20 Recruitment Communities & Membership Bodies

Running a recruitment agency can be a very lonely and isolating role, even when running a large recruitment business with dozens of consultants working for you and that’s why it’s a great idea to join a recruitment community to network and share ideas with industry peers. No matter the size of the recruitment firm you’re running, it's easy to become isolated from the industry, getting stuck in old habits which no longer work, missing out on new technology, not keeping up to date with industry news, not paying attention to rising talent and so on. So we’ve put together a list of more than 20 of the biggest and most prominent community groups and membership bodies in the recruitment industry to help grow your agency. 

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies, or more affectionately known as APSCo, is the professional body representing the interests of permanent and contract focused recruitment organisations across the globe, through their offices in Australia, Germany, South East Asia and the UK. As a member it delivers valuable commercial opportunities, the opportunity for partnerships, business information, research, an influential lobbying function, networking, social and charity events, specialist forums and thought-leading public relations. It represents a guarantee of excellence, best practice, quality, integrity and expertise to those both inside and outside of the recruitment industry.

Association of Recruitment Consultancies

ARC’s primary purpose is to operate in the best interests of recruiters, to promote the industry, and to provide excellent support for its members. ARC’s founders come from a legal background, specifically working in the recruitment space, so the body offers legal advice as part of its membership offering. Membership is strictly limited to only recruitment businesses.

Employment & Recruitment Federation 

The Employment & Recruitment Federation (ERF) is a body specifically set up over 40 years ago to represent the interest of recruitment agencies across Ireland. One of the key roles of the ERF is to promote excellence in recruitment by ensuring all member organisations comply with the ERF's Code of Conduct, which ensures ERF Members deliver a professional service to job seekers. The body also acts as the voice of the recruitment profession through lobbying at a national and European level in relation to legislative changes that may impact ERF members. They offer several events through the course of the year, alongside an awards show celebrating the best in the Irish recruitment industry. 

Facebook Groups

There are so many Facebook groups you can join, which are great platforms for sharing best practice, industry articles and meeting peers in the recruitment and talent acquisition space. Here’s a list of some brilliant groups to get you started... 

Talent Acquisition Innovators 

Secret Sourcing Club

The Sourcing Method 

Proactive Talent Acquisition bench Building 

Sourcers Unleashed 

Boolean Strings

Sourcers Who Code 

Recruiters Online 

Recruiting Leaders

Growth Hacking Recruiters

The Female Recruiter

GoodTime Talent Ops Community

The GoodTime Talent Ops Community is a private Slack community with over 2,500 recruitment & talent professionals. They help members to discover the latest recruitment tools, meet with leaders driving the talent acquisition conversation, share exciting job opportunities and to connect in real life at GoodTime organised dinners and cocktail parties. 

In-House Recruitment

In-House Recruitment run by Mark Lennox and Natasha Preocanin, is specifically targeted (as you can imagine) at in-house recruitment professionals. They run two large exhibitions, various award shows, webinars, conferences, exclusive dinners for recruitment leaders and suppliers, training courses, a private Slack community, and a job board.  

RDLC

The RDLC is aimed specifically at the directors of recruitment agencies and was founded by the one and only Gary Goldsmith of Big Brother fame, the uncle of the Princess of Wales and the man behind the focus of several tabloid stories. The group offers face to face events, training and an online knowledge centre for its members. According to their website they now have well over 350 members. 

RecConnect

RecConnect is run by Simon Lewis and Grant Bristow. Established in 2019, they’ve been helping busy recruiters sell more, spend less, connect, collaborate and achieve their business goals. They connect the recruitment industry through face to face events, training courses, learning & development programmes, supplier events, newsletters, their blog and so much more. They also have an active WhatsApp group that recruitment consultants, marketers, agency owners can join - just get in touch with Simon Lewis to be added to the group. 

Recruiters Growth Club

The Recruiters Growth Club, founded by Jeremy Snell, is a community built for recruitment professionals to help them achieve their goals with the support of their industry peers. The community is free to join but you do have to submit a request for membership. The idea behind the group is to help everyone in the industry to access ideas, tactics and strategies which can help grow your recruitment business. You’ll gain access to valuable content, be able to share ideas with other recruiters, find valuable resources and get access to exclusive events.

Recruitment & Employment Confederation 

The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) is probably one of the most well known membership bodies on this list. They’re regularly featured in the national papers and news when it comes to commentary on the current state of the UK economy and jobs market. The body aims to drive standards and empower recruitment businesses to build better futures for their candidates and themselves. They provide legal advice, business support, events and training to help membership recruitment organisations. Members can display the REC logo on their website once they have passed their compliance assessment and adhere to their code of professional practice.

“Recruitment Friends” WhatsApp Group

A WhatsApp group created by David Rolls who was a recruitment trainer a couple of years ago and now works in software sales. The group is open to anyone affiliated with the recruitment industry, consultants, operations professionals, agency owners, marketers and suppliers. The group is active on an almost daily basis and discussions revolve around contract recruitment, delivering feedback, sharing candidates and vacancies, legal advice, and so much more. Get in touch with David Rolls if you’d like to be added to the group. 

Recwired

The RecWired group aims to connect and support recruitment agency founders from all over the world to build successful businesses that create opportunities for them and their staff. They have well over 800 members based all over the world. Their membership network is based on a simple idea - to put resources, effort, and energy into bringing like-minded people together in a vibrant community that constitutes a safe space to share, discuss, learn and grow. The general group is free to join but they also offer a paid for premium service, which offers access to a recruitment training platform, weekly live group sessions, one to one sessions, supplier discounts, access to their WhatsApp group and so much more. 

