Standards in Recruitment

The UK’s first and only independent compliance and accreditation  programme for businesses engaged in recruitment, employment, executive search and freelance placement.

Accreditation, evidenced by the distinctive SiR quality mark, validates compliance with standards set by hirer and agency stakeholders. These include general business and hiring/ introduction/supply rules and data protection rules (including GDPR).

The approval pathway helps applicants to design, lock in and/or validate compliance processes to meet the standards. SiR verification defines independent validation. SiR accreditation sets businesses apart from the competition and provides hirers and candidates with real quality assurance. Read more…

 

Recognition for Standards in Recruitment

Our teacher agency accreditation is formally recognised by the Crown Commercial Service (England) and the  National Procurement Service (Wales) as a certificated standard in their respective  commercial framework agreements for the provision of supply teachers for the public education sector.

National Association of Headteachers has also recognised our education standards in their guide Working with teacher supply and recruitment agencies.

We are also an official Partner to TEAM, the UK’s largest network of independently owned recruitment and employment agents and an approved supplier to ARC, the Association of Recruitment Consultancies.

Standards in Recruitment

Independent

An independent programme not requiring any trade association membership.

Flexible

We work with any recruitment agency committed to compliance and quality.

Focused

Standards that reflect good practice for meeting customer expectations.

Standards in Recruitment

Independent

At SIR we are an independent programme not requiring any trade association membership.

Flexible

Standards work with any recruitment business we’re committed to compliance & quality.

Customer Focused

Our standards all reflect excellent practice for meeting all of our customers expectations.

  • In everything we do, we strive to maintain the highest ethical standards and professionalism, treating both candidates and clients with the same care and respect that we would hope to be treated with ourselves. Until now there has been no genuinely independent audit of our processes and operations and that is why we were first attracted to Standards in Recruitment. Elbrus Partners Limited is extremely proud to be one of the early adopters of this important accreditation. We passionately believe that our industry needs this kind of quality control.

    Mark Jukes Founding partner of Elbrus James Limited
  • Standards in Recruitment goes further; into more depth and because it is specifically for recruitment, which fundamentally is what we’re about, the accreditation reinforces that we are providing the best service to our clients and our organisation. The standards were easy to understand, straight forward and most importantly relevant. It’s a clear value-add to our business to complete the SiR process.

    Julie Welford Compliance manager, Aeropeople Limited
  • For some time NAHT has voiced the concerns of its members reporting issues with teacher supply agencies in relation to the recruitment of permanent staff. During the year we have been in discussions with Standards in Recruitment (SiR) in the development of their independent education standards for recruitment agencies to ensure these reflect the needs of schools. NAHT welcomes the development of those independent standards to raise the quality of services that teacher supply agencies provide to schools.

    Valentine Mulholland Policy advisor, NAHT
  • An excellent framework for consultants to drive their performance ...

    Howard Bridgwater The Management Recruitment Group
  • ...comprehensive and consistent standards...it answers a longstanding need for quality assurance within the recruitment industry

    Jonathan Land Senior HR Business Partner, Marshall ADG
  • SiR is reassuringly robust for education hirers like us...

    Sukwinder Samra School Head, Elmhurst Primary School
  • Achieving SiR accreditation has not only allowed us to meet the CCS framework criteria for the provision of supply teachers for the public education sector, I believe it will also help us to stand out from our competitors as we can demonstrate to schools and candidates that we had met the highest standards within the recruitment industry while also providing a unique and exceptional service to both schools and teachers.

    Slava Kremerman CEO, Zen Educate Ltd
  • Although we are members of the REC, when researching which accreditation to go for, we were looking for something different and independent, to help us stand out from the crowd and demonstrate that we had met the highest standards with the recruitment industry. SiR’s teacher agency standards ticked all the boxes.

    Stephanie Bateman Managing Director, Educate Staffing
  • SmithCorp were looking for an accreditation that would prepare the company to apply for the CCS/DfE framework. When researching the available programmes, approved by the CCS, we liked the fact that SiR’s teacher agency standards were independent and robust. We also took into account that they were recommended by the NAHT. As we didn’t necessarily feel we would use many of the additional services that membership of the REC or APSCo offer, we just wanted a thorough impartial analysis of our working practices and that’s what SiR gave us.

    James Hodkinson Chief Development Officer, SmithCorp Limited
  • From the initial engagement to the audit itself, the process was very smooth and efficient. There was regular communication available when we needed it to help guide us through any required changes. I am therefore very happy to recommend SiR

    Lewis Atkinson Regional Manager, Now Education

Compliance Checklist

Commonly overlooked recruitment compliance procedures and how to address them.