Regulation, is it control we need, or consistency?

In the past few weeks I have had my attention drawn once again to the notion of recruitment standards, professionalism, licencing and regulation in general.

It is like a perpetual spinning top that whirrs into a blur of noise, eases into a steady rhythm and then, with just the slightest of nudges, starts up again at a dizzying speed.

So, what’s started the latest spinning?

As always, bad behaviour in any market sector attracts a lot of attention and, in contracting and recruitment, this can get quite emotive, and rightly so, as “work rights” are such a fundamental tenet of our society. Poorly treated workers are not acceptable under any employment arrangement.

Also, as a de-regulated sector we are always open to some suggestion of regulation, even from within. People fear what they don’t feel they can control and quite often, the presence of regulation even if it is rarely enacted, creates comfort.

So back to the spinning….

First, there has been a renewed push to introduce licencing of labour hire (read on hire, contracting, any form of non- direct employment) by the unions and the Victorian Government but wait, there has also been a push to remove licencing regimes in SA and WA  and….there is also an audit process underway to target unlicensed operators in the ACT.

The WA Government called for submissions into a proposal to create negative licensing for the sector i.e. the licence you have when you don’t have a licence, while SA Government Procurement stated in their recent RFT, that having a licence in that state was not needed as the licence didn’t apply. QLD Procurement, in its recent ITO, actually asked for evidence of a licence when Employment Agent licencing has not existed there for almost ten years!

The RCSA accelerated the spinning with the release of the Proposed Employment Services Industry Code and here is where the feedback gets interesting.

Are you confused yet?

ITCRA Members were asked to respond to the recommendations in ESIC as part of the consultation process and, in doing so, revealed an interesting dichotomy that the Board will be considering over the coming months.

The Members had little support for any of the licensing regimes in place, (no surprises there) other than to suggest they did provide a point of difference between recruiters and professional services, and lists if you need to know who is who, although even that is now open to interpretation if SA is an example.

The general consensus was that the combination of current legislation SHOULD be sufficient to regulate the sector and more effort should be spent on ensuring that the sector connects with regulators to ensure breaches are reported and addressed.

The most interesting commentary was that the professional standard of recruitment professionals is a real issue in any discussion on mandatory Codes and/or regulation. The feedback suggests that there is a need for greater commitment to the training of “recruitment professionals” at every level of the company and perhaps, before the sector discusses any mandatory guidelines we should look to the expectations and behaviours inside the businesses of the Member companies.

Added to this strong statement was a message of the need for consistency and uniformity of practice across the sector so that it behaves as a profession. This means recognition of consultants as professionals – a recognised program of qualifications with mandatory review and renewal (ITCRA Certified doesn’t go far enough! but it is a start). Clients and candidates will then have a badge to recognise standards of practice, similar to a CPA.

There were a number of comments that suggested that, what the sector should be looking for is a Quality Standard or “Mark” that provides a statement with respect to the levels of service expectation and a framework for acceptable performance and compliance. The RCSA Service Delivery Standard and ITCRA’s Business Diagnostic address this, according to many comments.

It seems ITCRA Members feel a combination of business and individual standards, externally monitored and accredited, would be a good starting point.

So, who is going to lead the way by investing in such a model so we can profile an accredited Standard, to clients and candidates? Let’s think about an “upsell” rather than a big stick – Members suggested it so come on ITCRA let’s do it?