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Is the Professional Recruiter a dying breed?

7th March 2016 Church News.

Having read with disquiet the posting made by Craig Kent about the lack of professionalism displayed by a recruiter named Paul followed by the myriad of ensuing comments made by a wide range of LinkedIn members, it did make me think about the general lack of professionalism that unfortunately can be displayed by all parties involved in the recruitment process… recruiter, candidate and employer.

dodo-rec

Recruiters do come in for their fair share of bad press and, in some cases, quite rightly so. Having been a recruitment professional for the past 36 years I think the commoditisation of recruitment over the decades has resulted in an industry based on much reduced personal interaction, integrity and professionalism. The speed to market demanded by Clients to fill vacancies, particularly contract roles, can lead to lazy, social media driven practices being followed by recruiters who are purely trying to hit the Client KPIs of 3 CVs in 8 hours or being the first to log the CV and get “candidate ownership” on the impersonal but sadly ubiquitous portal … processes which do not, in my experience engender quality or professionalism. And then there are, of course, recruiters who will take the lazy, and sometimes unethical, route to market come what may, because for them it’s not about providing a service, it’s purely about making money. And they will cut corners and be disingenuous purely to be self serving.

In defence of my fellow upstanding recruitment professionals, we have to deal with candidates and clients who can be equally unprofessional and sadly unethical: the contractor who accepts a contract offer and then at the last minute pulls out of the deal because they have been offered more money elsewhere; the client who knowingly tries to avoid paying agency fees by directly engaging a candidate who has been legitimately presented by a recruiter. And the list goes on… and on.

My conclusion is that we are all – recruiter, candidate and employer – responsible for making the recruitment process professional and ethical. We all need to look to ourselves for how we can contribute to raising the bar on the recruitment market and making the experience a more respectful, personal, pleasant and successful experience all round.

And I still believe after 36 years that the majority of recruiters aspire to and do provide a brilliant and valuable service to both clients and candidates. The demands of the recruitment market have changed and so have recruiters, mostly for the good. I hope Craig gets the role he is looking for with the help of a great recruiter and Paul has learnt a valuable lesson in the need to improve his interpersonal skills and candidate engagement.

The Professional Recruiter is alive and well and continuing to evolve….