The Marketing Manager's Yearbook 2008
The Recruitment Maxim:
Three is not a Crowd
Emma Brierley discusses the benefits of introducitn a code fo practive into the recruitment process in order to standardiseprocedure and eradicate unethical methods.
The UK has the largest recruitment market in Europe. According to the Recruitment and Employment
Confederation (REC), the country’s recruitment industry was worth £24.51 billion in the year to March 2004.
Freelance, temporary and contract placements accounted for £22.81 billion of this total while the permanent
market was worth £1.7 billion. A report published by Key Note forecasts that by 2009, the UK’s freelance and
temporary market will grow by 8% to £25.6 billion whilst the permanent market will increase by 8.1% to £1.87
billion over the same period.
With such a buoyant jobs market comes an extensive choice of agencies that all vary widely in terms of
quality, cost and approach. Who you choose to fi nd your staff depends entirely on your requirements and
your commercial reality – if you need to fi ll a relatively high volume of non-specialist, temporary positions,
then choosing a mainstream non-specialist agency is likely to be your wisest move. If you need to fi ll a more
specialist position, logic dictates that you engage a niche agency.
Specialist Recruitment
The higher status of niche agencies is refl ected in the work that they put into identifying, vetting, signing up and
managing good quality freelance consultants. In general, these agencies deal with accomplished professionals
in the knowledge-based industries. The talents are generally high in demand and their personalities have a
signifi cant impact on the organisations they work with. Finding someone with the right personality and skills for
a role inevitably takes more effort than fi nding someone with just the right skills. Building a partnership with the
recruitment companies which fi nd your staff is important – a company’s people are its most valuable asset. It
is important to establish a partnership with your chosen recruitment agency – investing time and resources up
front to ensure you have reliable and regular access to the best talent is an investment worth making.
-
Openness and Trust
Mutual trust is fundamental to the success of the three-way relationship between an agency, its clients and the
candidates that it places with them and transparency between all three partners goes hand in hand with trust.
It is this transparency, openness and trust, or lack of it, in the industry that prompted the REC to initiate a new
Code of Practice for the marketing, media and communications industry in September 2007.
The code was created following the efforts over the last 18 months to stamp out “unethical behaviour” across
the recruitment industry and to set a standard of service that professional recruitment agencies will aspire to
reach. An increasing number of recruitment companies have been fl outing the rules, such as sending out CVs
without discussing the opportunity with candidates beforehand in a bid to get the CV to the client fi rst, and this
has resulted in confusion and the lengthening of the recruitment process.
REC Marketing, Media and Communications Group (MMC)
The MMC is now striving to see the code become quickly established in order to drive out the cowboys from
its industry. As Chair of the MMC, I am delighted that the code has won so much support from like-minded
recruitment professionals, clients and candidates, all keen to maintain high standards. The question of ethics
is everyone’s problem and bad practice should never be ignored or encouraged. Ignorance would only lead
to the whole industry getting a raw deal and standards would inevitably fall. As a fast moving and growing
industry where talent moves about, this code will ensure that all those involved will operate under the same
rules. With a code in place, it will now be much easier for recruitment agencies, candidates and clients to
build a relationship with confi dence in the knowledge that everyone will offer a certain standard of conduct
and behaviour.
The Magic Number
There are three parts to the code: one part is designed as a Code of Practice for recruitment companies, one
is a Guidance for Client organisations and one will serve as a Guidance for Candidates working in the sector.
By committing to the code, recruiters are agreeing to ethics such as not submitting any candidate for a position
without fi rst conducting a face-to-face interview to assess their suitability; informing candidates and seeking
their agreement on which companies their CVs are being sent to before forwarding those CVs; having a duty of
care to fulfi l any commitments to the candidate and to provide feedback to the candidate; not sending CVs to clients without the client’s agreement. The guidance for client organisations is there to defi ne the ideal working
practice between all parties to ensure that a good working framework is set up, terms of business are clarifi ed,
the brief is clear and candidates’ information is managed well within the client organisation and recruiters are
well briefed about each role.
By having a code and guidance rules in place, clients, candidates and recruiters can understand how the
business of recruitment operates and any confusion can be eliminated. With a code comes a duty of care
– everyone involved should be responsible for the ‘job’ in hand. Due to the talent shortage in the market, the
balance of power lies with the candidate but realistically, the power should be equitable between the three
parties involved. A clear and open recruitment process is what everyone should strive for.
Acceptance
The code has been welcomed by other professional bodies in the industry. Richard Houghton, Chairman of
the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) said: “One of the core focuses for the PRCA is raising
standards in PR and as a people business we fully endorse the Code of Practice as an important step forward
in improving the recruitment process for all our members.”
Tom Hadley, the REC’s Director of External Affairs said: “We are continuously striving to raise standards within
the recruitment industry and this latest initiative can only work to enhance and promote the work of recruitment
professionals in the marketing, media and communications sector who have a genuine desire to achieve the
highest standards of performance.”
He added: “At a time when employers in this sector are crying out for high calibre candidates, professional
recruiters have a key role to play in ensuring that resourcing needs are met in an ethical way.”
Those wishing to find out more about the new Code should visit www.rec.uk.com. Emma Brierley can be
contacted at ebrierley@xchangeteam.com or by calling 020-7005 4400.
Emma Brierley is CEO and founder of Xchangeteam, which offers both freelance and permanent recruitment
in communications and PR, marketing, events, design, advertising, media, digital and editorial. She writes
and speaks regularly about freelance issues, HR and recruitment trends and was a fi nalist in the Ernst &
Young London Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2006. She is currently Chair of the REC’s Marketing, Media
and Communications Group which she was instrumental in founding.