“Outsource all your support functions. There is no reason to have those overheads in your organisation,” said Bleasdale. And referring to her own company, Bleasdale added: “Anyone in the organisation who doesn’t make money in the organisation is in danger of being outsourced.”

However, Bleasdale said that outsourcing was only one of a number of measures recruiters should take if they wanted to raise net margins, which have been hit by the recession and by the fall in permanent recruitment in particular.

Bleasdale made a number of other suggestions, based on her own track record at HCL.

• Don’t have a branch network. “Branch networks are difficult to manage and costly,” she said.
• Move to paperless offices, both front and back.
• Build competitive advantage through running a daily payroll.

Bleasdale said that by adopting these measures HCL had built its net margin to 17% in 2009. “Keep your cost-base down, she advised. However, she admitted it hadn’t been “easily done”. It taken her 23 years in the industry to get to this level.

Bleasdale added that those recruiters who came out the recession with their finances strong “will be leaner, meaner and stronger and will be the leaders of the future.”