Does The Recruitment Industry Need An Industry-Wide Marketing Or PR Push

The REC splits with its PR company and - quite unconnected - the Resource Forum tackles the perceived need to address the inaccurate and poorly informed public image of recruitment professionals. Recruitment magazines carry opinion pieces, letters and rebuttals about the state of professionalism within the rec-to-rec sector and critics have a field day about ministers of state rearranging appointments with the REC. Large agencies talk about leaving the REC, have already left or have not been involved for years. Small agencies publicly question the merits of REC membership. And in the midst of all this, we Celebrate National Temporary Worker's Week!

Where on earth does one start in analysing the communications needs of such a complex industry, that along with all the internal issues mentioned above, has the external pressures of onerous legislation, economic challenges and massive skills shortages to manage as well? Whose problem is it anyway, and is the Resource Forum simply duplicating what the REC is doing (or should be doing if it's not)?

I said at the top that the REC's and its PR company's decision to split appear to be unconnected with the Resource Forum's initiative. But although the actual events are unconnected, they share a common theme: the recruitment industry is simply not getting its message across.

I come from the school where the IEC (as was) looked after the educational and professional needs of the recruitment individual, and FRES (as was) took care of the companies' needs. In merging, the REC was never going to get it right in its first few years. But I will nail my colours to the mast early on and say that I believe that a strong and effective REC is the best option for a strong and effective recruitment industry. But - and it is a big but - my initial reservations about a merged organisation being able to be all things to all people have not been borne out by what has actually happened, but by how its efforts have been communicated.

Moreover I am convinced that initiatives such as the Resource Forum are to be applauded, encouraged and supported. But somehow I can't help wonder how all this fits in to the overall needs of the industry. I interviewed Gary Clark for a previous 'View from the top' and I asked him if LSM's sponsorship of the Resource Forum was simply duplicating the REC's role. He was very open about the fact that he had no problems with the REC taking over Resource if it wished, saying that his organisation...