Significant differences between HR professionals and recruitment consultants have emerged in a new survey probing how the two groups view each otherís contribution to filling vacancies. The research shows a fault-line impedes effective and productive working relations. In-house HR professionals are criticised for being too slow to react in the fast-moving talent market, while recruitment consultants are castigated as commission-seekers.
The survey was conducted by recruitment advertising and employer branding agency, MARKET Communications, in association with exec-appointments.com, the UKís premier executive jobsite.
Betty Thayer, chief executive of exec-appointments.com said: ìWe work with HR professionals and recruitment consultants every day and we decided to support the objective of really getting to the bottom of the sometimes not-so-symbiotic relationship between the two.
ìThe results have been incredibly interesting and hopefully they will go some way to improve co-operation and increase effective working between these two groups.î
The findings show that HR professionals are seen as too slow to respond, failing to give feedback, not adding value to their organisation and excluded from strategic decisions.
One participant, summing up their absence of impetus, says: ìThere is a lack of urgency to get winning candidates across the finishing line,î while another insists: ìThey should stop seeing themselves as cost centres and start realising they should be profit centres.î
The survey also shows that 20 per cent of the consultants believe in-house HR specialists place too much emphasis on cost and that negotiations are driven by price rather than value. One respondent says: ìIt should not be about the fee paid to the recruiter but more the business efficacy of bringing the new talent on board. Why quibble over five per cent when the candidate can make you millions?î
On the other side of the divide, 60 per cent of the HR professionals surveyed claim the greatest obstacle to working efficiently with recruitment consultants is their focus on obtaining short-term commissions rather than contributing to long-term company results.
So how can the relationship be improved? The results reveal that one of the key issues is a lack of understanding of each otherís business. Over half the recruitment consultants think HR professionals should take time to understand how recruitment consultancies can add value to their operation.
60 per cent of HR professionals also believe that a standard professional qualification ñ a CIPD-equivalent for recruiters ñ would help increase the effectiveness of this working relationship. Establishing a qualification, they say, would help promote best practice and encourage better standards and transparency.
ìIn the end, the results of this survey show that both parties are keen to work together and have the same ultimate goal ñ to fill vacancies with the best people possibleî, said Mark Speirs, client development director at MARKET Communications. ìWe hope that these findings provide some suggestions on how this can be achieved.î
www.marketcomms.com
Survey finds HR professionals unresponsive and recruitment consultants too commission-driven
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