Rosaleen Blair, chief executive of recruitment process outsourcing company Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS) wants recruiters "fighting to be part of our business" .

Speaking exclusively to Recruiter, Blair said that AMS needs to invest more in their strategic relationships with agencies, adding, "it's something we haven't gotten to as quickly as we should have done. But working with third parties is fundamental to our success. We have to be able to offer our clients choice, and we need to be working with the very best organisations out there".

She added: "I want third party agencies absolutely desperate to do business with us, I want them fighting to be part of our business — but we need to earn that, and I think we've still got a way to go."

Part of building healthy strategic relationships with agencies is a commitment to paying reasonable margins. "We have a line we won't go below," said Blair. "There is no benefit to us beating up an agency to come down because we won't get the service."

AMS has worked with about 1,500 recruitment suppliers, and works with about 500 at a time, with around half of those involved in a "partner-style" relationship with the RPO firm, according to project director Mike Chapman of AMS's Service Management Centre — Europe Middle East and Africa.

Asked what margins AMS pays its recruitment suppliers, Chapman said the percentage for firms providing IT contractors averages between 9-17%, IT permanent is between 13-20% and non-IT, such as in the financial arena, is in the 15-25% range. Chapman went on to say that AMS generally is the most expensive option for clients, "but we can't go cutting cost".

The RPO firm operates in 61 countries and posted £4.1m profits last year.