Let's face it, even though we play a vital role in finding the right people to help businesses grow, the industry doesn't have a positive perception in the corporate world.

Consultants focus on the quick kill and not building the long-term client relationships that will help the recruitment consultancy as a whole flourish.

Numbers game

* The recruitment sector has evolved into a numbers game. With low salaries and high commissions, consultants are desperate to do business at all costs. Throwing enough mud until it sticks is often considered the best approach.

* Staff are targeted on sending out a minimum number of CVs, arranging a minimum number of interviews and visiting a minimum number of companies as potential clients.

But are they CVs the client wants, or are they just ticking boxes to hit targets?

Because they are put under pressure to hit metrics, consultants arrange time wasting visits, send ill-matched CVs and arrange inappropriate interviews.

This approach focuses the mind on ratios but not what should be the ultimate goal - strong long-term client relationships.

* A large volume of CVs annoy the client and damage their view of both the consultant and the business they work for.

It's also not also unknown for consultants to be tempted to over-exaggerate a candidate's capabilities to seal the deal on an interview, leaving the client wondering why they wasted their time.

Making a mediocre placement very often takes precedence over helping the client find the ideal candidate that will make a real difference to their business.

Hands off

* These problems are impacted by the lack of experienced people dealing with clients day-to-day.

Experienced people are no longer hands-on as they have been promoted away from client work. Junior staff therefore don't often have the opportunity to work with senior colleagues and learn from them 'on the job'.

They are left to do it their way, driven by the numbers game, which creates a vicious circle of poor client service and a damaged reputation.

* As well as insufficient senior support, there is little investment

in other training. Any that is done consists, on the whole, of sales-related training, rather than the softer skills which would help consultants to understand what clients needs from a candidate and what they want from their consultant.

Reputation management

* Long-term and exclusive client relationships are the Holy Grail for the recruitment industry. However, our focus has evolved to create anything but. The hit and run approach to recruitment will never create long-term benefits in terms of both staff and client retention. Why should there be any loyalty when briefs aren't met and staff are not invested in?

* We should review how we remunerate our staff. A high billing consultant does not always mean that they are delivering excellent customer service and is therefore not the only metric by which recruiters should be measured.

* Remuneration should remain a combination of salary and commission. Relating what staff do and how they manage relationships to what they get paid will encourage them to focus on getting it right for the client. Emphasising the full service, from getting the ideal candidate, to making sure everything is followed up professionally after the 'sale' has been agreed, can only put a recruitment consultancy in a positive light. We should be rewarding good client relationships and excellent customer service.

So, let's get out of this 'hit-and-run hole' and improve both our reputations and long-term revenues.

Contributor: Dominic Wade, director, Wade Macdonald