FROM APRIL 2015'S RECRUITER MAGAZINE 

What is the marketplace like for in-house recruiters? A report by Aspen In-house reveals the headlines behind the move from agency to in-house recruitment.

The latest research by in-house recruitment specialist Aspen In-house monitors the careers of more than 850 recruitment consultants and executive search professionals who in the last three years or so have indicated that they wanted to move in-house.

Data gathering

The data included is based on those individuals using information publicly available about them and more specific data held by Aspen in a non-attributable format.

This data is presented to help inform the decision making of those recruitment professionals considering a move in-house, and helps Aspen give accurate advice to that group, as well as informing hiring organisations of their potential candidate pool.

Despite the focus of this report, most of Aspen’s workload (over 70% of the roles we work on) have a requirement for those with in-house experience as opposed to those coming from agency. This reflects a marketplace that puts a high premium on acquired in-house experience in a sector that is candidate-rich for agency profiles and far less so for delivery-focused in-house recruiters.

Our team works across sectors, geographical boundaries and role types within talent acquisition. The common part to all our clients’ goals is improving their ability to directly hire talent in their given markets. This is paramount when hiring a sourcer or headhunter to identify and engage talent or finding leaders to set the strategy. Aspen has historically provided talent acquisition professionals on a permanent basis but has increasingly seen demand grow for contractors and FTC (fixed-term contract) staff in recent years and has developed the capability to deliver that product to market.

The headlines

• Only 19.4% of those seeking to move in-house have managed to do so

• A further 8.7% have found an onsite role with an RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) firm

• 13.5% of the group have left the recruitment industry and associated markets altogether

• 2.7% of this group have gone into HR positions

• Typically at early career stage into very junior administrator or co-ordinator positions

• 41% remain within recruitment consultancy roles

• 14.7% work in executive search

• As in-house recruitment continues to develop as a direct sourcing and business engagement model from its roots in a more administrative function, the average experience level of recruiters is at a level that would demonstrate those moving in-house or into RPO are established recruiters.  

• The average agency career before moving in-house is six years and five months, while those moving into RPO typically had six years’ agency experience

• While those leaving the industry altogether typically do so earlier at around four-and-a-half years’ agency experience

In-house routes

• Typically they become an operational recruiter; 55% of those moving in-house go into a straight recruiter role

• 11% go into a dedicated sourcing position

• Campus recruiting as a route is dying out — under 1% crossed to this market

• Management roles are typically harder to win in-house; only 11% found a management role, and many of these were standalone positions in smaller organisations where the client has hired a preferred supplier, and therefore a known quantity, straight in

• 8% have moved into roles focused on delivering executive recruitment/executive search as a specialism

Similarly for RPO

• A more operational environment leads to more roles clearly focused on transactional hiring; 69% go into a recruiter role

• A further 9% go into a sourcing or resourcing role

• 8% move into an account management position

• RPO as opposed to in-house roles also seems to create more overt roles for ‘vendor management’ of agency suppliers with a small group going into these roles (under 5% but not recognised at all from the in-house moves)

Does gender matter?

There’s a certain ‘old school’ opinion that we often hear, which says in-house recruiting is for ‘HR girls’. It may not come as a huge shock that we think such statements are pretty stupid and reveal a lot more about the people who say it than the people they allegedly talk about.  

However, there is a perception that in-house recruitment is a more female-balanced role. So what did we find?

We discovered two pieces of information that would, to a certain extent, dispel the myth and also demonstrate that selection processes are fair and reflective of their candidate communities.

• Firstly there’s a fairly even balance to the group we looked at:

• 55.1% of those seeking an in-house move are male

• 44.9% are female

• Intriguingly, our debate would support that overall hiring processes are robust as the stats in each sector reflect our overall pool:

• Of those moving in-house 56.5% are male, 43.5% are female

• Of those joining an RPO 55.5% are male, 44.5% are female. 

Andrew Mountney is founder of Aspen, a niche recruitment consultancy supplying in-house recruitment talent to in-house recruiting teams and recruitment process outsourcing organisations around the world.