Hello….Virginia?
Hi Wise Man Say! I’m so sorry I am late, I was on a phone call……
Don’t worry Virginia, it’s no problem. Perhaps you could feel guilty at that table over there, whilst I get us some coffees?
(We’re in Starbucks in Piccadilly. Wise Man Say gets the latte’s AND the chocolate. Dark, 70% cocoa)
So Virginia, I’d love the break the script but the avid readers of Wise Man Say’s blog won’t let me, so I’m going to have to start with my cliche. You ready?
Yes, go on.
Put Talent Puzzle into a nutshell for us – go on.
We are a tendering platform for the recruitment industry. There has long been a problem with the interaction model between employers and agencies…….
(it’s clear that the CEO of Talent Puzzle thinks one and half times faster than a normal human being. Wise Man Say is out of his depth, but gamely nods along, hoping to get away with it. Good call on the chocolate though)
…there are thousands of agencies, and the hundreds of thousands of vacancies. How do they find each other? Agencies spend most of their time on business development rather than actually recruiting, whilst employers to have to contend with being called up on average 7 times per day by agencies looking for that business. The fees are elevated because of this inefficiency. If we can provide a way to make employers and agencies find each other, we should be able to reduce costs on all sides.
So, Talent Puzzle is basically a way to bring buyer and seller together in the same space?
Exactly. We are a recruitment marketplace.
(Talent Puzzle led the way in the bringing the recruitment marketplace model in the UK, launching in May 2009)
You’ve mentioned that recruitment fees are elevated. Do you have a figure in mind – what do you think is an acceptable rate?
(no hesitation) 12-13%. Anything under 10% is too low to be commercially viable for agencies, but above 15% and it becomes expensive for the employers. Something in between those figures is right for this market.
OK. So the first reaction of agencies is going to be, Talent Puzzle is just going to push our rates down…..
Yes, we encounter that a lot! But we think that the rates are high because agencies have to cover the cost of non delivery based staff. For example, at XXXXXXX XXXX, (leading global brand – free FF for anyone who guesses it right. I am feeling generous) they have a dedicated sales teams who develop the business, with a different team actually recruiting the people for the vacancies. The high cost of recruitment is often based on the need to support these non delivery based employees. So we see ourselves as the friend of the agencies, especially the small to mid market recruitment agents, who typically have to do it all. From their perspective, Talent Puzzle can be their business development – they can concentrate on delivery and be able to operate at a slightly lower cost without worrying about the need to constantly generate new requisitions.
And how are the fees actually set?
That’s entirely a decision made by the employer. The role of Talent Puzzle is to make the match between the vacancy and the right agency to deliver against it. We do advise on rate and we may occasionally alert agencies who we think are particularly suited for a role to see if they are interested in tendering, but we mainly leave the employer and agent to engage without us interfering from the outside.
Another thing that bothers recruitment agencies is working a requirement in open competition with a lot of other suppliers. Through Talent Puzzle, do agencies work exclusively or against a roster of other agents?
Again that is a client decision – they determine which and how many agency suppliers they want to engage. However, we are looking at limiting the number of agencies who can work on any one vacancy. We understand that when a recruiter sees that there are a lot of other suppliers, their commitment will go down, and correspondingly the service to the employer.
What is stop agencies just spamming their database to the vacancies they see there?
Most agencies know not to do that, but we have had a few agents that sent over large number of CV’s immediately after a vacancy became live. Obviously this looked suspicious, so we had a word with them and those that persisted with this behaviour we had to remove them from the platform. But we have a supplier performance review system, based on objective and subjective criteria, and it’s in the interest of agencies to supply low volume, high quality service.
Let me be devil’s advocate for a moment. (As if I haven’t been already) What is to stop an agency signing on, finding out who the client is, and then, ‘going round the back door’. So to speak.
(Virginia thinks for a moment). Yes, it is possible to do that. But we have found that frequency of incidents of this type are low, and when they have occurred, the clients have always told us themselves. The employers come to Talent Puzzle because they want to change the way they interact with agencies. When agencies want to go back to the old way, they won’t get the result they think.
