A new benchmarking tool for the recruitment industry is set to be launched by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) next month, in a move designed to bring the practice to a far wider audience.

The 12-point programme is a slimmed-down version of the more extensive Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB) Index tool which is already available.

Benchmarking is intended to help companies improve their business performance through comparison with others' practices, procedures and operations.

RIB founder and recruitment industry veteran Romney Rawes (pictured) has worked with the REC to develop RIB Essentials, to be launched on 9 February.

Criteria for RIB Essentials include the average revenues generated by fee earners, the average margin on temporary workers, the gross profit per employee and the proportion of support staff to fee earners.

Analyst Mike Allen of Numis points out that reputations in recruitment depend on successful delivery of candidates “to the client's specific values.”

“It's all about getting the brand big enough to attract the big contracts,” he said. “Each recruitment company has its own specific formula on how it does things.”

Analyst Sue Dodd of Agile Intelligence says that successful benchmarking depends on comparing companies of the same size and sector.