Agent or consultant?

It’s often said English is one of the hardest languages to learn so maybe it’s no surprise that even native speakers sometimes confuse common words – “effect” when they mean “affect”, for example.

However, working in executive recruitment, the terms I hear people confuse the most are “recruitment agency” and “recruitment consultancy”.

I’ve worked for both. At the very start of my career, I was employed by a national high street recruitment agency on a branch temps desk. The business model was little more than a client rang up with a need, I found a suitable person on the database and sent them down to the firm’s office. The requirement was satisfied, the client was happy and I’d done everything that was expected of me.

But I hadn’t added any value beyond that immediate need.

Today, I advise and support clients across a broad range of topics be they related to people and hiring (organisational design, succession planning, skills availability or remuneration, for instance) or broader commercial and operational matters, such as market entries and business strategy. I might be paid to deliver executive search projects but I also offer the benefit of the experience I have gained over twenty five years in industry. In that respect, I believe I’m a consultant in the same way that a management consultant is.

Please don’t think I’m writing this as a mini-rant to soothe a bruised ego. No, my concern is that, if the view and expectation is that everyone who works in recruitment is an “agent”, hiring businesses are ignoring a wealth of knowledge and capability they could otherwise leverage to their benefit.

Is this just a case of “you say tomato, I say tomahto”? I suppose you could argue it is. But, when it comes to added value, I believe there is a difference.

www.abaexecutive.com

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