Aim Hire: Creating business advantage through strong recruitment partnerships

The Aim Hire guide is designed to help businesses of all sizes and sectors make well informed decisions when procuring recruitment services whether for permanent or temporary positions. The guide will demonstrate the value that a strong recruitment relationship can add, and contribute to a better understanding of how you can maximise the benefits of the industry’s unique positioning, knowledge and professionalism.

In the guide, you’ll read about:  

• A smart approach to procuring recruitment services  

• How a partnership approach will pay dividends  

• How planning ahead will provide the best results

• Five things you can do to maximise the relationship with your recruitment partner  

• The value of quality recruitment services

• Tips on the best ways to get value out of the process

Find out how to ensure your approach to working with the recruitment industry is best geared towards attracting and retaining the people you need to deliver business growth and stand out from your competitors.

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REC member exclusive

As an REC member, you can unlock our bespoke toolkit designed to help you highlight the true power of strong recruitment partnerships. This comprehensive toolkit will give you the resources to effectively demonstrate to your clients the invaluable support they can receive from professional recruiters in a dynamic and challenging labour market and how to maximise their relationship with you and get the most out of the recruitment process to drive their business forward.

  Download the toolkit  

The value of having the right mix of people and skills within your workforce is recognised like never before – rightly so, almost every company will cite access to talent as a priority for their growth prospects. But at a time when all costs are under pressure, we’re seeing more firms deprioritise their recruitment partnerships. This short term thinking will sadly harm their ability to get the right people into the right roles, and to retain them.

As an industry body, the REC’s role is to uphold quality and standards – our purpose is to make great work happen. To do this we ask our members to commit to a professional code of conduct in support of this aim – and rigorously assess their compliance. This ensures that our members are maintaining the highest standards and quality when delivering for clients and candidates. But in every industry there are those that cut corners. We’ll look at how you can ensure that the partnership you are choosing does not expose you to risk as well as giving you the best possible chance to access the talent you need.

Maxine Bligh 

REC Chief Membership and Innovation Officer 

Although UK economic growth has stalled in recent years, our labour market has held up like never before. In previous decades, an economic downturn would be matched with a slump in jobs – creating an increased pool for those still looking to hire and reducing pressure on wage inflation.

Why is this downturn distinct?

• Supply - The labour force is changing and there are 600k fewer young people in the labour market than a decade ago.

• Skills - When we look at how the labour market is changing half of all jobs are now deemed ‘high skilled’, versus one in five ‘low skilled’.

• Retention - The longest period people used to stay in roles was around ten years but this has dropped in recent times to around 4 years.

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Plan ahead for the best result

The most successful businesses have a five-year workforce strategy and investment plan signed off and reviewed by the board annually. It means they know their intentions around recruitment over the longer term and can plan towards this. As part of this, they consider the partners who can best help them deliver this strategy.

It’s easy to think that you may not need recruitment agencies until the hiring process begins – but taking some time to meet with potential recruitment services and build relationships outside of a hiring phase will help ensure they really understand your business and can support growth. 

Download the guide