Building a Partnership Approach: The Increasing Demands of Recruitment in 2014

Alium Head of Practice for Risk & Compliance, Katie Halpin, shares her thoughts on how having the right recruitment partner can mitigate risk in an increasingly demanding business environment.

Recently, the news spotlight has recently been focused on how hiring the wrong person can end up having a devastating effect on a business.  But what lessons can businesses learn from this fiasco and how do professional recruiters play a part in ensuring the wrong hire never happens?

(Un) Co-operative

The hiring of Paul Flowers as the Chairman of the Co-operative Bank, and the resulting fallout from his alleged behaviours, posed the question of what sort of recruitment process he went through to obtain such a senior position, particularly when the Co-operative had gone out of its way to say it was an ethical company. The trouble  at the Co-op may have led to a number of directors and resourcing teams taking a long hard look around their own organisations and asking the question: Do I really have the best possible team in place?  Am I attracting the right types of people?

Specialist recruitment

Yes, it is possible to use sophisticated selection tools, rigorous candidate assessments and even word of mouth, to find the best candidates for a job. But to really seek out those that are best in the marketplace, independent, specialist vetting and checking is essential – especially at board level, as proved by Co-op. This highlights for me the importance of specialist suppliers. Organisations with difficult or specific requirements need to work with a company that understands exactly what they are looking for, often to very tight deadlines.

Partnership model

A good recruitment consultant should act as a recruitment partner to their client, offering a sounding board, assisting with current market values and ensuring that the top candidates are attracted to the role. Ongoing advice, relevant market expertise and, most importantly, process streamlining of candidates so that less management time is taken (and wasted) internally are all essential attributes of this partnership model.

Value-add

Having worked both as an in-house recruiter and now agency side with Alium, I have a unique perspective on recruitment needs.  In-house recruiters have their place but the value-add aspect that independent suppliers bring, especially in times of change, can prove invaluable.

More, more, more

Simply put, companies today,  want more.

More industry expertise, more insight into the market and more candidates that are not visible to the marketplace applying for their roles. They want to engage recruiters that understand their culture and live and breath what they do, day in day out. The place for specialist agencies is even more apparent in 2014 in a recruitment world which is fast moving and demands the right people, being hired at the right time - and with the right background too.

Tags: business, hr