With over 15,000 branches nationwide and industry growth set to continue, isn’t it time you joined the recruitment revolution?

How the industry is structured

There are over 15,000 recruitment businesses operating in towns and cities across the length and breadth of the UK. These companies can either be part of a Large, Medium or Small Multiple chains or are Single branch operations.

Learn more about business operations

Large multiples have over 35 branches across the country whilst Medium Multiples have between 10 and 34. They commonly operate under one single brand regardless of location and business policy and strategy is defined by the group centre. Each branch has a management structure within it, together with an area management team who will be responsible for the performance of a group of branches within a defined geographical area.

Small Multiples are similar to the above but have between 2 and 9 branches. They will often operate in a specific geographical area. Whist commercial policy and strategy is also defined at the head office, the management structure is often more streamlined and branch input and involvement with the direction and planning of the business can be easier to achieve.

Single Branch operations are often owner managed and have a small streamlined management structure and operate in a tightly defined geographical area. However, whilst there is no doubting the competitive pressures that the multiples force upon these businesses, they still retain a significant share of the total turnover of the industry and account for more than 50% of recruitment businesses. An example of a single branch business is First Choice Recruitment

What services do they provide?

So that’s how we describe the different types of recruitment businesses in terms of their size and location but what services do they provide. As we’ve said before, recruitment businesses generally describe themselves in one of 4 ways: Recruitment Agencies, Recruitment Businesses, Employment Agencies or Executive Search and Selection. Traditionally, Recruitment Agencies and Employment Agencies managed temporary and contract vacancies in labour intensive environments with high levels of seasonal demand.  Executive Search and Selection agencies managed high level, senior executive recruitment on behalf of their clients. Some businesses specialised further in certain industries and skills for example IT or Retail.

However, as the number of clients using recruitment services has grown, so has the need for agencies to provide recruitment solutions to meet all their needs from the shop floor to the board room and it is now commonplace for Recruitment Agencies  and Employment Agencies to offer a full range of services, both temporary and permanent, manual, semi skilled and skilled as well as all levels of managerial posts.

Several of them still specialise in specific areas as in the case of Executive Search and Selection agencies but regardless of their focus, in each and every case their job is to find the right person for the right job.

A recent development has been Recruitment Process Outsourcing. This is where a client outsources all of the recruitment on their site to a single provider. They have sophisticated back-office IT and farm out the vacancies to second tier agencies who are on a Preferred Supplier List (PSL).