Price vs. people?

By Simon Smith 

Simon Smith has over 10 years finance recruitment experience within Commerce & Industry in the UK, Asia Pacific and United States and is responsible for all qualified temp, interim and contract recruitment. Simon joined Marks Sattin in March 2011 to develop and grow the temp and contract Division to build on the market leading reputation in accountancy and finance. He has extensive relationships developed across retail, media, FMCG and the oil and gas communities.

Over the past decade I have spent my time as a consultant working in three different continents in a range of industries, and during this time - whether it be in Beijing or Bradford - there is one recurring conversation that just keeps coming up; the question and negotiation of margins and fees in our industry and the debate of price with clients. 

It is always a sensitive and difficult area both for consultant and clients to discuss openly, but it is my belief that businesses do not recruit exclusively on price. My business concluded and I concur, with a wise man who once said 'buy cheap often, means buying twice.’ 

To put this statement into context lets use the analogy of cars. We all know that a Ferrari costs more than a Ford – but both brands are cars and essentially do the same job (I actually drive a Ford, so perhaps not the best choice, and I am told Ferraris are notoriously unpredictable and unreliable - however, for this exercise let’s go with the fact that Ferraris are good and Fords less so). Therefore if you are choosing to pay more for a Ferrari, you know you will be benefiting from a more reliable high quality model.

In recent years price has become an increasing factor in the recruitment industry, and we have had to become even more commercially aware when making decisions. However, I have never worked for a business nor would I want to, where getting the 'best' candidate for a role was not the priority. There have been a number of occasions where businesses state that they will only work to certain percentages etc, and my response has always been to walk away if the only factor is low cost. My reasoning being that contingency recruiters are the only professionals I can think of who work for free - at least some of the time - and there are always cheaper options available.

We must remember there is only a cost if the candidates we provide are more suitable than other sources. The value added by fully understanding clients and candidates requirements, the time spent looking through CV's, as well as the face to face time invested in securing the ‘right candidate’ not just 'a candidate’, is a valuable commodity and one that should not be undervalued by our industry or clients. When having this conversation, talk normally switches to 'other agencies are working to X and Y percent'’ – thus I return you to the Ferrari vs. Ford analogy.

Marks Sattin is not just another agency - the differentiators and benefits we offer our clients are unique. Being specialist, the real value is our ability to not only understand and tailor a service to our clients’ requirements and culture, but our ability to attract and provide only the very best talent. What’s more we practice what we preach - hiring the best people for our business based on their quality and not the recruitment fee. Hiring quality experts to recruit for our clients is what sets us apart, and is something I encourage hiring managers to do.

So in the battle of price vs. people – in my opinion people win every time. 

 

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Comments

[GAAPweb]

Hi Alexander,

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[Alexander M.]

Hello, there! Is it possible to send you my resume?