May 2008

Leading recruitment consultancy Unity Personnel are urging their industry to shape up, after a survey of jobseekers revealed that almost 60% of people would be put off using a recruitment agency due to the bad reputation of the industry.

26% of those surveyed were very negative towards recruitment agencies, with 33% having significant reservations about them. 24% of those questioned had generally positive views, while only 16% of those surveyed had only positive experiences of recruitment agencies to report.

Feedback accused a minority of those within the industry of providing an impersonal service to candidates and of sending out CVs to potential employers without any knowledge of the job specification or the demands of the client’s business.

There was some positive feedback though and the survey highlighted that jobseekers recognised the importance of specialist recruitment consultancies, which have an in-depth knowledge of specific sectors as well as good links into key recruiters.

Nick Tomkinson, Commercial Director for Unity Personnel commented: “As an industry, we need to combat the negative impressions many people have and provide a superior service by working closely with both clients and candidates in order to determine their requirements. There are a small number of agencies who are more focussed on the initial commission rather than aiming to build long-term relationships, but they are contributing to giving the industry a bad name and this is something we need to work to prevent.”