Stressed Out!

I was concerned by the recent report from the Stroke Association that cited recruitment as a highly stressful job. At least I was worried until I saw that in second place came the legal profession; I can only assume they suffer stress from the constant increase in their fees and from worrying about the choice of colour for the next Porsche.

Now I readily recognise that recruitment is a highly charged, target driven and fast-paced industry but I am worried that it all too often suffers from the headless-chicken syndrome rather than the wise old owl. As someone who suffered a brain tumour at forty, which ‘may’ have been stress induced, I can confirm that chasing your own tail all-day-every-day is less than effective and eventually leads to structural collapse.

I think it's time the REC started to do some work into the effectiveness of the general recruitment model; that has staff chasing numbers; phone calls, registrations, interviews, placements and fees in a regime that thinks you are a part timer if you leave the office before 8pm, and researched a more intelligent way to do the business. Wh knows it might even lead to a reduction in the ridiculous levels of staff turnover in the industry.

The Stroke Association Report could be just the spring board we need to professionalise the profession.

Gareth