The success has occurred unexpectedly after a limited SEO campaign 2 months ago, confirming that this particular sector is not dominated by ’search engine savy’ web sites.   It remains to be seen how high the site will climb on google although historically yahoo has been a good early indicator of what is likely to occur on google once it ‘catches up’.

Jobs in pharmacy, which wasn’t listing on google at all before the campaign is no showing on page 4, further gains may appear here over the next month.

The notion of references was to provide a potential employer with access to confidential comments regarding the suitability of a potential employee.  Knowing that the candidate was not giong to see the reference meant the referee could give and honest account of high value to the employer making a decision.

Now, the rules are chaging, recent decisions by the IC (Information Commission) have ruled that candidates have a right to access information about themselves including references.  As a consequence referees will surely keep references as bland as possible, start dates, finish dates and the role performed, avoiding anything judgement on performances which may incriminate themselves at a later date.

The topic is a source of much heated debate amongst politicians, the recruitment industry and indeed people down the pub with a whole raft of issues in the pot.  On the one hand an econimical arguement says it adds strength to our economy, on the other, it’s putting some Uk workers out of work.

There are plenty of anecdotes of European tradesman supplying their services at a fraction of the cost of locals thereby gaining trade at the expense of the native tradesmen.  Recruitment agencies recognising the huge opportunities this present them have grasped the opportunity and there are now many specialist agencies and websites helping European workers find employment in the UK, and UK employers finding a lower cost work force.

Amid all the debate, whether people likke it or not, market forces will prevail.  The march of globalisation is a super tanker of truly global proportions.  The influx of European workers will continue in earnest along with the exodus of many UK companies leaving for ecomonies with cheaper operating costs.  Initially, this was a move to widen their margins, now they must do it to compete.

The debate now is now, should or shouldn’t this be happening, but how best to manage it and get the most out of it.

The contradiction lies between the large amounts of cash that can be made from making placements to the quality needed retain business over the long term.  To do a proper job in recruitment requires a lot of time and money, the money to advertise extensively, employ quality staff, screen and interview to select truly suitable people.  The aim is that the rewards form a few placements exceeds all the costs involved with generating the placements.

The issues can arise when individuals begin to take short cuts to get an advanatage….then what starts out as small short cut grows into a big one until you have consultants who don’t advertise they headhunt, never interview to save time and money, and don’t really mind loosing a client as they’ll probably move company or leave the industry in the next year or so.  Before they do, the chances are they’ve taken placements away from those trying to do it properly and the whole scenarion can drive standards down.

Ulitmately it’s a sales job heavily driven by financial rewards, and often sales people will simply look for the shortest route to highest rewards, rather than considering the medium and long term, and this can encourage bad practise.  Employers themselves are clearly in it for the medium and long term, it’s up to them to manage their staff to ensure high quality is not sacrificed to generate short term cash at the overall expense of the reputation of the recruitment industry.