I wasn't planning to write today, I am busy looking for candidates but I had to respond to this blog written in Recruiter magazine's 'Bloggers with bite' - http://www.recruiter.co.uk/opinion/portals-no-easy-gateway/1008225.article My response is below because it got me annoyed. Clearly Mark is entitled to his own opinion and I am not suggesting for one minute that is not a great coach, trainer and consultant to the UK recruitment industry (aren't we all?) but this blog says so much about what is wrong with our industry. It's that failure to understand that things have moved on, clients want something different from the recruitment suppliers and are using technology to achieve that.

This week I have spoken to more recruitment consultants than I have for a while (4 to be precise) and 3 of the 4 were still stuck in the traditional recruitment model with their focus on fees and throwing CV's at hiring managers. This isn't what our clients want any more and the sooner we all get our heads around that the better.

My response...

Mark,

As someone that has worked both sides of the recruitment fence I can’t help thinking you may have missed why clients use portals in the first place?

In the main it is all about volume. Not that long ago I was working on an interim assignment for a global IT business taking 24000 applicants a month. Without a portal that influx of information would be completely unmanageable with multiple candidate emails, agency contact etc. and the front line HR and Recruitment teams would quickly lose control.

I agree with you that recruitment is about people and effective communication but a well set up portal can deliver just that ensuring candidate, recruiter and client know where they stand.

Taking your points… Bad for recruiters… a portal is only bad for those recruiters that don’t have a relationship with that client. For the others it gives them access to roles, often before they are advertised, a means of submitting candidates 24x7 (not just waiting for an email response from HR) and control of their business with the client. If recruiters aren’t getting hiring manager contact then ask for it but in a controlled manner and explain why it is important to the client.

Bad for candidates… in some cases yes… but let’s be brutally frank are you telling me that recruitment consultants have a great reputation for getting back to candidates anyway? A well set up portal will give direct feedback to the candidate and recruiter. If you are not getting feedback that is do with the relationship not the portal.

Bad for client… really? You are suggesting that all portals are poor. Many I have worked with facilitate that flow of information. The portal is the tool to do this and not a replacement for a good relationship. The Client can also control the flow of roles to particular recruiters; I think this is what the real issue is for you. In my experience when engaging with recruitment consultants they want every role whether they can fill them or not. A portal can allow a client to manage their suppliers, ensuring they are focused on individual roles and that those roles are going to be filled. Portals do not mean that every supplier has every role, so indeed it can make good business sense for headhunters to engage with passive candidates because they know the role is live and real.

It’s all about relationships and not about the portal. A good recruiter will work with a client and understand where they are coming from, the controls they need and how to help them manage information.

Happy to talk about it some more if you want?

martin.dangerfield@mckinkleyresource.com +44161.955.3647

about mckinley|resource® and Martin Dangerfield

mckinley|resource® is an innovative recruitment practice providing executive search, recruitment, talent advisory and project resourcing services. Delivering full UK and European coverage, we focus on identifying and engaging talented individuals within the IT services, IT outsourcing, management consultancy and technology marketplaces.

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