If the Agency PSL is Plan A, what’s Plan B?

The PSL model has been the way that Employers manage their Recruitment suppliers for as long as I can remember. They remind me of medieval cities surrounded by moats!

Because there’s nothing to compare them with – they are or have been the only agency management model - it’s difficult to say whether they’re fulfilling a Clients needs well or not.

PSLs are by nature small, specialised and manageable – well, if properly run they should be. But it’s this lack of size that does occasionally cause a problem. Sudden bulges in demand, candidate pipeline exhaustion and attention-span are the killers.

I don’t advocate changing the model but I do suggest it needs to be backed up with a Plan B. Look at some arbitrary figures and consider if this Plan B has any merit?

Imagine the following:
1. There are 10,000 Employers running their own Agency PSL.
2. That 4 Jobs per annum are not filled by each PSL.
3. That unfilled Jobs are then posted onto a portal like http://vacancy-clearing.com
4. That non-PSL agencies are then able to propose candidates.

This would equate to 40,000 Jobs per annum, unfilled by PSL agencies and otherwise with nowhere to go, being recycled through an Open Agency Market of non-PSL agencies, in a controlled way.

PLAN A and PLAN B working in harness?

What do you think?