I really enjoyed Roger Philby’s recent comment piece (Recruiter, Bloggers with Bite, 14 October) and it has set me to thinking on a range of issues.

I recently stumbled upon a search firm who proudly stated on their website that their fees were 33%, that they only worked retained and that they charged “modest” retainers of £20,000-£30,000. Good luck to them, but while that stance exists, I agree with Roger that there is ample room for more creative and flexible recruiters to offer clients’ superior value while still operating at a profit.

However, I am an old and crusty recruiter and I often scratch my head at the proliferation of innovative solutions and services recruiters now provide. A quick look at a few websites shows that recruiters can offer ‘Leadership solutions’, ‘Talent management’ (lots and lots of that), ‘Reward management’ and ‘Customer perception surveys’ among an array of other wonderful things. I’m all for a bit of product diversification, but I do sincerely believe that clients work with us for one over-riding reason: they want us to fill their vacancy.

Above all else, recruiters will deliver value to their clients by focusing their skills, knowledge and effort on that one simple activity. Call me old fashioned, but recruiters who lose sight of this luddite, prosaic and, at times, boring activity in order to proliferate into ‘Reward management’ (I mean, what is that exactly??) do so at their peril. Innovate, but do so with the task of filling vacancies at the forefront of your mind; doing so may not make you the funkiest recruiter, but it will ensure durability and a healthy dose of success.

Rob Barklamb, Langdale Search & Selection