All in favour of DBA recruitment service

The Design Business Association has found almost unanimous support among its members for the idea of launching a recruitment service. The DBA board last week agreed to proceed with the idea (DW 4 April).

A survey of member consultancies – which raised a 65 per cent response – found more than 90 per cent willing to use a DBA recruitment service. And two thirds of the remaining 10 per cent say they would use a DBA service if it was cheaper than external recruitment consultants.

The survey threw up the findings that advertising is the most commonly used recruitment method for 38 per cent of consultancies, followed at 26 per cent by recruitment consultancies.

Personal contacts are used in 23 per cent of recruitments and, being cheap and not too time consuming, are popular with bosses.

Smaller and regional design groups are the strongest supporters of a DBA recruitment service. DBA board member Barry Salter, who is working on the proposal, says this is partly due to the reluctance of many recruitment consultancies to work for design groups outside the M25.

Salter says he is surprised at the level of dissatisfaction with recruitment consultants: “Some design groups have never had a successful relationship with them and so there are a lot of cynical views about.”

Salter is to present a framework for the service to the DBA in a month’s time, with a summer start scheduled. He and his team are also to consider the practicalities of setting up a register of freelances.