Staffing companies need to train their staff better to stop them “rolling over” as soon as clients mention fees, according to Tara Ricks, the managing director of a group of Randstad’s professional services companies.

Ricks, whose remit includes Joslin Rowe and Martin Ward Anderson, told Recruiter: “We haven’t always necessarily illustrated the value of our services as well as we could have in the marketplace and sometimes we roll over too easily.”

This has resulted in margin erosion, said Ricks, with margins in some cases half the level they were when she entered the industry in 1990. Margin erosion particularly affected the temp and contract market, she warned.

Ricks said the quid pro quo, whereby recruiters trade margin for volume, was sometimes “blurred”, with the line between that trade-off and rolling over as soon at the client “mentions the fee word” no longer as clear as it once was. She urged the recruitment industry to be “more robust” in how it trains its staff so they are proud of the service they provide to customers. “We arguably provide our clients with the most important thing they will ever buy - their staff,” she said. However, she added: “If they [agency recruiters] are not proud of what they are selling, they are going to roll over very easily.”