Retail recruiters have been urged to be as versatile as the supermarkets due to the recession.

As supermarkets benefit from being able to provide services as varied as pharmacies to banking, retail staffing firms would do well to follow their lead, according to Peter Burgess, director at Retail HR. “Most retail recruiters do work across all sectors.  It is certainly the case that we will all be following the money in that it is the supermarkets which are thriving at the moment. 

“Certainly those recruiters who have tied themselves closely to fashion alone will find the current trading environment very difficult indeed.”

Russell Crowe, managing director at Retail Kudos, adds: “With the retail recruitment market in state of change, retail recruiters should be looking to add value to their clients. In a highly competitive market clients will be seeking value-adds from the recruitment process.

“Recruiters should be looking to expand their portfolios to include all retail and service related businesses. Within recruitment companies, proactive business development professionals will continue to survive and succeed, whereas the ‘order takers’ mainly within larger recruitment firms may well struggle in today’s market.”