From barrow-boy to head boy | the evolution of recruitment

During the past two decades we have witnessed a recruitment uprising. Routinely reviled for their underhand tactics agencies and their consultants were once considered bottom of a list of scourge that included estate agents, second-hand car salesmen and traffic wardens. However, there has come about a wind of change. From City-slicking wide boy to practised business professional we highlight the transformation:

ìIt was common practice back then,í begins one former recruiter, ëto hand over wads of cash in unmarked envelopes in return for job exclusivity or some other such deal. Youíd start off in a bar having lunch then before you knew it, and a few bottles of Chablis later, youíd be there, right in the middle of it, lining the silky pockets of Mr Stringfellow, surrounded by strippers and bubblyî.

Back in the nineteen-naughties when the recruitment industry was awash with unscrupulous cads ducking and diving their way to the top of the bonus tree, more or less anything went. There was nothing a determined consultant would not do to ensure they were able to command the attention of not only their bank manager but, on a more daily basis, the equally immoral bosses who paid their salaries and, most important of all, their peers; just as determined to clamber over anyone who got in the way of a pound note. Cash was king and without it you were nothing. Not in the recruitment game.

In an era dominated by the twenty-somethingís, highly-charged reward-driven rogues were never far from an indiscriminate disregard of both their six-figure salaries and the places they frequented. Hedonistic nights followed pressured days, each fuelled by cocaine and surreptitious jaunts to a back-street boozer, where all manner of shenanigans would ensue. The ëChampagne Charleyí was in full effect and he would make damn sure those around him knew about it.

ìSometimes,í recalls an ex-consultant, now a reformed manager, ëguys in my team would not go home for days at a time. So keen were we to strike a deal weíd work late, go out, then return to sleep at our desks so we could crack on in the morning before anyone else. At least that was the idea. In reality we were getting back to the office at 3am, more often than not with girls in tow, and having a party. Weíd have to get rid of the Vodka bottles before the boss pitched up – if he wasnít involved himself, that is!î

The nocturnal antics of the old-school recruitment consultant will ring familiar bells to anyone still in the industry from the ë90s. It was the morning-after anecdotes that defined who you were within the company and, most likely, paved the way for how you conducted your business and, therefore, treated your customers.

But thankfully these days appear over. There appears not to be the same emphasis amongst recruiters to live life in the fast lane, preferring instead to focus on providing an honest, tangible service reflective of their status. Fresh from their own wild excursions graduates are heading a queue of what has become a more recognised career-path than a stop-gap between something and nothing, as previously perceived. Nowadays people want to be recruiters, rather than finding themselves as one, having stumbled there via some dubious motor forecourt.

Like all industries recruitment is not absent of immorality, but there appears to be a definite dilution to days gone by. Tales of organising phoney interviews with another agencyís jobseeker so you could to stall him from accepting a position in order that you could slip your own candidate into ëhisí job, do not appear as prevalent as once they were. Pleasingly, too, our research recounted no original tales of recruiters cancelling the interview of another agencyís candidate to make it appear to the client that the candidate was unprofessional in not turning up, so highlighting the credentials of the sneaky agencyís applicant who had ëbotheredí to show. Behaviour of this type appears less ubiquitous these days.

So how has our industry changed? Undoubtedly we find ourselves today guided by stricter, more professional policies; the cowboys that once roamed the recruitment planes, gun-slinging their way through dusty unacquainted towns, can now be seen riding into the sunset. With the development of patrolling sheriffs like REC and ATSCO and agencies seemingly now more committed to obtaining standards recognition and ISO-based accreditations, measures are being further implemented to curtail bad practice and conform to regulatory guidelines.

The increase in digital information technology ensures that there is nowhere to hide. Where once Billy the Kid could skulk undetected via a haze of lies and misconduct, now this behaviour is exposed through the networks that bind the good practices. Governing bodies and splinter groups are working harder than ever to remove the rotten apples that once provided the core to an industry evermore determined to remove the shackles of yesteryear.

In current climes with centralised recruitment, tighter legislation and the development of preferred supplier agreements, unprincipled behaviour is certainly less prevalent now. Clients expect candidates to be met with, thoroughly briefed and consulted about a vacancy. Alongside this jobseekers are becoming increasingly frustrated and most fury is vented at the recruitment consultants they have turned to for help. So agencies have had to up their game and, to be fair, in the majority of cases they have. The market-stall trader is being replaced by ex-industry professionals so candidates are now speaking with recruiters who know what they want and where to find it. University degrees have restored NVQís and the brashly-barking barrow boy is rendered obsolete, substituted with more polished individuals able to apply educated guile rather than relying on impulsive trickery.

It may be that the recruiting techniques of bygone years helped shape what is now a multi-billion-pound industry. Without the swashbuckling skulduggery it is certain many people would not be in the jobs they are in today but conversely it is the restrictions imposed on the modern-day recruiter and their choice not to abuse both themselves and his position that has marked the most notable alteration in recruitment standards. More than ever agencies need to work with each other instead of against and the relationship between agency and jobseeker requires a happy marriage instead of a feeling of separation. Within their own organisations business owners appear to be promoting symbiosis rather than encouraging embattlement. More willingly rewards are tangible to relationship development rather than one-off new business wins, which encourages empathetic consultancy between recruiters and their clients.

With the employment industry moving in the right direction there is good cause for cheer. As the market begins to show signs of recovery the beneficiaries will undoubtedly be those agencies who responded to the changes and have grown with the evolution.

Simon Lewis | Only Marketing Jobs