What will push your buttons to stay in agency land?

Over the last 18 months, we have seen 5,348 consultants leave the recruitment sector, however at the same time we have seen an increase in active recruitment agencies. There are currently 1,720 recruitment consultant jobs advertised on seek alone. A question I believe is worth asking is how will these new and existing agencies bring consultants back or attract new talent to our recovering sector?

For the majority of recruiters, we move from one business to another for certain things; be it a prestige brand, a mentoring manager, PSA’s or financial gain. However, are there agencies offering all of these qualities, if any?

What would get you to move to another agency, or what do you think makes your agency the best?

The current 'essentials' for me is the management and culture. It is rare to find a “people manager” in recruitment; usually it’s a high billing consultant that has moved up the ranks and, in some rare cases, this can work. Luckily enough, after years within the industry, I’ve finally got a true people manager! Relating to culture - it is different for everyone but personally I think we need to encourage a “work hard/play hard” environment. In recruitment, we seem to lack the team environment that most other industries promote. Between the draw-locking of candidates and candidate-stealing, how can we foster a team culture in such a cut throat sector?

I’m keen to hear your thoughts and suggestions of what you feel the recruitment companies of today are missing and what would you jump for?

Comment by Rebecca B. Sargeant on October 6, 2010 at 1:09pm: Recruiters are very social people. Because of that, sometimes working on their own is just not an option. When facing this fact, Recruiters quickly become stuck between a rock and hard place. While Recruiters look for environments that will suit their work style and allow them to capitalize on their talents, business owners are doing their level best to attract top producers to ensure their success.

If a Recruiter is identified during the interview process as being a top producer, a business owner will often turn the interview into an opportunity to hard-close that Recruiter. When this happens, any opportunity for both parties to have an open, honest discussion about their own work and management styles are diminished against the chance of both parties becoming rich at the others expense.

You asked what it would take to keep Recruiters in the agencies.

As I place more and more Recruiters with agencies, I would say that there are two ingredients to making this happen. The first is ensuring both parties are open and honest about their own work styles. The second is compensating the individual Recruiter fairly for their time and talent.

Identifying a working style is the primary ingredient to keeping great Recruiters motivated and engaged in an agency environment. If a Recruiter feels micro-managed, they will begrudgingly do everything and anything they are asked to do. This attitude not only disrupts the Recruiter themselves, but it will also affect the entire team's overall performance. On the other hand, if a Recruiter is not driven to some kind of standard or matrix, just like any sales person, that Recruiter will under perform. Under performance, as we are all well aware, brings its own demons to the party. Finding the balance and the frame work to succeed is what great business owner should be striving for.

As for the Recruiter’s compensation, balancing the Recruiter's and the business owner's interests is the other key ingredient. When the right balance is reached, the Recruiter will have accesses a brick and mortar facility with the best tools available, and the business owner will be able to benefit from the Recruiters talents.

As individual Recruiters identify that they are not cut out for the isolation of working on their own, they need to know that working in an agency environment can be rewarding when done RIGHT.

One last note (or maybe you would consider a little rant ;-) ~ Take the time to check your potential employer’s references!!! None of us would place a candidate without references, so why would any of us work for someone without checking them out? And IF you are not comfortable asking around CALL ME! – I’ll do it for you FOR FREE!

THANK YOU!
Rebecca B. Sargeant
Recruiter’s Talent Agent