Alternatives to recruitment
This will be a test of whether a recruitment acquaintance of mine read this or not.
If he does then thanks for the story, if not he will never know…
I work in a Regus shared office, partly because I get to talk to loads of different business owners in various types of business, making my day that little bit more enjoyable and occasionally leading to some business. As with all Regus buildings there are a number of recruitment organisations based here and I am naturally drawn to them for a chat and a catch up. I caught up with one of the owners whilst he had a crafty fag (security guard not happy) and had chat with him about one of his consultants.
She had recently approached him to tell him how hard she was finding her sector right now after years of success. She felt that she was now a burden to the business and not the asset she had once been and that it would be better if she left now to return when things pick up again in her specialist sector. Firstly I can’t think of many ‘employees’ that would do this and it is testament to her commercialism and professionalism that she realised that small businesses in a tight market run on tight margins and every little helps.
However here’s the punch line.
She said she needed to earn a good salary and so would be working as a lap dancer.
Before I comment on this, I have no moral or ethical stance for or against the adult entertainment industry. Personally it’s not a business I have ever felt open to me but I do have to question what kind of industry I work in where you can earn more to take your clothes off then to help businesses identify new talent?
Do organisations hold recruitment in such low esteem that whilst many of them claim ‘people are our best asset’ they fail to adequately reward recruitment professionals (internally and externally) who in the main do a very difficult job. I have spoken to a lot of clients in the “how hard can it be” camp who are suddenly realising that to do a good job in recruitment is actually very hard. Getting a strong pipeline of great candidates is a lot more than posting a few job ads and reading a couple of CV’s.
Hey, I’m a realist, I know some of you reading this will probably say that a few less recruitment consultants in the world is no bad thing and you might be right. Certainly a few less of the wrong kind of recruitment consultants is no bad thing but those of us that do a good job do need to be paid a reasonable wage to do that job. So what can we do, email me me@martindangerfield.com and tell me what it would take to get the recruitment industry back on track.
In the mean time I have emailed the facilities people here at regus to have a pole installed in my office. I might not have the legs for it but if you can’t beat them join then etc. etc.
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about martin dangerfield
The majority of my career has been in the IT Services market place where I have a successful track record in the winning and the ongoing management of complex IT and outsourcing services. What this experience has given me are some excellent sales, negotiation and people management skills but most of all knowledge of how business really functions.
When applied to my more recent recruitment and executive search experiences this knowledge becomes powerful, making me stand out from the crowd as a recruiter but also giving me the skills to help organisations deliver a strategy to recruit people, quickly, effectively and professionally
I take a straight talking, open and frank approach to every assignment whether engaged via mckinley|resource to deliver executive search or interim services or directly to help your business create and deliver an effective people plan.
Oh... and I have a sense of humour.
I take my recruitment seriously and have been appointed a regional director for the recruitment trade body REC (www.rec.uk.com).
Twitter: MDangerfield