In response to your article ’RBS’s Bor plans to cut agency use in drive to direct recruiting’ (Recruiter, 17 February), I do agree that the days of volume recruitment are challenged and that suppliers need to continue to evolve and develop their services to justify the fees they charge and that having a small number of niche suppliers is key.

For us specialism is the key. While I do think direct recruitment has its place I have seen very few large-scale clients operate this efficiently. I think it is easy for internal recruiters and procurement to suggest they save millions in recruitment fees.

Rarely do they take into account the amount of time spent internally by line managers checking and verifying skills; good recruiters take a large section of this away. Coupled with KPIs based on turnaround time and drop out of employees from 0-12 months, all of these factors add costs to an organisation which internal recruiters rarely take into account when presenting savings to a business.

I am not suggesting internal recruiters do not have their place but I would not place the value of a job being cheaper equating to great service. In our business and industry we have developed excellent client relationships based on our industry knowledge, the ability to consult and be more specialised than the majority of internal recruiters.

I think the crux of this argument rests on business choosing to partner with recruiters who understand their business and can clearly define the value they add. What is often the case is clients operate with a large number of suppliers based on cost, thinking they will get value, rather than working with a niche supply chain to concentrate on core areas that they find difficult to staff.

Too much emphasis is based on the initial cost and not the long-term costs and value of a relationship to the business. Any agency working as a supplier should be working as a brand advocate. If they are not, then they are probably not the right supplier; however the client has to allow them to do so.
Rob Sheffield