OK, So how do you make your money?
We take 25% of the recruitment fee agreed by the employer and the agency. The service is free for employers and recruiters to use, and there are no transactions until the hire has been made.
There’s some other players in the UK market now. How do you see your relationship with those guys?
It’s a winner-takes-all model. I don’t see employers using more than one marketplace or switching between them – typically you are just going to get the same agencies supplying. I think in the end, there will only be one, but it’s good to have competition. I know the guys (at the competition) and it’s good to see how we compare. I think we have the advantage for the moment because we launched first. But we will see
It’s also an advantage that Talent Puzzle have the strongest brand in the recruitment marketplace marketplace.(yeah, I think that’s grammatically correct) Who came up with the name?
I did!
Were there any other contenders?
Yes. ‘Quality Catch’ was right up there (laughs)
Sounds like a fishing programme, something that might feature Robson Green.
I know! But I liked it, it was really right up there.
(there follows a 10 minute diversion on how important names are to brands, people and companies. All true – see here)
Unrelated question for you: Social Media. Friend or Foe?
Friend. I think. It’s strange because we started our innovation at around the same time as the social web was starting to take off. We definitely need to embrace social media – it’s different to what we do – but its part of the change that is transforming the recruitment landscape.
OK Virginia, how long until world conquest?
(Virginia’s mind working one-and-a-half times faster again. Can’t follow this time, but suffice it to say it was an intelligent and credible answer that involved terms like ‘liquidity’ and ‘maturity’, both things Wise Man Say wishes he had more of.)
Virginia, that’s the end of the interview. Thank you for your time
Thank you Wise Man Say for coming over to learn a bit more about us.
Thanks to Virginia Raemy who is CEO of Talent Puzzle. Talent Puzzle are the leading UK recruitment marketplace for employers & recruitment agencies. Follow their progress on twitter @TalentPuzzle
Hi,
I have written a lengthier response here at http://bit.ly/hgCZnG
but in short I’d like to know:
1. Are better hiring outcomes really more likely?
2. Is this the best way to achieve lower fees and keep suppliers happy?
3. Will the pricing model only attract the desperate Agencies?
Regards
David Palmer
Hi David, great comment. Here is my opinion to your thee questions:
1. I think that the traditional PSL model is out-dated. It was a solution to a problem that can nowadays be solved more elegantly with the help of the internet. The PSL is limited in scope and only accurate for a few weeks. Whereas on TalentPuzzle for example, you can reach a much wider supplier audience whilst you are sure to always work with the best agency for each role due to the crowd-sourced feedback functionality. This results in much faster filling times!
2. The whole idea is that TalentPuzzle creates transparency and so creates competition amongst agencies. If a supplier feels that there is competition, he/she is likely to send better CVs faster. To create the right sense of competition, you need liquidity. And for that you need a marketplace!
3. It is not the case that “only desperate” agencies will use TalentPuzzle. In fact, I would argue the opposite. Agencies are so expensive because the employer needs to cover their sales & business development costs. We take that out of the equation. So you are more likely to get suppliers working on your roles who are good at sourcing the right candidates rather than who are good at the “sales pitch” to win clients/employers. The employer stands to benefit!
Hi Viginia,
I agree the PSL does have limitations in terms of scope, after all there are only so many agencies you can give face-time. I don’t agree that PSLs are accurate for only a few weeks. This is our fundamental difference in philosophy.
My view is that the PSL should provide an Employer deep recruitment expertise. Over the years Employers have had no alternative to the PSL and consequently PSLs have also provided more basic recruitment services but charged for them at the PSL rate. It’s a bit like paying a brain surgeon to cut your grass.
What Employers should do is appoint recruitment experts and pay them appropriately for their skill and knowledge. This panel of experts should not “cut the grass”. More basic transactional recruitment services could be satisfied via a recruitment portal where huge economies and efficiencies are now possible. Whether that is done via a tendering platform or an open market like http://www.vacancy-clearing.com is a matter of Employer choice.