To a great fanfare and the clink of wine glasses at a swanky London location, the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) recently launched its new offering for individual members.

The Institute of Recruitment Professionals is replacing the current individual membership, with the REC’s 6,000 individual members being automatically transferred from 25 June.

In return for an annual membership fee of between £60 and £100, members will be entitled to a range of benefits, including inclusion on the institute’s register, the use of designatory letters after their names, and online help and support. Members will also sign up to a set of professional and ethical standards.

Speaking at the launch, REC chief executive Kevin Green said IRP was an essential plank in professionalising the industry, and helping it to gain the respect and recognition it both requires and deserves.

“It is also the first step in the long road towards the REC’s longterm goal of chartered status that would put recruitment on a par with HR and procurement,” Green told Recruiter.

However, question marks remain as to whether IRP really can be the catalyst that transforms the industry.

Neeti Gupta, a director of IT and banking recruiter BD Consult, says that what sets the new institute apart from the old membership “is belonging to the only brand of its kind that will identify individuals as offering more”.

Gupta told Recruiter: “The biggest advantage is that employers can go to the online register of institute members and see who is a member. It sets you apart both as an individual and then as a company.”

Gupta believes the REC’s approach of spreading the word of IRP through a network of IRP directors, such as herself, will prove successful, particularly if it is linked with pushing the REC itself to non-members. “It will carry on from there,” she says. However, she admits, it won’t happen overnight. “It’s a gradual change that IRP will bring about.”

Steve Huxham, managing director of HUX HR Solutions, chairman of Amicus Recruit and a fellow of the REC, is highly critical of the IRP. Huxham told Recruiter: “This is the wrong move at the wrong time. In a downturn you should stick to the knitting rather than go off on a tangent. If the REC is a trade association, its job is to lobby government and represent the industry, not to get into these sorts of new ventures.”
Huxham adds: “Do clients care whether consultants are individual members? Of course not.”

Huxham also throws cold water on Green’s hopes of doubling individual membership within a year and covering the majority of people in the industry within five years (as reported in the Financial Times) as “completely unrealistic”.

The success of IRP will, of course, depend on whether individual consultants feel it is worthwhile. Michael Palmer, a consultant at Citrus Global, told Recruiter: “I can see the benefits of being a member of a recognised body rather than just the company. There are lots of cowboys out there, and anything that increases trust has to be a good thing.”

While there appears to be general goodwill for IRP among a number of recruiters and consultants, Gupta says the key issue is the attitude of big corporate members of the REC. And certainly, if they endorse the concept and bring their legions of consultants on board, it could kick-start the whole process, and begin to increase individual membership from its current paltry 6,000.

Green himself alluded to this at the launch, telling recruiters it would cost them £1 a week. “Are you prepared to pay that money?” he asked as he implored them to allow the REC access to their staff. “That’s the challenge,” said Green.

Green can certainly count on the support of some important and influential companies. Peter Searle, chief executive of Spring Group, told Recruiter that the company is totally behind the institute. At the same time, he says that for the industry to get the most out of it, it is important
that membership goes hand in hand with companies sponsoring ndividuals for qualifications. Individual consultants could also help to make the initiative a success “by pushing their companies to help them”, says Searle.

However, while Spring’s support will be welcome news for the REC, the stance of a number of its big name corporate members, who have yet to reveal their hand, may be a concern.

A spokesperson for Michael Page told Recruiter it was “too early to say” what the company’s response would be. “We haven’t really thought through the implications for us of individual membership.” And as Recruiter went to press, Adecco and Hays had not responded to the
magazine’s requests.

Anita Holbrow, the REC’s marketing director and director of member representation, told recruiters at last week’s launch: “This is not a rebrand, this is an investment in our industry’s future.” But it remains to be seen whether it is an investment that will pay off for the industry,
consultants or the REC itself.