Unhappy with pay? Perhaps it’s time to rethink reward

Jo Faragher

There’s a huge push in the recruitment industry at the moment to professionalise the sector, making it a “career of choice” rather than something people tend to fall into while looking into other avenues.

So it’s interesting to see research from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation suggesting that only half of consultants and managers are happy with their pay.

This is despite the average pay rise for recruiters in 2014/15 being almost 5%, much higher than the 1% cap still being awarded to public sector workers or the average of around 2% pay rise for employees in the private sector.

A further finding of the REC’s report, ‘Planning for growth: attract and retain talent for your recruitment business’ was that there are still high levels of staff turnover in agencies. This was higher where consultants weren’t happy with their pay.

Could creating a more structured career path or encouraging non-financial ways of recognising performance (for example giving people more responsibility, allowing consultants to manage clients under their own steam) help mitigate this focus on pay, as well as promote retention?

The REC stresses that there are many other benefits of working in the recruitment industry – it’s fast growing, it’s fun and sociable; many consultants become business owners or directors in their own right after a while – but for too many companies, commission and short-term goals are still the main focus.

Some agencies now reward consultants not just on who they place and for what salary, but for how they adhere to wider cultural values such as client service or collaboration. Others offer a tranche of shares in the business so there’s a different mentality around achieving goals – for the good of the agency as a whole rather than the individual. Another route is to reward consultants if candidates stay at a company, promoting client retention and encouraging repeat business.

For those looking to make big money, recruitment can still be a great pond to fish in. But if they’re thinking about the bigger picture and creating a more sustainable business, recruiters really need to rethink reward.