Co-operation between recruiters is on the increase as clients become more aware of the benefits of working with specialist niche recruiters when outsourcing major outsourcing projects, according to Aidan Anglin, recently appointed to the board at IT recruiter DP Connect.

Anglin told Recruiter that in the last year to 18 months large organisations had started to allocate major outsourcing projects to a number of small niche suppliers rather than to a single big outsourcing firm.

“This leads to a closer relationship between the client and each of the suppliers because each supplier is operating in their own ’sweet spot’,” said Anglin.

He said the suppliers feel the client is more engaged with them, while the client feels they are working with a supplier that has expertise in a particular field. “I believe clients are getting a better overall service,” added Anglin.

This was a big change from the past, he said, where unless you were one of four or five big players “you wouldn’t be considered”.

Anglin said that rather than appoint a single large outsourcing firm, clients increasingly preferred to put a manager in place internally, who could manage the relationship with two or three niche suppliers. “This ensures they have more control over suppliers,” he said.

Anglin said that where niche recruiters weren’t competitors, they were willing to push out pieces of work to other specialist suppliers, particularly to those with whom they had worked in the past.

For one major client, Anglin said that DP Connect supplied IT people, but because procurement and finance were outside its area of expertise, it brought in two other niche recruiters to meet those needs.

Anglin said that while what he termed ’co-competition’ already occurred among large outsourcing companies “it was the first time” for SME recruiters.