New recruitment model needed to prevent 'corporate prisoners'

03 March 2010 | By Colin Cottell

Ian Gooden, director of people at HR consultancy Chiumento, told a meeting of the Recruitment Society that recruiters were failing to provide candidates with the right cultural fit, and as a result the staff employed were often not fully engaged.

“Do you want someone who is going to do a lot in 18 months or someone who is going to stay for five years and be an average performer?”

“Recruiters have an important role to play in getting the balance right between people who can do the job now and those who can do the jobs as the organisation changes and evolves.” (See Recruiter, 14 October 2009)

Gooden added that this would become particularly important as organisations adapted and changed as they emerged from the recession.

He said there was a strong possibility that these staff became ’corporate prisoners’. These are employees who would like to leave, but can’t because, for example, they were tied in by their present remuneration package. The number of corporate prisoners had grown during the recession because they were fewer other jobs available.

Gooden said that the rise of corporate prisoners highlighted the need for a new recruitment model. “It’s not whether a person stays for 12 months or two years, it’s whether they contribute and make a real difference.”

He added that it was odd that so many in-house recruiters still focused on longevity in the job rather than on performance.

And he said that recruitment agencies were missing out by adopting a short-term attitude. “Recruiters want to wash their hands after 26 weeks, but this is a great opportunity to change the relationship between agencies and their clients.”