With today's current economic climate, recruitment agencies have to look at their current methods to see if they are keeping up to date with the markets needs. It's all well having some of the best consultants, resources and reputation behind you but without knowing the market properly they are all useless. When many of us started in recruitment things were very different. Let's look at how from the two main perspectives:

1.Business Development- This side of recruitment has changed dramatically. We all remember starting a new recruitment role with a cold desk, no leads, maybe a database if you're lucky. Now I'm not saying that it is no longer a numbers game, because it clearly still plays an important part but far more research must now be done by a consultant. Gone are the days where you would cold call organisations, at times guessing people's names.

Research through professional networking sites, social websites, word of mouth, referrals are now essential in developing business and more importantly gaining knowledge. With the evolution of the web, far more information is available on anyone in the professional world. Now let's say you have the appropriate information, the target company, the name of the appropriate manager and you're ready to call, what are you going to say? Far too many agencies claim to be vertical market specialists when they are not.

This does not mean that your company has to focus all of its efforts on one specific market, but the consultant must have some genuine knowledge of that market from both the client and candidate point of view. The best clients to work for will spot a 'generic agency' or 'generic consultant' a mile off. We all know the saying, 'knowledge is power' and without any genuine knowledge guess what will happen when pitching for business?

2.Candidate Search/ Resourcing- Funnily enough, this has also changed somewhat. I remember when I first started you could simply advertise a new role on the standard job boards, go home and await a mass influx of applications to work through the next day. Now I'm not saying that all applications were good but there would be a few solid relevant candidates to work with. Now, due to new job sites, network sites etc... The candidate pool has somewhat diversified. There is no "one-stop-shop" jobsite to find all of your candidates anymore.

A variety of job sites must now be used alongside other methods of referrals, advertising, network sites etc.... Now let's say you find your candidate, the same rules as with business development apply. You cannot call a good candidate and speak generically about roles demonstrating your lack of knowledge. You must show you have a good understanding of the market as a whole; an understanding of what it is they do and most importantly an excellent understanding of the role and company you are trying to sell. Too many consultants do not truly understand what it is their clients actually do.

For example, if you are recruiting a technical role, you need to know more than a list of technologies that is required, you need to know why they are used, how they are used, how extensive a candidates knowledge needs to be within a certain technology etc.... And most importantly consultants need to understand what a candidate wants from their next role. It is no good pushing a candidate towards a position that doesn't truly offer the progression they crave; the consultant will get found out.

In summary, recruitment is a great industry because it is always evolving. A consultant that billed 250k+ five years ago has no guarantee to bill the same in today's market unless they keep up-to-date with the current recruitment methods. More of the 'blaggers' are found out in today's market as a good recruitment consultant has to have more knowledge, you cannot sell an opportunity unless you understand what it is you are selling.