Time to reflect.
Ok. It's my birthday today so a chance to reflect on the last 12 months of my business life.
You'll notice the nearest you get from me about my personal life is the 'green' issues discussed in a previous blog.
By the way, walking is the way forward although I have been very lucky with the weather since getting rid of my car. I have hired cars on a couple of occasions for some difficult to get to destinations but in the main have been happy(ish) using public transport. The good news is I am a little bit fitter due to the walking, get to places on time because I am better planned and get a little more done in the day as I work on trains and buses.
So 12 months older, wiser etc. etc. It has been a tough 12 months in business. This time last year my personal business outlook was very different with the majority of my work coming from permanent placements in IT outsourcing. Whilst this remains the case, there is a definite move towards more interim and contract work in a number of my clients as they still face head count restrictions but still need things to be delivered. Cash is king, more so than ever, with clients stalling payments and suppliers chasing harder than ever to keep things moving. (If my business owes you money you will get paid :) ). But what I have really learned in the last 12 months is that the recruitment industry is still the same as ever.
The big players do the same old thing "look at the size of my database" or "look at the hundreds of CV's I can send you", adding very little value, getting their clients to do all the work and still charging high fees often on a retained basis as clients don't know any better. By all means pay a high fee but expect an excellent recruitment experience. The market continues to be maligned by sharks, dodgy practice and for an industry worth something like £24Bn in the UK alone a real lack of professionalism. This annoys me. For regular readers of my blog you will know that it annoys me.
So far I've done two things. I am a regional director for REC (www.rec.uk.com) although in reality have yet to find the best way to utilise this in a constructive and positive manner. REC do try really hard but represent an industry that is incredibly diverse and it will take a little bit longer before they can really start to tackle issues around professionalism in the industry with some teeth. So my aim is to make a start myself. Get some professionalism in the industry street by street (post code by post code as a recruitment colleague said to me recently) and do something tangible.
I've launched www.iamthesaviour.com for I am the saviour of the recruitment industry but cannot do this mission alone. I want to find like minded recruitment professionals and agree how we can do something practical to raise standards in the industry and more importantly educate our clients to that they learn not to take second best but to value what a good recruitment professional can do. So it's 12 months till my next birthday, by then I want to see some change in the industry.
Will you join me?
We have a lot to do.
www.iamthesaviour.com
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).