A visible commitment to good recruitment practice

Anna Scott

In the lists of the least trusted professions that are covered in the media from time to time, recruitment consultants do not tend to make the top ten. That is usually reserved for estate agents, journalists, politicians, and more recently, bankers.

But the sector does have an image problem. Quite aside from horror stories of fake job websites and rogue agencies, the behaviour of certain sections of the industry can leave clients and candidates frustrated.

This belies the great things that the majority of recruiters do for both candidates and clients. But it’s not easy to get this message across, despite the industry’s various codes of conduct and ethics. Nor is it just recruiters who benefit from focusing on good employment practice.

Earlier this week the Recruitment and Employment Confederation launched a new campaign to “promote good practice in recruitment” aimed at employers.

With the help of some of the country’s largest employers such as Royal Mail, Dixons Retail and Santander, the REC has developed a Good Recruitment Charter which defines nine key principles of good recruitment practice, covering subjects such as flexible working, candidate experience and extending good practice equally to permanent, temporary, contract and part-time workers.

It aims to get employers to make a “visible commitment to good recruitment practice”, and has also sought to get HR professionals on board, with the support of the CIPD.

With so many associations and sources of information on best practice available for the recruitment and employment industry it seems surprising that it should still need guides to best practice.

But as confidence rises in the jobs market in general and the recruitment sector in particular, showing commitment to providing the best possible candidate and client experiences could mean the difference between growth and stagnation for companies in the sector.