We offer some valuable insights into how recruitment actually works in a market like the one we are about to experience as the global economy gets back on its feet.
We are all hearing about how the Covid pandemic is changing the world as we know it and it’s pretty clear that it’s going to affect employment markets, hiring trends, and potentially recruitment activity but do you actually understand what this means for the mechanics of the job market? If you don’t then how will you understand the changes and take advantage of them for your organisation? For many, making the assumption that you will automatically have lots of good candidates applying for your vacancies who will be willing to accept reduced salaries is a misconception. It’s also a dangerously floored strategy.
Now for many years recruitment in these markets has been what we recruiters call “candidate-driven”. i.e. there is a shortage of specialist skills so those that offer them are often in high demand when they come to the market, and this puts proven candidates in a strong position when it comes to selecting who they work for. It also strengthens their hand when negotiating salary.
Recruiters like us spend a lot of time nurturing our relationships with these people so they decide to consider moving roles we are the first to know and can give our clients the first opportunity to hire them – this is a fundamental benefit of our Talent Intelligence offering. Specialist recruiters also spend a lot of time actively headhunting these people for open roles in our clients in order to find talent to fuel their headcount growth.
A good example of this is software sales and presales people who truly understand the value proposition of procurement solutions to the client community. This has come about because the market has grown quicker than the talent pool can keep pace with and is one reason why such people command very high basic salaries – the simple demand/supply equation.
One major impact of Covid is that many organizations are reducing headcount or at least taking their foot off the growth pedal which reduces demand. So it’s quite likely that we could move to a “client-driven” market. This appears to be great news if you are a hiring manager from a growing software company, but is it all good news?
If you look at why people are coming into the job market in the current climate, they fit into three main categories:
Made redundant – employers have had to cut costs drastically to survive and have to lose people quickly. These people have largely been unfortunate and will include both top and underperformers as well as those in between. The trick is knowing which of those categories they fall into – it’s our job to know this and/or find out for our clients.
Fearful of employers long term stability – the financial implications of Covid are massive with many companies seeing a drastic reduction in sales in recent months. The impact of this is clear, especially to those close enough to the leadership team to have an insight into decision making. There are some excellent people who have been retained by their employers because they are such strong performers that are keeping a close eye on the job market in case there is a better option available to them. People who fall into this category often reach out to recruiters like us to let us know they are potentially in the job market. We’ve probably tried to headhunt them for roles in the past or helped them move jobs at some stage. This is where our specialist market expertise enables us to be talent magnets and get access to people that others can’t.
Unhappy with decisions made at the top of the organisation in the current crisis – business leaders have had to make some tough decisions recently. Often these decisions are questioned by people in the organisation. Time will tell who calls it right and wrong but frustration with those above you in the management structure has always been a key driver in people wanting to move jobs. The net result is the same as above – they come to people like us that they know and trust to keep an eye on the market for them.
So what does all this mean to you as a hiring manager?
Do you use valuable time and resources to sort through the huge numbers of job applicants to try to find the right hires and hope you get it right? The benefits are that you will make use of your internal recruitment/talent attraction/HR team and save on recruitment fees in the process.
However, it’s likely that you will miss out on that specialist market insight and background information that will help you hire the top performers I refer to above.
So do you engage a specialist to guide you through it and increase your chances of success because:
We save you time and resources and therefore money.
We put proven high-quality performers in front of you quickly.
We don’t waste your time with unsuitable candidates who may be unqualified, lacking relevant experience or have patchy track records of performance.
If you want to read a brief summary of how we are able to do exactly this for our clients, you can read about our Talent Intelligence approach here.
If you want to discuss how we can help you with these particular challenges please contact me via andrew@edburydaley.com or +44 7711 715258.
Andrew Daley
Director – Procurement & Supply Chain Technology