Reddit Communities 

Reddit is a massively underutilised platform and you need to start engaging with it now! Google rolled out a huge change to its search algorithm back in March (2024), which prioritised posts from Reddit in search results, which have resulted in a huge increase in traffic to the site. OpenAI has recently signed a deal with Reddit to use their content to train the language model. Here’s a selection of subreddits aimed at the recruitment sector... 

r/hiring

r/humanresources 

r/recruiting

r/recruitingstories

r/recruitment

r/recruitmentagencies 

“Search Markets” WhatsApp Group 

Launched by Jamie Hickman in 2020, the group aims to help those who work in the recruitment industry to connect with each other. Jamie has a long history of working in executive search in Hong Kong and now lives in the UK with his family. The group has several subgroups for areas such as technology, career coaching, executive search, in-house talent acquisition, and so much more. They aim to connect individuals and organisations, providing one-to-one and community support across multiple industries by inviting subject matter experts onto their platforms to exchange information and promote their businesses. The group is free to join for anyone who works in the recruitment or recruitment supplier sector. 

Staffing Industry Analysts 

Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA for short) was founded in 1989 and is a global advisor on staffing and workforce solutions. The body provides independent and objective analysis insights into the recruitment industry ecosystem, including staffing firms, managed service providers, recruitment process outsourcers, payrolling/compliance firms, talent acquisition technology specialists, and online staffing platforms. Membership gives you access to a wide range of content, data, support tools, publications, webinars, executive conferences and events. They have a focus on the American markets but also have an office in London. 

Society for Human Resource Management 

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is another membership group with a focus on the American markets. The body was established over 75 years ago and currently has over 325,000 members from around the world. The membership offers great benefits such as access to the latest workplace news, templates, legal documents, how-to guides, webinars, access to HR advisors and discounted training programmes. 

TATech

A slightly unusual group as it was set up to cater for HR/TA professionals and also for the recruitment technology providers that service the sector. They provide a range of events across the world for their members, along with access to newsletters, research, advertising opportunities and a whole lot more.  

The British Institute of Recruiters 

The British Institute of Recruiters (BIR) is a professional body for in-house & agency recruiters. They operate the "Recruitment Certification Scheme", which aims to train new and experienced recruiters in all facets of the role. Members receive a wide selection of benefits, including discounted business insurance, access to legal document templates, a legal helpline, discounted training courses and so much more. 

The Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals

The Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals, otherwise known as ATAP, was founded in 2016. The body is a member-driven non-profit, designed to bring recruitment and talent acquisition professionals together to build knowledge together, establish global standards of quality & professionalism, network and help establish local recruitment agencies. Membership is open to all professionals working in the talent acquisition and recruitment industry. Membership gives you access to webinars, roundtables, the podcast, best practice content, industry news, networking events and so much more.

The American Staffing Association 

The American Staffing Association (ASA) is open to recruiters and also recruitment industry suppliers. As the name suggests they’re focused on the American markets so more applicable to anyone who is looking to grow their agency over there. Membership gives you access to an open community, legal & compliance resources, research, training programmes and various events throughout the year. 

The Lonely Marketers

The Lonely Marketers is a community specifically aimed at recruitment marketers. The marketing function of recruitment agencies has traditionally been quite small, maybe one or two people so Glenn Southam created the brand to help marketers in the recruitment industry network and learn from their peers. The group was bought by Paiger back in 2023 and they now run it, managing the WhatsApp group, the newsletter and arranging face to face networking drinks, up and down the country on a regular basis. It’s only open to those who work within marketing roles for recruitment agencies so get in touch with the team at Paiger if you’re interested in joining. 

The Recruitment Network 

Originally founded by James Osborne and Gordon Stoddart, TRN is absolutely committed to the success of their members.They bring together some of the recruitment industry’s most successful entrepreneurs, advisors, thought leaders and recruitment business leaders to collaborate and work together to help each other improve performance, increase efficiencies and significantly grow profitability. TRN is completely free to join for recruitment leaders but they also offer paid for premium models, which encompasses access to support and advice from professional recruitment advisors, tools to develop your team, face to face networking events, access to their WhatsApp group, training and a whole lot more. 

The Talent Community

With a 6000+ strong community, the group focuses on creating a “Safe Space” to discuss common challenges without feeling judged. It exists to help and support talent acquisition professionals with navigating their careers, finding new jobs, and discussing talent challenges. The group regularly organises face to face meetups up and down the country,

The TEAM Network 

Saving one of the best for last, TEAM just celebrated their 30th anniversary with their annual conference last Friday and from the LinkedIn content I’ve seen, it looked epic! The group is run by recruiters, for recruiters and the network comprises of well over 500 small and medium size recruitment businesses across the UK. They give members the opportunity to connect with peers at numerous virtual and in-person events, get support, split placement fees, access discounts on job boards and recruitment technology suppliers. Get in touch with Simon Bliss or Andy Dunne if you’re keen on finding out more. 

Totally TA

Created by Tom Brown, he's built a micro-community designed just for talent acquisition professionals. Developing a space to connect, share experiences, and for talent acquisition professionals to support one another other. The group currently meets every two weeks for a virtual coffee session.