Going back to our roots…Our mission to restore faith in permanent recruitment.

The first recorded ‘Employment Agency’ was in 1893 in the USA, becoming popular in the UK during the Second World War. Since then it has grown into an international multi-billion pound industry stretching over every specialism in many different formats. However it is when we look at the last 30 years or so that we really see how much recruitment agencies have changed – and not necessarily for the best.

In terms of what are considered ‘traditional recruiters’ as more and more agencies flooded the market, competition became a threat which meant that in a bid to get jobs and candidates registered standards began to slip, and slip they really have.

These days’ recruiters have unfortunately got a bad reputation for being loud ‘salesy’ people who don’t listen and only care about the next fee, which many are. A shame for all of us recruiters that still abide by the original ethos of ‘finding the right person for the right job’

Clients and candidates need to play the ‘long game’ and ask is the person or role really the right fit for them? Their company? Their career? Getting it wrong has many repercussions, none of which good. For the client it is costly, time consuming and potentially damaging to their business and for the candidate it can seriously damage their career if they are making bad choices.

Having done some research on business review websites it makes for depressing reading. No wonder we have this stigma attached to us. Real horror stories including: no communication, false advertising, not listening, pushing candidates into interviews they don’t want and refusing to work on them if they turned roles down. Exactly the type of recruitment we desperately try and set ourselves apart from

It is obviously extremely tempting to go for a cheaper alternative, we all do it to some extent, shopping around on-line to find the best deal for our goods, but is cheapest always best? I think we all know the answer to that.

At Wavelength we truly believe that to find the right person for the right job takes experience, specialist market knowledge, excellent client and candidate relationships based on trust and commitment and the old favourite, time. This means that we still work to the traditional blueprint: meeting with our candidates and clients, no matter how difficult that may be, listening to what they want and taking the time to find the right person for the right job and if we can’t? Well, we can’t and we will tell them as much.

To sum up, if recruiters provide a traditional boutique service, showing that they understand their specialisms and the market in which their clients and candidates operate, and as a result of this experience and knowledge can present relevant and appropriate options, this should see the industry standards raise once again as more agencies need to meet the expectations of clients and candidates.