The U.K. Recruitment Industry: We’re Pretty Awesome Really!
We should collectively be extremely proud of what we have achieved in recent times, yet so much more of what we do isn’t recognised in the wider media and amongst the general population.
Reflecting back over the past 10–12 months or so I can’t help but feel a sense of unquestionable pride in the industry I adore.
Resilience and adaptability have been the keywords associated with a critical element of the U.K. economy, a sector that contributes circa £40 Billion per annum. Many companies have gone above and beyond the realms of anything, most of us would have believed possible.
Immense perseverance and adaptation have been demonstrated across pretty much all areas of the recruitment industry. Many have scrambled hard and fought tooth and nail to keep their businesses afloat in hard-hit sectors with fewer vacancies and more competition. Others have had to knuckle down and develop new ways of working to keep the wheels of their chosen industries turning, investing quickly despite the uncertainty, in digitisation and improvise and equip working from home processes and solutions to meet their clients and candidates needs.
For me, I’ve always taken an almost holistic, even sociological stance on what the recruitment industry is to our nation and what it means to our commercial and economic well being. When I consider our impact across so many areas of what we deliver in terms of services and solutions I consider us to be the textile weavers, the fabric manufactures and innovators who spin our yarns and pull everything together.
We provide over a million+ contractors, temps and interims every day to the NHS, Care Services, Civil Service, Local Authorities, Manufacturing, FMCG, Life Sciences, Pharma and Logistics and many other areas that have been vital to getting this country through these challenging times. That’s our job, first and foremost from a commercial perspective, it’s what we do.
But, beyond all that the thing that has left me truly astonished is the desire, the commitment and the drive to actually give back to our communities.
Everywhere I look on LinkedIn I see Recruitment Companies, teams, networks and collaborations taking local challenges to their hearts and going above and beyond to provide resources, solutions and money to alleviate the challenges.
There are many, far too many to mention them all. But I wanted to highlight a few:
The Love for Libby campaign to find a bone marrow donor exploded thanks to the endeavours of Simon Noakes and the team at Bespoke Recruitment. It went beyond trying to identify a single donor to escalating into a huge awareness of the need for bone marrow donors. Once the recruitment network the RDLC got involved it became a rollercoaster initiative that has actually changed and influenced policy.
GrassGreener Group and i-intro® combined resources to source laptops, tablets and tech for locals schools in Yorkshire. The team reached out to local businesses, individual entrepreneurs and even UB40 and went door to door, business to business collecting surplus equipment. I don’t know what the totals are currently but do know they sourced hundreds of items, had them refurbished and supplied them to school children who needed them to learn from home.
They also began a Just Giving Fund Raiser and were able to buy refurbished equipment as well.
Similarly, Sean Anderson and Hoxo Media in cahoots with his network undertook a similar campaign with excellent results as also did Jo Gregory and many others including once again the members of RDLC.
The length and breadth of the United Kingdom have seen recruiters and recruitment service providers and suppliers unite to raise funds and solve problems from bike rides to Santa Races we’ve done it all.
Even office dogs got in on the action.
There are still challenges ahead both within the industry and external to it. A new Post-Covid era is upon us and the world of recruitment, talent acquisition and employment is going through unprecedented change.
There will be victims, some companies will, unfortunately, fall by the wayside. Adaptation is vital, the U.K. industry and the economy needs us now more than ever. But as importantly, local communities and society need us just as much.
Hold your head up and be proud, we’re doing okay. Ignore the doomsayers, don’t rise to the petty recruiter bashing and remember that every one of us contributes in multiple ways. Never underestimate the importance of what we do, the value we add to organisations enabling them to grow, adapt and become better.
If the recruitment industry had a sound, if we were music, this is what it would be like visually and aurally:
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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
