The largest recruitment companies should form their own breakaway trade association, Kelly Services managing director Paul Hampton has argued.

Hampton believes the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) is not representing the needs of the industry’s major players.

He said: ‘We are challenging the REC to offer a better service for the larger companies. I’m sure the REC is representing the interests of the local independent, quite rightly so, but I’m not sure whether they are doing the same for the large clients because I think we have visions and strategies that differ from the local independents.’

Last year, the world’s largest recruitment organisation, Adecco, left the REC because it believed the confederation did not serve the interests of large staffing companies.

Keith Faulkner, REC chairman and non-executive director of Manpower, said he sympathised with Kelly Services’ situation.

But he said that a separate organisation of large recruitment companies would damage the industry’s reputation with the government and clients.

‘We have to get the message across about the way in which the industry is maturing. It will be harder to convince people that we provide a professional service by creating an impression of infighting,’ he said.

REC chief executive Tim Nicholson promised to hold a meeting with the larger recruitment companies later this month to discuss the issue.