The managing director of professional services recruiter Definitive Consulting has launched a new consultancy aimed at catching what he believes is a growing trend for clients “to think strategically about recruitment rather than just filing jobs.”

Darren James told Recruiter that DAJ Consultancy would focus “on the whole recruitment life cycle between hiring and firing and even retiring.” This includes talent acquisition, recruitment, retention, and outsourcing.

James said clients now realised that the biggest mistake they made in the boom years was “just bringing in people to do the job, but the wrong people.”

As well as talent acquisition, employers were also focusing more on retention, said James.

The new company hopes to take advantage of the fact that many employers “don’t have a strategy for bringing people on board [onboarding] and making sure new staff are integrated into the business in the first three to six months.”

However, James said employers are increasingly recognising this problem, especially among those in senior roles who are the most likely to leave.

“One major thing we are seeing at the moment is that new staff are being given a mentor or a sponsor - an existing employee at the same or more senior level than themselves,” said James.

“This person goes through the whole recruitment process with them,introducing them to everybody in the business and generally looking after them,” he explained.

James pointed to companies such as Ernst & Young and BT who he said are leading the way in the area of talent management.

James said that one of the key drivers of change is the cost of having to rehire staff who are not right for the role.
He estimates that the cost of each bad hire in Definitive Consulting is £250,000. “The last person you want to have to do is replace that person when they leave,” he said.

James said these changes in client behaviour had important implications for recruiters. He predicted that a split between recruiters at the top and the volume ends of the market meant recruiters in the middle who did everything losing out.