Carbon Footprints

Can middle-men leave smaller footprints?

Fetching and carrying has long been seen a rather mundane activity, a necessity of function required to get the desired object from place to place. It is a task that most of us would rather usually leave to others to do, which is why we see internet shopping take a greater hold year after year.
It could be argued that recruitment companies have benefited from this very outlook. They have repeatedly taken on the role of collector and deliverer and found value in the role of the intermediary; only providing people rather than groceries. I’m sure Fred Smith of FedEx would tell you that the business of getting things from A to B in time, with little inconvenience, is a service people will value greatly and pay for willingly. The fact is, the more difficult it is for the end-user to find the product they want, the more willing they are to pay a specialist to find it and bring it to them.
However, the world is changing. It is not time to talk of killing off the middle man, as for now they are alive and well in this expanding global market. Yet they are having to face up to the more challenging tasks in meeting the desires of their customers.

Over recent years we have seen the growth of the internet which, while serving a considerable advantage in terms of communication and efficiency to the go-between, has equally empowered the end-user. Suddenly, the end-user has the potential to break down the barrier between them and their required product or service. They can access information and details that allow an informed buyer decision and then actually contact them directly and do the whole process without the use of anyone else. No showroom to visit, no distributor, no adviser or salesman, no misleading or diluted information, no unmet promises, just straight and direct, unadulterated commerce.

The middle-man has learnt to live and survive amongst these threats but now a new challenge is facing the middle-man, the environment. Globally people are beginning to face the realities of climate change. In business, whether for genuine reasons or commercial edge, companies are driving the agenda. They are facing up to their environmental responsibilities and also the importance of sharing the philosophies and beliefs of their employees. They are moving to reduce their carbon emissions and go beyond merely ‘off-setting’. The greener we become in our personal lives, the more we will demand this of our employers and so this becomes an important issue for recruitment and employee retention.

So how does the middle-man, in particular recruitment companies, keep pace with this? Most companies select their suppliers on a number of criteria. These can range from expertise, infrastructure, back-up and support through to shared business philosophies. As an example, a company who has a strong equal opportunities policy is unlikely to select a recruitment vendor to supply people unless they know the vendor shared that approach or their pledge is in any way disingenuous.

We are already seeing evidence of increased ‘green’ employment opportunities within larger companies. And as the environment climbs the corporate agenda and companies begin to dedicate more internal resources and finance towards solving environmental issues, they will also surely look to synchronise these values with their partners.

Recruitment companies have both an opportunity and a challenge. Their opportunity is in meeting the needs of a changing workplace. The environmental issue will stimulate a change in attitude by many businesses to think differently about how they might employ and organise people. The necessity of commuting and office-bound workers should decline and people will be encouraged and offered more flexible working arrangements where home-working, telecommuting will be normal. This widens the opportunity to employ people across borders and hands a considerable chance to recruitment companies to deliver value.

But where value is added it can also be eroded. The perceived value of most recruiting services is that they provide a fundamental role in collecting, filtering and delivering people with the right skills and experiences. This is a service that is often seen as time consuming, administratively intensive and fraught with anomalies that can result in failure. Because of this, companies often want to mitigate these pressures by involving a third party recruitment firm that will apply their expertise to identify the person, meet and evaluate them, then deliver the rather more attractive package back to the customer. The problem for the recruitment company will be how to continue to provide this service while meeting the client’s environmental considerations. Will these clients continue to endorse the frequent need to hop around international markets assessing prospective candidates and leave big dirty carbon footprints that lead straight back to their door, or will they require a more virtual and carbon friendly approach. And if they do demand a change, how will recruitment firms continue to provide that rather important intermediary role with the same accuracy and effectiveness on an increasingly international stage, without the chance to properly fetch and carry.
With recruitment companies not yet likely to be forced into examining their supplier agreements to ensure environmental compliance, it is an issue which will ultimately need to be faced. However, the future will undoubtedly require all middle-men with climate conscious clients to draw-up clear guidelines that will ensure that both performance and environment remain protected. Those companies who proactively address the topic now by creatively changing the way they deliver services will naturally establish a lead over the rest.

Written by Karl Simpson, Managing Director, Liftstream  - 9th August 2007