Articles From the Team

How a Great Recruitment Consultancy is a like a Top Restaurant

I have been fortunate to work for a number of market leaders during my time in recruitment. I have either worked directly for, or in teams which sat alongside, Retail Human Resources, Quarry Dougall (legal in London in the 90’s), Macmillan Davies (HR) and Michael Page Finance. I now consider myself fortunate to work for BCL Legal and I think it is fair to say we are the market leaders in legal recruitment in the North and Midlands.

During my time supporting franchisees in franchised recruitment networks, I have also witnessed life inside smaller recruitment businesses where life can be more of a struggle. Don’t get me wrong, I saw and worked with some terrific businesses with some exceptional recruiters, but some were very minor players in very big markets. An issue I often saw in this scenario was decent recruiters who tried hard but who failed as the platform from which they had to work was weak. I’ll return to that thought.

I was interviewing someone the other week, when between us we created the analogy of a great recruitment business being like a great restaurant. So, in my restaurant/consultancy analogy, the market leader has a restaurant full of diners (clients). Attracted by your reputation, your service, the quality of your food, customers flock to you in a seemingly endless flow. To keep those customers happy you need the right ingredients (candidates) – and in a top class establishment you have the best quality ingredients, refreshed on a daily basis, again in a seemingly endless supply. Thirdly, you have very able staff working with the best kit in a superb kitchen.

So, imagine yourself working in a really great restaurant, that had customers queueing to place an order and you have the best, freshest ingredients to work with, and that you have the right tools and environment to deliver excellence. That’s what working for a market leading recruitment consultancy is like.

So, if you are reading this as a recruiter elsewhere, ask yourself what type of restaurant your company would be. Do you have to hawk around the streets to get customers? Do you have to offer silly deals to get people in through the door? Are you working with able colleagues? Does the oven work properly? And are the ingredients you have a bit stale and does the larder look a little empty?

There are good chefs, or chefs who have the potential to be good, who are working in the mediocre restaurants. So if you’d like to chat about a move from a Greasy Spoon to Haute Cuisine, please give me a call (07341 562941 – feel free to call outside of office hours) or drop me a line (robbarklamb@bcllegal.com) – I’d love to talk to you about working in a top notch establishment.