All indications signify our sector will enjoy strong growth and increased market buoyancy during 2014, writes Chris Dexter, Senior Consultant, Atlantic Recruitment Consultants.
This will bring challenges both to the hiring authority and career seeker – albeit for different reasons. How will you approach these challenges and what are the consequences for you if you do not? In the last three years the recruitment landscape has changed significantly. These changes have included:
• increased talent availability due to recessed economies;
• emergence of social media and talent acquisition software as means to attract and filter candidate applications; and
• pressure on recruitment budgets seeking a better ‘cost per hire’ model.
Businesses adapted to this ‘buyers’ market’ and took advantage of low-cost media available to them. They have been content to wait reactively for relevant skilled individuals to apply to advertised positions. These applications are often filtered by recruitment software based on keywords contained in the resume. In some instances, companies have been able to create talent pools or pipelines to meet anticipated future needs. As economies recover, the returns for this recruitment model will likely diminish. The reasons for include although are not limited to:
• decreasing number of skilled candidates actively looking;
• increased competition for those candidates;
• talent that has applied through recruitment software are discouraged to make future applications as they did not have a ‘satisfactory candidate experience’;
• the talent pool that was promised becomes out of date and shrinks; and
• candidates develop immunity to the sheer volume of direct recruitment marketing they are exposed to.
On this last point, we have seen examples where candidates are targeted for positions that are no longer relevant to them. The opportunity offered being based on where they were they were in their career at the time of applying, not where they are at now.
So how will you reach that company that you want to work for? Do you need to be an expert CV writer? Further, how will organisations attract the talent and skills that you need within their business?
Candidates are constantly reaching out to specialist recruiters like ourselves, as part of their review of medium and long term career objectives. They are usually quite clear about what they want to achieve and have a time frame that they are working to. The skill of the recruiter is in being able to assist the candidates by knowing when to connect them about an opportunity; and more importantly, what to contact them about.
I have yet to hear of a software solution that can factor in the human elements of the hiring process.
We have all made sacrifices during the last three years. Often these have impacted on our personal life. The resource and budget was simply not available. However, the race to attract talent has now most certainly begun. How will you ensure that you take advantage of the opportunities ahead?
Visit www.atlantic-rec.co.uk
