Interesting Daze Ahead
Full marks to ATSCo, and the highly charged Ann Swain, for it’s (her) announcement in yesterday’s Recruiter magazine that they intend to take on the World and embrace all professional recruitment within their new incarnation, APSCo.
When I first heard the news, a couple of months ago, I thought it sad for the industry but quickly recovered my corporate head and asserted my well honed mantra that ‘any competition is good news, not bad’. At least there will now be pressure on REC to ensure it stops relying on its 75-years of history and market dominance and starts looking to its future for survival.
There is no better time than November to launch a competing organisation; being as it is, just ahead of 1st December when REC historically issues its corporate membership invoices for 2009 Membership, but I assume this point wasn’t missed by the APSCo Executive, and I’m also guessing there will be a few late night meetings in Welbeck Street; when someone gets around to reading Recruiter anyway, to consider a ‘rapid response’. That’ll be tough when your new competitor has captured 6 pages of the leading industry magazine to promote its launch. I make it 2-0 to APSCo at this stage but the games only just started,
But all parties should remember that there are plenty of goals to go for; REC has only about 35% of recruitment businesses in membership, and by my reckoning that means there is room for at least 3 major players in the market – so, there could even be room for me to get a game!
Ann, please don’t underestimate those out there for whom ‘professional staffing’ is an oxymoron when applied to Recruitment. In my first week at REC I was told by a senior official at DTI (now BERR) that I had to understand ‘it is a very dodgy industry’ and that view hasn’t really changed much since. If you are genuinely focused on the professional end of the market then you have to make sure the offering is far bigger, better and more highly valued by observers than just another badge. The title ‘Professional’ comes with equally high expectations of you and I wish you well in achieving them.
When I first heard the news, a couple of months ago, I thought it sad for the industry but quickly recovered my corporate head and asserted my well honed mantra that ‘any competition is good news, not bad’. At least there will now be pressure on REC to ensure it stops relying on its 75-years of history and market dominance and starts looking to its future for survival.
There is no better time than November to launch a competing organisation; being as it is, just ahead of 1st December when REC historically issues its corporate membership invoices for 2009 Membership, but I assume this point wasn’t missed by the APSCo Executive, and I’m also guessing there will be a few late night meetings in Welbeck Street; when someone gets around to reading Recruiter anyway, to consider a ‘rapid response’. That’ll be tough when your new competitor has captured 6 pages of the leading industry magazine to promote its launch. I make it 2-0 to APSCo at this stage but the games only just started,
But all parties should remember that there are plenty of goals to go for; REC has only about 35% of recruitment businesses in membership, and by my reckoning that means there is room for at least 3 major players in the market – so, there could even be room for me to get a game!
Ann, please don’t underestimate those out there for whom ‘professional staffing’ is an oxymoron when applied to Recruitment. In my first week at REC I was told by a senior official at DTI (now BERR) that I had to understand ‘it is a very dodgy industry’ and that view hasn’t really changed much since. If you are genuinely focused on the professional end of the market then you have to make sure the offering is far bigger, better and more highly valued by observers than just another badge. The title ‘Professional’ comes with equally high expectations of you and I wish you well in achieving them.
Gareth
