I read a blog post and the content got me thinking about the recruitment industry and how much of it appears to be very short term in its outlook. I don't mean to generalise and I know there a lot of good agencies who don' t take this approach, but a lot do.

Clearly recruitment businesses are there to make money - but I think the focus is too much on the generating fees rather than delivering a good quality service. For me its always been the case that if you deliver a quality service then the fee/income takes care of itself.

Focusing on fees over service, leads to a short-term approach which I think is an unsustainable way of running a recruitment business. Depending on the size of the recruitment business (i.e. with your larger recruitment organisations) it may be sustainable but will undoubtedly have an impact on your reputation.

So, why do recruitment businesses have such a short term view? Perhaps they don't actually set out to be short term but there are many factors which either directly or indirectly lead them to follow this
path.

Here are some of the things which I think lead to a short-term approach in recruitment:

• Too much focus on sales/revenue targets - in their own right targets are no bad thing and do provide focus and a clear idea of where you want to get to as an individual and as a business. However recruitment businesses need to give more thought to what goes on in the process to achieve these targets. (i.e yeah its great to make a placement but if in the process you haven't actually done a very professional job, and its at the expenses of establishing a more valuable medium/longer term relationship then is it worth it?)
• Lack of quality - there's a lot of focus on speed of response within recruitment. Yes its important but not at the expenses of doing a proper job. Throw cv's at a client hoping one candidate will hit the mark isn't a good long term strategy. It might get you a fee but how often will it work, and the client will soon go elsewhere for a better service, if all they receive is a cv forwarding service from you.
• An inability to establish client commitment - I have seen many consultants (and have done the same in my earlier days within recruitment) speak to a company/manager who says they have a vacancy which other agencies are working, but are happy to receive some additional cv's. The consultants rushes off knowing they are already up against it, sends some cvs across and hopes for the best. Does the consultants really have the commitment of the recruiting organisation to use them? Is this time well spent? Have they cut corners to get cv's across because they are already behind their competition?
• Clients - Yes clients need to look at how they deal with their agencies. You can't expect a good service if you don't give agencies enough information or time. Also by using multiple agencies you in effect create a cv race which ultimately diminishes quality. Clients also need to know how to deal with agencies; often HR professionals who aren't recruiters give the impression that they will use an agency when in fact they won't and they should just be honest and say so. (unless you are very clear with recruitment agencies they will assume there is a chance of business with you; which will most likely make things more difficult for you in the future)
• Inexperienced consultants - to often recruitment businesses let inexperienced consultants loose on their clients or prospective clients. I think they can struggle to provide the quality of service
  due to their lack of market knowledge and experience. This can be frustrating for businesses using the agency and therefore reduces the likelihood of a longer term relationship being established.
• Anyone can work as a recruiter - currently it's too easy to be a recruiter. I'm not saying it should only be for certain people, but currently the industry falls short of some of the other professions
  like accountants, surveyor, architects etc who need to meet much
  greater levels of examination before they can operate within their
  respective industries and under their professional bodies. This 'ease
  to entry' attracts people for the money and creates massive competition
  which I believe leads to lower standards.

Do you think the recruitment industry suffers from short termism?

Alex