‘If we treat our own staff seriously, they’ll take other people’s careers seriously too’

Peter Crush

Recruitment agencies comprised 13% of the Best Workplaces in the UK, judged earlier this month. What are they doing right? Peter Crush finds out

When it comes to workplaces patting themselves on the back, this time of year is a busy one. In the last few months we’ve seen firms rated as being Britain’s Top Employers, seen the risers and fallers in the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For list, as well as Best Companies themselves doing their own separate one, two and three star accreditations (think Michelin stars for businesses).

But at last month’s Great Place to Work awards (which measure whether staff trust who they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the work they do), it was something of a bonanza for recruitment firms. In the SME (20-49 staff) category, agencies scooped 13 of the top 100 spots, with digital agency Futureheads, the highest placed of these, coming in second.

Getting placed is no small achievement. Firms making the Great Place to Work top 100 are the highest scoring companies in its trust and culture audits and these are behaviours that yield spectacular results. Collectively, firms that are ranked have 8% better productivity, demonstrate 16% better profit margins, and have 12% greater customer advocacy. Just as importantly though, staff working for these firms also take 50% fewer sick days and are 87% less likely to leave.

All of which begs some important questions. What are recruitment agencies doing that other workplaces aren’t? Are agencies exemplars of what modern workplaces should be? Or, is being tuned into what good company culture looks like something agencies are keener than most to get right – because staff that recognise a good place to work are surely better at placing candidates into other workplaces too?

At CPS Group, which came eighteenth in the 20-49 staff listing, director Spencer Symmons points to some of the things he feels contribute to making his workplace great. “Everyone works in an open plan office, we have a very flat management structure, and we operate an open door policy,” he says. These factors alone, he argues, translates to a Great Places’ 91% ‘credibility’ score – a measure that looks at the extent to which staff regard management as being believable and trustworthy. In addition to this, he says: “Camaraderie is very important to us. We have a ‘work hard play hard’ attitude. This includes having a games room for staff that encourages friendly competition, nights out every week, and lunches in top restaurants for our best staff.”

It doesn’t just stop there. Quarterly weekends away are run (with activities including rafting, climbing and quad biking), as are two holidays a year to Europe, fully expensed by the company. Not surprisingly, team spirit got a 96% rating from staff, while camaraderie and workplace culture also scored highly at 95%.

Other listed agencies seem to share these perks and great culture. Placed twentieth, Jobwise – a recruitment agency serving the north-west – says it prides itself in offering market-matching pay and benefits, and gives staff the opportunity to work flexibly, and promotes and trains.

“Being in ranked a Great Place to Work is definitely a service-sector thing,” says Caroline Foote, CEO of sixth-placed company, Career Moves (who notes that PR agencies also feature prominently too). “The fact we operate with honesty and integrity are other metrics that all the other firms listed share.” But, she argues: “I think it’s no coincidence that more recruitment agencies are showing these qualities.” She adds: “There is absolutely a link between practicing what we preach first to our own staff first, so that when they work with candidates to place them into other organisations, staff understand and appreciate the importance of culture and fit.”

According to Foote, a good agency culture makes employees better at matching the right candidates to the right company. At second-placed company Futureheads, a digital media recruitment specialist, dedication to the company culture is such that living by it has even come at personal cost to the growth of the business.

“Recent growth has slowed purely because we’re very picky about the people we want to hire,” says managing director Gill Arnold. “But we’d rather take our time getting the right people because it’s essential to us that if we treat our own staff seriously, they’ll meet our brief of taking other people’s careers seriously too.”

The Futureheads way is about making sure they stay driven by excellent service rather than just fees, and showing care about the people they place.” Arnold says: “Because we put a lot of emphasis on making sure staff fit our business, it follows that they understand their clients’ and candidates’ needs too. Good recruitment is about more than matching people to a set of skills, but matching them to a company’s culture. If my staff don’t have a reference point for this, they won’t be able to understand other company cultures.”

Proof of this is shown by the fact 97-98% of the candidates her employees now place stay at their new organisation for at least a year. “We don’t pass judgement on the culture of the organisations we place into,” says Arnold, “but being the way we are means we understand them.” Perhaps if more agencies were this explicit about their people, even more will feature on next year’s list.