As I peer through the blur left by our anniversary party, it's time to reflect on how we started our business in 2003. Back then the telecoms sector was cautiously leading the way out of a burst dotcom bubble. Coming from IT recruitment, we were told we were quite mad, as "the last few years had been awful" and "even if it picks up, it'll never be as good again". Undaunted, we set upon our mission to create a fully focussed telecoms recruitment specialist; no IT division, no vending machine salesmen, no local temps, UK only, simply 100% comms people.
We stuck to our guns and starting with the mobile and CPS market, we fed the comms industry's appetite for field sales people to flog new connections. We placed 500 people in just three years. The number crunching was paramount; endless interviewing, supply agreements and tight volume pricing. Clients could hire on one interview and more often if they just fancied the look of the person sitting opposite.
In those days the job boards thought they ruled the market forever. They said recruitment agencies were dinosaurs, set for extinction by a meteorite of technology growing larger in the sky. Since then we broadened into all aspects of data, wireless, sales, management, billings and now with 1576 placements under our belt, it didn't quite work out as the naysayers planned.
Recruitment agencies are alive and well. Whilst we evolved, the jobsites re-spawned their online formula, fragmenting their market share into 3000 pieces in the UK. Lacking a real human touch, they didn't build loyalty. Today they fight over a mercurial candidate supply, as social networking and human interaction has taken back control of recruitment. Whether it's a candidate sitting opposite you, or the client in your Dem Suite, I'm pleased to say that People Still Buy People after all.
As technology only gives temporary advantage until competitors get it too, the quality and service expectation of clients is always rising. When you've got every tech gizmo going, the only way to set yourself apart is with the people who tell your story.
So it's no accident today that 60% of UK businesses want to recruit new staff and new skills. After an incredible 1.6million cv docs that went through our server, distilled into 60,000 real comms people on our CRM, we don't use jobsites much now. They have little new to tell us anymore. Our power is our resources, our people, the knowledge, and the contacts we have built up in, and about, the business. Sound familiar? Of course it does... because this describes your company too...
In 2013 'Power to the people!' rules again.