On the 19th September, Symposium Events will hold the Innovation in Recruitment Summit in London. I am really looking forward to discussing the latest recruitment challenges with my industry peers and am particularly interested in how recruiters and clients can work closer and more effectively.
The truth is external agencies want the kind of relationships with clients that a trusted GP has, or accountants and lawyers. Businesses work with them very closely, it becomes like friendship, they have a bond and businesses don’t respond to every ad-hoc email offering a cheaper service and the like.
To get that, the business needs to be convinced you offer what they need, and they are not missing out if they exclude others. They need to feel you have covered all the bases. That is not a matter of your reassurance with words – it’s your actions that count.
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If you don’t have formal training on all aspects of recruitment you can never be the complete solution, however good you believe you are. It’s the same for internal and HR. Formal training and experience go together.
Many recruiters are not sure if recruitment is part of HR. My answer is yes, recruitment is a subset of Human Resources and forms part of the same profession entrusted to bringing the right people into a business, ensuring the business always has the capability it needs to achieve its goals.
Recruitment and HR only exist because of a business need. As Steve Jobs put it, “Building a successful company is a hard thing to do, and to be successful you need to attract great people and hope they do the best work of their lives while working for you.”
That view is substantiated by research from the Boston Consulting Group, a globally respected organisation, revealing that delivering on recruitment is the number one most important aspect of HR in terms of delivering revenue growth to a business.
Whether the recruitment expertise comes from an external agency, an internal recruiter or from the HR team, the business need remains the same. HR teams have a growing number of aspects to oversee in terms of people management in a business, and recruitment is just one piece of a big puzzle. That’s why HR teams often engage the support of qualified experts when it comes to the recruitment process.
But the experts need to refocus. Internal recruiters, HR and agency recruiters need to realign how they work together. Basic mistakes like how to manage a preferred supplier list are being made all the time. Many agencies are not allowed to talk to line managers, all at the detriment of the business because sometimes the people inside and outside the business need to refocus their approach.
If you don’t know the full recruitment role and have no formal training then you have to be prepared to come second place to those that are willing to step up to a higher level. Take a look at the Innovation in Recruitment Summit, the IOR has secured a special 40% discount for our members who are interested in attending the event. Use code HR159RI when requested on the shopping cart.
Azmat Mohammed, Director General, Institute of Recruiters
