Call us: 03330 113622

Blog home
Categories
Popular Posts
Recent Posts
Archive

• 08 Jun

  Should Recruiters Specialise In A Single Sector

  

  Recruiters should read on if they want to know if their competitors specialise in a single industry sector, or handle a range of different trades.

  Should Recruiters Specialise In A Single Sector?

  We conducted a survey to canvass the views of UK recruiters. As part of that survey, we asked them which sectors they specialised in. We found that:

  • 73% served a single industry sector
  • 27% handled multiple industry sectors

  Therefore, almost three-quarters of those we spoke to specialised in a single sector. This may be deliberate, or just a function of circumstance. For example, if a recruitment consultant has worked within a particular segment, that can become their speciality. If they go on to start their own recruitment company, that may continue to be their focus.

  The Pros And Cons Of Specialising

  There are arguments on both sides of the equation. The benefits of focusing on one sector include:

  • Being seen as specialist consultants by customers, potentially gaining an edge over generic staff agencies
  • Capitalising on your past experience and contacts within a sector that you know well
  • Targeted marketing opportunities, as you are able to focus on one particular segment of UK businesses e.g. using specialist trade magazines, or trade shows. It is likely to be easier to position your company well within one trade, rather than across all trades

  The Advantages Of Dealing With Multiple Industry Sectors

  The advantages of handling multiple segments include:

  • Mitigating the risk that the sector you deal with experiences a downturn. This could be driven by economic circumstances, or some change that only affects your segment e.g. a legal change
  • Being able to service business groups that themselves service multiple industry sectors
  • Generic marketing, you can promote your business more broadly if you are able to support any segment

  Which Sectors Do Recruitment Companies Handle?

  Our survey went on to ask which sectors the recruiters handled (bear in mind that some gave multiple answers). These were the sectors that were mentioned, the number in brackets was the number of times it came up (if there is no number it was mentioned once):

  • Healthcare, domiciliary and social care (15 times)
  • Medical staff e.g. doctors and nurses (3)
  • Drivers and transport (3)
  • IT and technology (3)
  • Accounts and financial executives (2)
  • Industrial workers (2)
  • Administration and office workers
  • All sectors
  • Automotive senior executives
  • Aviation
  • Business services
  • Catering
  • Construction
  • Operations executives
  • HR and marketing
  • Mining
  • Power and Energy
  • Rail
  • Warehousing

  As you can see from the list it was very broad, with numerous sectors being mentioned. The only sector that was prevalent was healthcare, domiciliary and social care. This is interesting, as it reflects the concentration of payroll finance enquiries we tend to see from the healthcare and social care sectors. Also, it is interesting to note that only one company saw themselves as handling "all sectors". Therefore, the majority see themselves as specialists, even if they specialise in several different trades (the most anyone mentioned was 4 distinct sectors).

  ---

  Source: Recruitment Covid Study - May 2021 (30 respondents randomly selected from the recruitment sector).

  By Glenn Blackman