Mainstream recruitment failing training industry, says white paper from Blue Eskimo
A new white paper, from leading training specialist recruitment company Blue Eskimo, says that recruitment services from large, generalist recruitment providers are not best suited to specialist industries such as learning.
According to a new white paper by Blue Eskimo, a leading recruitment company specialising in providing services to the learning and e-learning sectors, mainstream recruitment companies often fail to deliver an effective service.
The core of the issue, says the white paper, is "quality versus quantity". With its specialist skills requirements, larger recruitment companies don't have the time to learn the specific needs of the training industry in depth - and so often aren't able to effectively review CVs, interview candidates and verify them as being suitable for the job. The result is that large numbers of unsuitable candidates are put forward for roles, resulting in wasted time and frustration for learning companies that are seeking new talent.
According to Nick Bate, director at Blue Eskimo, this problem isn't just confined to the training and learning industries, but it is a major factor in disappointment in recruitment services in the sector. "According to research by CIPD," says Bate, "84% of companies have experienced some kind of difficulty with recruitment companies. In a large number of cases, it's because the recruitment companies lacked the skills needed to properly select candidates."
Bate says that this confirms Blue Eskimo's experience when talking to its customers. "For most of the larger recruitment companies," says Bate, "recruitment has become a numbers game - with a shotgun approach to finding people. In many cases, this just doesn't work."
Bate believes that this dismal service is becoming the accepted norm and is giving the mainstream recruitment industry a reputation for laziness and poor value. "Less than 50% of recruitment companies put forward suitable candidates for interviews. That's far too low a batting average. Recruitment agencies aren't giving customers what they want: 99% of companies say that the quality of candidates is the most important factor when choosing an agency."
This has seen the beginning of the rise of specialist recruitment companies - companies that are focused on the needs of specific industries. In Blue Eskimo's case, that's training, learning and e-learning.
While less of the recruitment budget is spent with specialist recruitment companies (around 10%), companies say that they - and niche job boards - provide the best candidates.
"Mainstream recruitment companies are under pressure from two sides," says Bate. "For general jobs, they are being outflanked by on-line job boards - which are in many cases providing an equivalent service at a lower cost. In niche markets, they are being significantly outperformed by specialist providers such as ourselves, who have the time and resource to know the industry and its requirements in depth."
The white paper, 'Finding the right job; finding the right person', is available free from Blue Eskimo's Web site.