Sounding of the death knell for recruitment agencies - 01/2001

The demand for IT contractors has never been greater. The advent of the dotcom and the fact that computer technology is all-pervasive in business today has made it so. The pressure on human resources to come up with speedier and more cost-effective ways of finding qualified and experienced contractors is ever increasing. Technology itself may well have the answer and those in the recruitment business who don't embrace it may be left behind or disappear altogether.

Web-based businesses offer an introductory service; putting contractors in touch with contracts and companies in touch with contractors, enabling the two parties to trade directly with each other.

The benefits for contractors are that it gives them daily access to information on what contracts are available. The service is free. There are no misunderstandings or distortions brought about by working through third parties and they have complete anonymity; CVs do not get sent out without permission. References are checked for free and security is built into the system to safeguard personal data.

It sounds ideal, but as everyone in the recruitment business knows, there are dangers involved in dealing with companies direct. How does the contractor know if they are going to get paid, for example, and what about such issues as1R35?

Karen Spurr, UK managing director of Harvey Nash Resourcing Business, has this to say: You only need look at the dotcom scenario to see a typical example of the dangers of what can happen. The company goes under -the contractor doesn't get paid! At Harvey Nash, we employ the contractor ourselves and then subcontract, so if the company goes under the contractor still gets paid.

Spurr agrees that the potential for speed of response that the Internet brings is valuable and that online methods of recruitment may indeed have a role to play: We have a website that is a career management portal, geared towards the permanent market and targeted at a high level. The more we can do to get potential candidates involved with us the better.

Anyone involved in the recruitment agency business is going to have to embrace the Internet in some form or another if they are to keep pace with developments. This is particularly relevant to the IT contractor market.