10th Anniversary in recruitment and what a journey it has been!

I wanted to share some of the thoughts, highlights and challenges that I’ve had on my journey since working in recruitment 10 years ago as of the 1st March 2010. I was actually introduced to this amazing industry by one of my fellow Directors of 4C Recruitment, Mike Fraser, after we had played some golf together a number of times, and he asked me if I had thought about recruitment as a place I wanted to work.

I had said no, just because my understanding of the industry was that it was a high-commission driven environment, with a very cut throat approach between recruiters, and clients not seeing the value of using recruiters.

Fortunately, he was able to show me a different option and now, together with Kate, we are taking it to where we believe the industry should be and how it can contribute to greater society

I had been working in the UK for eight years across a number of different industries and in different positions, all of which had a sales slant to them, dealing with people both in and outside of the organization. I think this gave me a superb grounding to be able to have conversations with my clients and candidates that went beyond the standard recruitment conversation.

My first year on the job was very hard. I was learning all about finance, learning what recruitment actually entailed around the process, the conversations and questions that needed to be asked of clients and candidates. I think the only reason that I am still in the industry today is because of the team approach the people who supported me had then, which helped me learn and helped me see the long-term potential of what can be achieved as a recruiter. I didn’t bill very much that first year, but Mike and other senior people in the business said stick with it, because I was doing the right things and the results would come.

In that first year and in the years to come, a theme that I did see across the businesses I worked in, is that those with slightly more experience ,and those that stuck to their guns and followed the true principles of recruitment, were the ones who were successful and made lots of placements. They were respected and relied on by their clients, and built a strong reputation with their candidates. Fortunately for me, the same thing was true and with some failures and thankfully more successes, I started to make a lot more placements and became a top biller in our business.

One of the things I have noticed, is that there is a high turnover of staff in a lot of recruitment businesses and I think there are a few reasons why. One is that young people are often hired because they are a cheaper resource, but don’t necessarily have the business knowledge to deal with the level of clientele that is expected of them. The expectation is that they have to make money from day one and don’t always get the support they need in terms of training on the industry or about business in general. This leads them to not making money and becoming demotivated and leaving the industry.

The consequence of this is that the recruitment industry has built a bad name for itself as when Clients phone a business to speak to someone, only to find that that person has left the business, and the new person has to start from scratch about learning about their client. This wastes the clients time and they lose faith in the process.

I spent some time in search and learnt a lot from the people in this sector of recruitment and believe there is a lot of value in how they deliver their services to their clients. I think that this part of the industry really does build a strong partnership with Clients due to the adherence to strict process and agreements from the start as to what is wanted by the client and then going out and doing the work to find the right talent.

Across the whole industry though, whether it is an internal recruitment or external recruitment, I do believe the process as it is now, could be improved vastly to minimize the time spent by companies and candidates and thus the amount of money wasted. This is something I’ll share more on in another blog during the lock-down.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in this industry because of the people I have met in business, candidates I have worked with, the learning I have had from the people I have interacted with and the feedback I’ve had from them as well.

Together with Mike and Kate, and in the future the other consultants who will join our business, we look forward to delivering professional recruitment services to our clients and candidates, partnering with them and living what recruitment should be about and in doing so, doing what we can for the community by helping the future talent of South Africa achieve their potential.