The case for independence
Big may not always be beautiful in the world of recruitment communications…
Date:
20 June 2005
Source:
Recruitment marketing
The recruitment communications industry is going through a volatile period, with a high incidence of mergers, takeovers and other organisational changes. Well-known brand names that have disappeared from the market include Austin Knight, Kingsway and Bartlett Scott Edgar. Change can be unsettling, but it spells good news for the industry’s remaining (and emerging) independent players.
The process of absorption by ever bigger groups has led to a huge fall-out in terms of people, with key individuals being moved around or made redundant and new offices given responsibility for existing pieces of business. Many long-term client relationships have been broken. As a result, unaligned agencies such as Pearsons are receiving more direct approaches from good industry professionals and potential clients than ever before.
What about the clients?
Big organisations appear absorbed by the need to constantly re-invent themselves. But hang on a minute, what about the clients?
When these businesses announce the latest change, the response of some clients may well be: “So what?” Employers will want to understand the affect on the knowledge base and the relationships that have been built up over a period of time. Their angle concern is what’s in it for them. They’re rarely interested in hearing about new teams and new structures; this kind of stuff is, frankly, something that plays into the hands of the independents.
So what do the independents have to offer? Usually, exactly the same in-house recruitment communications capabilities as the major groups: creativity, media planning/buying, production, research, online etc. But, over and above these, they offer stability, continuity, knowledge-building, attention to detail. And, last but not least, long-term relationships undisturbed by the kind of changes that routinely occur at large-scale suppliers.
That’s because the industry’s major players tend to be controlled by external forces, such as the City or their investors – anything but the clients, in fact. They’re usually run by distant corporations or groups and often, in practice, managed by accountants who focus exclusively on the bottom line. While we all do this to some extent, there’s not much point if you’re not delivering the service to the clients.
Loss leader
It’s also true that, at some of the larger groups, recruitment advertising/communications is one of many services offered to both public- and private-sector clients. In this context, recruitment advertising may be seen as a loss leader – a means of introducing other, higher-margin services to the client. Which means the supplier’s real business focus is no longer on advertising per se.
Of course, as recruitment advertising expertise becomes more and more diluted within the larger organisations, so it increases the opportunities for the independent businesses prepared to champion it. Here, the people who run the business are also the people directly responsible for delivering the service. We spend less time on bureaucracy and shun regular management diktats that have little to do with the realities of service delivery.
Service comes first
The beauty of it is that, by remaining unaffected by mergers, takeovers or other corporate changes, independents can concentrate on the task in hand: servicing the clients. They don’t have to worry about resolving culture clashes, sending monthly returns to head office or meeting corporate requirements; instead, they get on with developing the business in the right way. They can offer bespoke, rather than off-the-shelf, responses whenever required. You shouldn’t forget, and neither do they, that accounts can be lost though simple things such as lack of flexibility or inaccurate invoicing!
Ultimately, the real advantage of using an independent is that they control their own destiny. Their employees feel part of something, rather than being treated as cogs in a big wheel, and they’re regularly involved in how the company’s doing and where it’s going. All of which offers a secure base for work on your account.
In short, you’ll find levels of passion, enthusiasm and excitement at independent suppliers that aren’t replicated in the mega-corporations.
Simon Pearson is chief executive of Pearsons (www.pearsons.co.uk)
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