Conservative life peer and leading headhunter Baroness Virginia Bottomley of Nettlestone has told an audience of recruiters of her love of her headhunting work and that she opposes any further regulation of the recruitment and search industries.

The baroness, who chairs the board practice at Odgers Berndtson, spoke to nearly 100 guests in London on Wednesday (9 October) at the Association of Professional Staffing Companies’ (APSCo’s) annual awards luncheon. She has worked in headhunting for 14 years.

Namedropping and sharing anecdotes from her careers as MP and headhunter, Baroness Bottomley also declared the role of recruiters and headhunters as “absolutely part of the competitiveness agenda” in the UK today to “help people find the people they want tomorrow, not the people they wanted yesterday”.

Elaborating with a metaphor, she explained: “My client says he wants a penthouse flat in London. I notice he’s got a wife, three dogs and four children. I have to show him a penthouse flat, otherwise he says, ‘Virginia, you haven’t done what I asked you’. Gradually, I might show him a house… even a farm in the country. The skill from my point of view is helping my client, not give him what he thinks he wanted yesterday or even what he wants today but what he wants tomorrow.”

She said jokingly: “Let’s be frank. We’re all people traffickers. But do you have integrity? And can you be trusted? Or are you just ‘bum on seat, get rich quick’.

“I don’t want [more] regulation of search and recruitment companies. But we know lawyers, accountants and most professional services are increasingly regulated. I really don’t want to go down that path. But I do think integrity and professionalism in what we all do is really important.”

Bottomley did not make any specific reference to impending changes to recruitment sector regulations being handled by the government.