Transitioning from Agency Recruitment into a People role

Many Recruiters make no big secret of wanting to leave the industry someday. It’s a fantastic starting point – offering the chance to develop highly-transferrable skills but, for many, it’s not their forever home.

Many agency Recruiters are drawn to HR, and the remainder of this article will offer guidance as to the different ways that they have made this transition.

Some of the best HR professionals we know actually started out in agency recruitment. This is because once you get beyond HR Advisor level, your success in HR is largely dependent on your ability to influence stakeholders and think in a commercial way. Years of shepherding tricky candidates and clients and pressure to deliver revenue, therefore, act as a great precursor to a career in HR.

If you are interested in making this move, we have seen it happen via these three routes:

Join at entry-level as a HR Assistant

The first thing for you to consider here is that these roles often pay around £28-32k in London. If you can make this work, then this is arguably your easiest route in during the current economic climate.

Whilst entry-level HR roles (like most roles) will be harder to come by and very over-subscribed, your working experience alone will set you aside from the graduate market, not to mention the fact that you’re likely to know how to interview well and have some experience working with HR professionals as a supplier.

Go in via an In-house Recruitment role with a view to transitioning in to HR later

This has been the default path for the majority of your peers for two main reasons. Firstly, you’re likely to be earning a minimum of £40k as an In-house Recruiter and, secondly, in a good market there is a healthy demand for In-house Recruiters so making this transition has been easier.

In tough job markets, whilst overall demand for In-house Recruiters will be low, you’re also faced with intense competition in the form of, not just your agency peers, but existing In-house Recruiters who are out of work. In most instances, a business will give preference to a Recruiter with prior in-house experience, so this will be somewhat of an uphill battle until the majority of the good ones out there gain employment.

One thing to consider is that there are seldom any guarantees that you’ll get the kind of HR exposure you’re seeking or the option to transfer in to a generalist HR role by pursuing this path. You’re unlikely to want to explicitly demand guarantees of a HR career pathway during the interview process through fear of talking yourself out of the recruitment job, and it is therefore a a less direct route, but a step in the right direction nonetheless.

With perseverance you’ll get there eventually but you’re likely to be doing a Recruitment role for 2+ years first, and if your employer doesn’t make a HR role available to you, you may have to look externally; facing the prospect of taking yet another In-house Recruitment role, and going through the same process again.

Join a start-up or small business

Start-ups offer two things that are really favourable to you in these circumstances — firstly, a broader level of exposure which may very well include HR. Secondly, the opportunity to take on more responsibility than you’re actually really ready for right now — this is ideal when forging a new career for yourself.

Start-ups have begun building out In-house Recruitment teams much earlier in their lifecycle, leading to an overall uplift in demand for people like you. Like larger companies, they also typically prefer prior in-house experience but they’re also open-minded depending on salary demands, values-fit and the relevance of the specialism you’ve recruited to their business.

The draw-back of these roles has always been that, to get the level of HR exposure you’re seeking in the role, you may need to join a start-up with no current HR presence. Joining as the Internal Recruiter, you can establish yourself as the “go-to” person for any general HR queries and begin to take on more responsibility in that area. However, your lack of a HR line manager/mentor will likely limit your learning, and you may be exposed as the company grows.

Final thoughts

If you can accept a salary of around £28k, then we would advise taking the most direct route in to HR as a HR Assistant. You may actually find that an employer is open to sponsoring your CIPD qualification, which might compensate somewhat for the lower salary you’re receiving.

If you have experience recruiting in a niche, in-demand market (e.g. software engineering, data science, product) and are reluctant to take a significant drop in salary, then we’d advise going in via the in-house recruitment route. Your valuable candidate network should help to separate you from many other recruiters out there, thereby making you a relatively attractive option despite your lack of prior in-house experience.

This isn’t to say it will be straightforward given the current climate, but with perseverance it should be a viable option. From there, your ability to develop HR exposure will likely depend on your ability to fulfil the recruitment side of the role, your willingness to learn and natural flair for HR (empathy, wider business understanding, conscientiousness, etc).

If an exciting opportunity presents itself in a start-up then go for it, but we would advise trying to find one with a HR/Talent line manager if possible. If not in this role, then at least in the next role, as we do observe greater long-term career potential in the majority of those who have had that extra level of rigour to their training & development.

If you, like many, are considering moving from agency recruitment in to HR, hopefully this piece has offered some useful guidance and points to ponder further.

The evolution of HR has established it as a very prosperous career path with most organisations really understanding the powerful impact a strong HR presence can have on their commercial success.