Recruiters - Don't complain about a lack of candidates!

If you know me, have read any of my published content in the trades or seen me present, you will know I am the biggest supporter of the traditional recruitment industry and have a passion to protect it from the press group monopoly on candidate flow and the trend for employers to go it alone using the latest employment technologies.

Imagine then my disappointment when I distributed my CV to a number of rec2rec and technology agencies, as a candidate through their standard application process, in a quest to establish if there were any businesses they were talking to and could place me with that needed the short-term or flexible support of someone like me; 10 years traditional and on-line recruitment experience at a sales and senior level, ex MD of the REC's technology subsidiary, ex REC's Acting Technology Director and all-round staffing and employment technology/innovation specialist.

There were 4 types of response from the agencies I approached.

1. Immediate phonecall to introduce themselves and their business, then a fact find to establish what I was looking for and how they could support me. - To those, if you are reading, I salute you. You represent everything I have grown to admire about the recruitment industry and I look forward to working with and recommending you to my peer group.

2. Personalised email thanking me for sending my details but confirming I fell into a category they didn't support or I was looking for an opportunity outside their geographical boundary. - I can accept this as a reasonable response. After all time is money and they were good enough to say straight away that we couldn't help each other. I would say however, that I probably know many people that do fit into their categories and geography so if they used me correctly by staying in touch as an introduction point, I could probably facilitate a couple of fees a year for them.

3. Automated email confirming that my details have been received and would be databased for reference against suitable opportunities. - Not on face value negative, however, I know what this means. Because there was not a specific vacancy available at the time my CV was received, I was going into a database, many of which are not proficiently searchable, so in most cases I will be approximately 200kb of space taken up on their server and will never be seen again.

4. Nothing, nada, zip, tumbleweed rolling across a desert with an eary sound in the background. - An appalling response. Now considering most agencies when questioned will say that the biggest issue to their business is finding candidates, why oh why, would you not engage with one, one who I like to think is a strong candidate, who is placeable, connected, experienced and regularly in the press applauding the industry!

To those who provided the 2, 3 and 4 responses, what happened to specking candidates out? Is this a thing of the past or is the focus on the fee rather than candidate.This got me thinking. When some recruiters complain about a lack of candidates, do they mean a lack of candidates that perfectly fit the actual roles they have available at that very moment in time?

We know from the unemployment rates that the majority of job seekers in the UK are placeable, so I wonder if the focus was more candidate orientated, is there more value to be achieved all round!Here's a thought and perhaps a challenge to directors in the recruitment industry that follows the mystery shopper principle. Why not submit your CV to your own business via your website and see what response you get. You might be surprised!

Finally, to the agency that sends their automated responses with the subject header 'Resonses' with a missing 'p' and from an email address that starts 'reject', you might want to assess the experience you provide to job seekers!