Delivering an all-encompassing recruitment solution

Recruitment: Compass Point Recruitment

However, the fundamentals have remained the same: working hard to build strong relationships with businesses locally; assisting candidates in their career development; and matching candidates with clients, successfully.

Back in the early days, I would source candidates through newspapers and clients via the yellow pages. Compliance? What compliance?

After technological changes, compliance and legislation have fundamentally changed the way we recruit, for the better!  GDPR means candidates MUST be contacted by a recruitment agency before their full CV is submitted to a prospective employer.

It ensures candidates are fully aware of where their CV is being sent and further protects confidentiality, while also making them aware of how they are being marketed by their agency. It also reassures clients that any CV they receive for a job application is from a candidate who has been contacted by the agency first. Unfortunately, it isn’t a given that candidates have been personally screened for the tasks, skills and emotional intelligence required to be a great match.

We also ensure that when our clients recruit, they comply with rules under the Equality Act, which has been strengthened to reflect demographic changes and now has nine ‘Protected Characteristics’.

A candidate who feels they are being treated unfairly can make a claim for discrimination against a recruitment agency, as well as the client if the law isn’t adhered to.

There is now a bigger divide growing between recruitment agencies, separating those who are resistant to change and live in the hope that no claim will be made, from agencies whose clients trust them to be the experts in recruitment and ensure all compliance considerations are covered.

Agencies like ours that have GLAA licences which protect workers in the UK from labour exploitation, follow additional legal compliance under The Conduct Regulations.  We also ensure clients comply fully with the Agency Worker Regulations (AWR).

An approach that is pain-free

This change is influencing both clients and candidates when they are deciding which agency to partner with. They want the agency to be their backup, especially in decentralised organisations, when the manager responsible for recruitment isn’t a specialist in all the laws associated with recruiting!

Each recruitment assignment needs to be about taking a bespoke approach, while being mindful of the business’s vision and culture, and how the successful candidate will reflect that. It can be time-consuming, stressful and onerous finding the right people to join your team. Our job is to make this process as easy and pain-free as possible, while ensuring that all compliance is met.

Our work comes primarily from repeat business and referrals, and our main aim continues to be to deliver a high-quality recruitment service that supports our clients in their business development, while helping candidates at every stage of their career.