The recruitment-to-recruitment (rec-to-rec) sector must clamp down on rogue operators and a culture of backstabbing if it is to shed its image as an unsavoury area of the business.

Leading rec-to-rec specialists have called for greater measures to help stamp out bad practice and win greater recognition for the high achievers innovating across the sector.

Last week's roundtable discussion for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's new rec-to-rec group brought together six leading firms as part of a discussion of the sector's reputation.

While the experts agreed the sector's image had been damaged by unscrupulous agencies, they argued that the whole rec-to-rec industry's reputation was now being unfairly besmirched because of it.

James Pritchard, managing director of JPA, said the group's new code of practice would help mark out the respectable companies and discredit the cowboy firms.

“This sector is growing massively, and while there are bad eggs in every trade, we all seem to get tarred with the same brush. We need to be accountable as an industry and these mechanisms should help to do this,” he said.

The rec-to-rec group has 14 members and is committed to raising standards across the whole sector.