Sympathy vote
It's time for HR managers and recruitment consultants to resolve their differences and work with each other
Date:
09 March 2006
Source:
People Management magazine
Page:
7
If you were to poll 1,000 HR managers to find out which profession they'd put at the top of their "most disliked" list, I think it's fair to say that the role of recruitment consultant would probably be up there with the likes of estate agent and traffic warden.
And, if a similar number of recruitment consultants were asked what single thing would make their working lives easier, quite a few would probably answer: "Not having to work with HR departments."
This brings me to a rather depressing conclusion: in many cases, HR managers resent recruitment consultants as a necessary evil, while the consultants may see HR as an administrative function that puts obstacles in the way of the recruitment process.
Why is the relationship so troubled? A lot of it comes down to the lack of trust on both sides. The recruitment agency often fails to take the opportunity to learn about its client's business or understand the way in which HR needs to operate. For their part, HR managers sometimes feel that allowing the recruitment consultancy to take more control in the recruitment process will in some way diminish their own standing within the organisation.
So there it is: immediate conflict and a lack of confidence – and that's even before a candidate has been submitted.
As HR managers, we first need to identify the agencies with which we wish to build long-term relationships. Then we need to devise how to use them as an integral part of the recruitment process. Dealing with numerous agencies on a reactive, ad hoc basis, purely for them to pump CVs at us, simply isn't good practice.
While we're on the subject of CVs, what do they actually tell us about a person anyway? Very little, I'd argue. Selecting candidates by CV is a primitive method – a professional recruitment consultant's acute insight into the skills and competencies most relevant to the organisation is far more valuable. How many recruitment agencies would you currently trust to set up job interviews based purely on their recommendations? If the answer to this is one or two, maybe it's time to review the agencies you use and the way you work with them.
From the recruitment consultants' point of view, a major problem is that they don't always meet the manager who is recruiting. They often find that the HR department doesn't fully understand the job brief. The result is that the consultants get a less than perfect job specification – which they are then measured against when they put forward candidates.
Much has been said about HR as a business partner in an organisation, but recruitment agencies should be made to work just as hard to attain such a treasured status – and be trusted enough to do so.
For the relationship between an agency and HR to be less like a trip to the dentist, it takes planned effort on both sides. Bearing in mind that a consultancy fee can be anything from many thousands to many tens of thousands of pounds, isn't it the responsibility of both HR and the agency to ensure that this investment is treated with the respect it warrants?
If we're prudent, we will use recruitment consultancies as an extension to our portfolio of services. This will require flexibility and empathy from both parties to understand fully what we expect from each other. Does that sound all too simple? Well, sometimes the great things in life are.
Neil Ashford is head of human capital at specialist recruiter Phee Farrer Jones