‘IT recruitment companies must stop acting like sharks and start focusing on the real needs of their customers,’ Richard Newton, managing director of software provider Teckchek, has said.

Following recent conversations with IT companies on assessing candidates’ skills, Newton claimed many were only interested in short-term fixes rather than the long-term sustainability and credibility of the industry.

‘Having worked in IT recruitment myself I have seen every trick in the book – CVs that have been changed to fit the brief, poor or non-existent reference checks – the list is endless,’ he said.

Newton claims that identifying candidates’ IT skills is a straightforward process, but maintains that he continually faces resistance from recruiters who reject recruitment software for fear it will end up replacing consultants.

‘I find it hard to believe these dinosaurs still exist,’ Newton said, ‘IT recruitment knows it has to change from the ‘flick and stick’ method of recruitment and add value to the process if they are going to survive,’ he said.

Toni Cocozza, head of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) IT division, agreed: ‘Recruitment consultancies are only as good as our sales people, and there are good and bad consultants out there.’