The recession in the UK has understandably made the HR job-seeker’s endeavour significantly more difficult than in times of plenty, but the current challenge appears to be even greater as a result of certain dubious and shoddy practices within the recruitment industry.
The shop-window for HR jobs in the UK largely consists of either printed media in the form of People Management journal (the official publication of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and its rival magazine Personnel Today, or the overwhelming and increasingly confusing choice of online media.
To use the present week as an example; People Management magazine carries a mere 23 job adverts (22 of which are in public sector or Not-for-Profit organisations) whereas its online service carries an initially staggering 709. Although many UK local councils have yet to fully embrace the use of online advertising, and cling to more traditional practices of lengthy handwritten application forms, it stills seems difficult to believe that there are so many more HR jobs out there in the private sector.
But the basic evidence would at least lead one to believe that the online service is the place for the HR job-seeker to concentrate on.
Or is it?
During the last week I have seen at least two online job adverts (by agencies of varying size and reputation) where they are advertising vacancies for hiring organisations, perhaps not without the permission of the organisation, but where it has been made perfectly clear to the agency that any CVs that are submitted will only be reviewed once the in-house campaign has run its course. If the in-house campaign is successful, no CVs will be requested from the agency.
So, any application submitted to the agency rather than the hiring organisation is likely to be a total waste of time and effort.
In addition to this structural confusion, the recruitment consultancy sector is now facing mounting criticism for a lack of basic customer care to applicants. Sadly, it’s not unusual for a candidate to be approached by an agency suggesting that they may wish to apply for a particular role, for the candidate to even progress to interview stage, but subsequently to receive no feedback whatsoever from the agency. Understandably, recruitment agencies are finding themselves on the receiving end of vitriolic criticism from aggrieved candidates. Basic customer care and contact are becoming noticeable by their absence.
It would seem reasonable to assume that in the scrabble for the few genuine recruitment assignments that that are out there, rival agencies are indulging in whatever practices they feel are necessary in order to elbow their way to the front of the queue. Unfortunately, it is often HR job-seekers who are injured in the rush. It’s even more unfortunate that the injured HR job-seekers will in the not-too-distant future be those who award the recruitment contacts in their new organisations, and with such incidents fresh in their minds, the lack of professionalism will be the undoing of many a recruitment consultant
The end of the recession may hopefully be in sight in the UK, but if recruitment agencies are to benefit from the growth in jobs, there’s a lot of activity to be undertaken to put their house in order.
Graham Salisbury is our guest blogger and originally trained as a teacher and acquired his battle scars in the official “School From Hell” – the UK’s worst performing school! A jump from the frying pan into the fire took him into the turbulent world of HR, where he worked as a senior HR Manager for some of the best known companies in the UK.
Graham is currently in the process of establishing a new career on the boundary between HR and Education, working with schools and universities, particularly in the area of Business Studies and Hunan Resource Management. My HR Case Studies website is being developed to provide a pool of resource material, HR Case Studies and discussion starters for teachers of Business Studies.
Photo Credit Rainy Day in London.
good article as usual!
Interesting article Graham! Points to consider for me. During periods of economic down-turn it is the SMEs, whether through upscaling or niché markets that will experience growth. These vacancies will not largely go through the larger job boards of Monster, Jobsite, Reed but smaller more online agencies who specialise in Fixed Price Recruitment like Recruitment Revolution that offer flat-fee, low cost recruitment, where payment won’t even be paid until the position has been satisfactorily filled! It will be these sites and this model that will experience better times than your bigger recruitment agencies!