Neil Carberry (pictured), Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) CEO, said clients should consider their organisational plans beyond immediate needs, when he addressed the Recruitment Expo at London’s ExCel conference centre.

Speaking this afternoon, Carberry advised potential agency clients to invest time in the recruitment process and to “treat it as a partnership not as a transaction” as key steps they can take to maximise the relationship with their recruitment partners. 

Carberry’s other action points were to look for marks of quality such as affiliations with professional bodies and to “be open to advice and compromise”. 

“Take on board feedback: whether it’s about pay or the skillset required, a high standard recruiter will know what’s needed to fulfil the brief and what your competitors are doing to gain advantage. This is where keeping up with the Joneses helps,” Carberry urged. 

Other advice offered by Carberry included offering exclusivity on roles to recruitment partners, don’t delay payment, and to recognise the difference between costs and value.

“We know that when budgets are tight, there will be pressure to drive down costs on your recruitment services,” Carberry acknowledged. However, “the firms that operate to these high standards can’t and don’t work at a loss. They would rather charge more than cut corners. There is a big difference between value and price”.

“You can’t approach recruitment costs the way you might when buying paper clips or a laptop.”

Sharing insight from labour market analysis, Carberry warned of continuing challenges to sourcing the right people for jobs, saying: “Firms have mainly responded to date by raising wages or increasing workloads both of which are unsustainable – particularly in an inflationary climate.

“We’re starting to see some evidence that firms are delaying hiring decisions because they cannot match candidate expectations leading to longer periods with roles unfilled impacting output and productivity,” he said. 

“We’re also seeing more than one in 10 people never staying with the same employer for more than a year. On top of this, average tenure has decreased with 2-5 years now the most common length of service.”

He added: “Wouldn’t it be nice if great candidates were flagged to you to help you be agile and seize opportunities even when you aren’t in a time crunch to replace someone? 

“They can also support and challenge you on your organisational design plans and ensure you are kept up-to-date with the latest insight and thinking on the labour market and trends in the industry. You can then consider this… in your role designs and briefs. 

“Think of recruiters as the professional services consultants that they are. The more you engage in the partnership, the more benefits you will reap.”

• The Recruitment Expo runs today and tomorrow (19-20 March) at the ExCel exhibition centre in London.

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