A recent webinar on ERE.net put forward a case for restructuring recruitment fees along the lines of other professional service firms.  It may surprise you to hear that Hemisphere Consulting would be the first to change fee structure along the lines of being paid for time spent on the job rather than a one-off fee.  Why then, haven’t we done so?  Because of the many hours spent listening to Depeche Mode, of course.

People are People 

People are people, So why should it be, You and I should get, Along so awfully

In recruitment, there’s no getting away from the fact that your product is people, you work for people, with people.  And the bottom line is that we’re all in it for the money.  Clients naturally want the best person possible for as little investment as possible.  Candidates will usually take the best offer on the table.  Recruiters have to navigate the minefield of budgetary constraints, talent identification, talent attraction, not to mention often changes in hiring criteria from the client as well as dealing with the understandable emotions of people who all have their own agendas.  Whilst we all want success, sometimes third parties can manage to upset the apple-cart leaving us all empty-handed through no fault of our own.  Can you really expect clients to pay for a ‘successful’ candidate that jumped every hurdle only to bolt at the finishing line? 

Well, the global search firms manage to do it on every assignment they run. Their argument is that they are not engaged to place a candidate. They are hired as a specialist consulting firm, to scour the market for the most suitable candidate, present the opportunity, manage the process, work their backsides off to ensure a positive result for the client, but…at the end of the day, they cannot force people to take the role. Hence, executive search firms quite rightly want to be paid for all of their work. Work which doesn’t always end with the proverbial ‘backside on a chair’ – much as that would be the perfect end to a process, of course.   

Absolutely, there is a strong and valid case for this in the mainstream recruitment industry, especially as every other professional services firm I have ever had the pleasure of engaging  (think lawyers and accountants) charges me on that basis that way. They generally reach the requisite satisfactory result, so I have never had cause to complain, but is that mindset shift in the recruitment industry ‘one step beyond’? (Hang on, I thought this piece was about Depeche Mode, not Madness?) 

Whole ranges of metrics have been introduced to the sourcing and hiring process both in the corporate and the agency side, yet fees remain based on successful placements.  I am sure that many quality agencies would be glad to put their processes to the test, confident that their performances would achieve the grade for payment but until clients see these as worthwhile stages then it would be a brave recruitment firm which was prepared to take the stand.       

 Everything Counts 

The grabbing hands, Grab all they can, All for themselves, after all, It’s a competitive world, Everything counts in large amounts   

The “War for Talent” is here to stay.  Whilst we can be smarter, more efficient and quantifiable in our offerings, the bottom line is always the dollar.  We all need to either generate revenue or make money to move forward whether we’re a corporate organisation, an independent recruitment agency or a candidate looking for a job.  We’re all in it for the same reason – to get ahead.  We’d love to hear from you if you have an opinion – Depeche Mode fan or not.