Asda supplier conference

Yesterday I attended my first ever resourcing supplier conference for Asda at the head office in Leeds.  Since becoming one of their preferred suppliers they have never failed to impress and yesterday was no exception.  There was a range of recruitment professionals there as you would expect with a business so diverse, many of which obviously focussed on the retail end of the business.

I did spot a few competitors of ours though, but what was surprising was that because Asda are so welcoming and willing to work with their recruitment partners, this good nature had rubbed off and recruitment consultants who would traditionally be giving each other evil stares across the room were sitting together and laughing and joking. 

A lot of businesses that I have come across in the past have tended to treat their recruitment partners with barely concealed contempt, which not only makes recruiting for them much harder but also quite demoralising.  It makes such a refreshing change to work with a client who takes such an interest in helping their recruitment partners, and Asda benefit from this just as much as their recruiters through having tighter control of the recruitment process and a more uniformed approach to bringing new people into their business, regardless of the particular route they may take. 

On the off chance that anyone reading this blog is a client in the process of recruiting and is getting some external help via a specialist business, please be encouraged to take a leaf out of Asda’s book. You will get better representation of your brand, a better calibre of candidates, less spam and you’ll be in a positions to get a good deal of fees. After all, the fees we charge as recruiters are supposed to be representative of how difficult the process is to find a candidate. If the process is made easier through effective communication channels, it’s better for us, which should mean it’s cheaper for you. 

Food for thought?