REC’s smaller members will lose out in future

04-Feb-2009

While I welcome many of Kevin Green’s ideas for the future of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (Recruiter, 14 January), a number of them concern me.

The REC is a trade organisation for the recruitment industry. It has frequently found it difficult to meet the differing needs of both its largest and smallest members. By opening the membership to people who work in recruitment in the corporate sector, Kevin is adding
another strand of complexity, which will not always dovetail with the concerns of the agency business.

Secondly, the corporate structure Kevin is putting in place will require a great deal of time and commitment from volunteers who serve on the board and run a key committee, as they will also have to work with him and the staff team “on a more regular basis”. I resigned as chair of the Employment Policy Committee in December after nearly four years of running it because as an owner of a very small agency, the time commitment required was too much and the time taken away from my business would have damaged it. As a result, I have ome to the conclusion that this structure will ultimately exclude people such as myself from running a key REC committee and that these roles will be taken by paid employees from major companies. This will not then be representative of many of the REC’s smaller members.

Finally, I know that the board has been very supportive of Kevin and his plans. They are committed individuals, who give a lot of time free of charge for the good of the industry. It is exceptionally derogatory of him to state that trying to work with a full board on each and every issue is “like trying to herd cats”. Kevin clearly sees the board as a group of individuals incapable of working together. It rather begs the question, does he have equally derogatory views of other committees and their volunteers?

Jeanette Robinson, managing director, Cavill Robinson
Financial Recruitment