In an article from the Quality Digest website, author Kyle Toppazzini claims that staffing agencies lead their clients to the deterioration of quality management. He states that these agencies only present candidates with the minimal requirements to their clients to meet their 10-20 percent margins. For example, the author discovered several organizational lean job requirements stating they are accepting any level of certification from almost any institution. Toppazzini continues to argue how recruiters can just accept any level of certification pertaining to lean Six Sigma, especially if it was from a four-hour online course. He believes that four hours of online training does not necessarily mean that the candidate possesses the required set of knowledge and skills in order to perform a job well done. By overlooking these qualifications, “recruiters lead clients down the path of poor results.”
I believe recruitment firms only solve temporary “fixes” in an organization’s staffing needs. They are not meant to help any organization to substantially improve quality and overall performance by any means. According to the author, it is best for the organization to hire a quality management professional to educate the organization of what is truly needed to proceed forward if the company wants to apply a lean Six Sigma concept. The firm will then understand what set of skills, knowledge, and experience one needs to successfully lead the firm down to quality management.
While I do agree that a four-hour online training course does not mean that one is overly qualified for a job, but it does have an edge over other candidates who do not have certificates. Like most recruitment firms, they want to present the best possible candidates so clients would continue to use their services in the future. They don’t just select any, but the ones that stand out and would best fit the position. They are just doing their job. Reaching their margins is one goal, but keeping clients and candidates satisfied and content is another. If neither side is happy, then these recruitment firms fail at matchmaking which is the essential responsibility to their job.
“Let recruitment firms provide the service they were intended to provide.” Recruiters don’t have the infrastructure in providing management solutions. They have no idea what the organizational goals or what the mission statement is. Recruiters are only provided with job descriptions, job requirements, what the organization’s vision of an ideal candidate would look like and then recruiters proceed to source candidates to find the ones that best meet what the company is looking for. Ultimately, the clients are the ones that make the final decision as to who to bring on to their family tree. They should not have any expectations as to what else the candidates will provide aside from the skills and experience to perform the job.
What do you think of staffing agencies? Do you think staffing agencies lead clients to poor quality improvement?