Recruiters should value themselves more and not see themselves as subservient to other functions, according to Matthew Jeffery, head of EMEA talent acquisition and global talent brand at Autodesk.

Jeffery told a meeting of the HR Transformation Network in London last month: “As recruiters, we have been too subservient to other functions, about our value, and about the marketing, the PR and the social media [aspects of out roles] and the upskilling that has occurred within recruitment. We should rock back and think ’this is a profession I am proud of’.”

Jeffery added that whereas HR remained “a very process driven function”, recruitment was becoming very creative and innovative.

“Now we are at a point where people at university can see it as a career, as something that shapes a business, is pretty technical and that there is some creative stuff involved. If that’s the case, then we can say ’we can be proud of that and that we shaped the company’s future,’” said Jeffery.