Alison Hodgson told recruiters at the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) summit on the future of public sector resourcing that recuiters could add value by “letting us know what is going on in the marketplace”.

“Partnership equals market intelligence,” said Hodgson.

One example was finding out what the critical characteristics required for specific roles might be by looking at other organisations. It was also beneficial if recruiters knew what was going on in other sectors, such as catering and inventory supply. Benchmarking was also useful, said Hodgson. “You need to lift up the phone to us even when we haven’t got jobs, and we need to pick up the phone, too.

“Partnership is a two-way thing. It’s about integrity and doing what you say. The differentiator for us is how well you do the integrity stuff and how transparent you are.”

Hodgson said that signing up to work with Royal Mail, which runs a PSL of agencies “typically for our senior executive positions” was “for better or for worse”.
Some searches will be aborted before completion, said Hodgson. However, in return for this, “if you don’t [always] get things right we will stick with you”, she said.

Diversity was another area where agencies could help Royal Mail, said Hodgson. “We need more women,” she said. But recruiters could also help by the appropriate use of language, where words such as ” ’excellent’ and ’strong’ will put some people off”.