick."
The industry is being disrupted by the Human Cloud landscape significantly with companies like Uber and Linkedin’s Pro Finder driving the evolution of the recruitment industry from newspaper adverts to job boards into a far reaching low cost digital age.
I love Uber, I love AirBnB, and I think LinkedIn is great too. I’m in the 70% of customers who CEOs believe are most interested in cost, convenience and functionality.
There’s a balance for me, though, echoed by PwC’s global report indicating that “more than a quarter (27%) of CEOs believe that their customers are seeking relationships with organisations that address wider stakeholder needs. This surges to 44% when CEOs consider what their customers will prioritise in five years’ time. In the future it seems clear that CEOs believe customers will put a premium on the way companies conduct themselves in global society.”
I want to work with people and companies I like.
Sustainability, ethics, contributions to the community are factors I consider.
The number one factor for me, however, is how they engage with their customers.
Is the customer experience good? Look at the airline you fly with – why them above all others? If your answer is price, the one factor that will overturn that (overtime) is your experience. Have a look on Facebook or twitter and see the “never flying again” reviews.
This is why the old recruitment model is broken. If you think that the client is your only customer, then your time is up. If your candidates think you offer little value then sooner or later you’ll have no clients.
It reflects badly on the company using you and mars the recruitment and on boarding – it could even lead to the candidate falling out.
Recruitment companies will perform well by serving their customers – people, candidates, clients, and suppliers.
This way of building relationships means the search network is worth paying for, these relationships lead to trust and knowledge which complement the skills required to recruit positions – which customers need.