INNERGISE!

So it has been a number of months now since the Global Financial Crisis has stopped having a consistently negative impact on the UK markets and the local recession we have been experiencing since 2008 has eased up and in effect, turned a corner.

Not only have markets undoubtedly changed over the past few months, but similarly have the playing fields that recruiters play in and it has been fascinating to monitor how recruitment organisations are adapting to the early stages of a post recessionary market.

The upward trend of any economic cycle, whilst undoubtedly positive, can create a whole new number of challenges for suppliers, and in particular there have been two new emerging ones for recruitment organisations in the UK:

The Turning Point

For the first time in a very long time in the UK, the volume of job requirements is now greater than the availability of quality, skilled candidates which we refer to as the “Turning Point”. In essence, demand is outstripping supply.

The situation that we are facing, certainly for the foreseeable future, is a consistent growth in job demand by employers but an almost flat trend of available jobseekers in the market. 

Certainly there are a number of corporate and government initiatives being launched in the UK to drive more quality skilled workers into the markets, but at the same time we have an increased exodus of a mature, ageing workforce leaving the markets as they arrive at retirement age thus flattening the overall growth figures of the active talent pool.

It is estimated, that by 2020, there will be a 20 million skills shortfall across the EU.

Employers and recruiters are therefore facing a whole new war for talent again, at levels not seen for a very long time. Those recruitment organisations that continue to utilise outdated recruitment processes, tapping into easily–accessible “open talent pools”, hiding behind emails and social media “fishing”  since the turn of the recession in mid-2013 are finding that their efforts are failing, and other more forward thinking agencies start to capture market share from them.

Across the Elite Recruitment Network, we have been working with a number of recruitment organisations to channel their majority of their efforts for 2014 away from client development and instead towards developing candidate acquisition strategies that are unique, robust and highly effective, tapping into hidden talent pools where they can command higher levels of loyalty, control, exclusivity and margins from their customers.

The emerging lesson is simple – in a market where demand is growing and higher than the supply, those organisations that can tap into untapped “product” sources can command the markets.

Internal Resources

The recruitment organisations I consult with across the Elite Recruitment Network are all budgeting and planning to capitalise on the positive market trends that we are currently experiencing in the UK with significant growth plans forecasted for the next three to five years. This is great.

However, each and every one of these growth plans is underpinned by sourcing, attracting, engaging and retaining talent. In essence, a recruitment organisation cannot capitalise on the growth potential of the markets unless they have enough of the right people on board in their businesses in the first place.

Pre-recession, it was reported that there were approximately 110,000 recruiters working in the industry (agency side) and now some five years later, experts are estimating that the number of consultants in the industry has dropped to somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000. 

So, almost 40,000 recruiters have therefore left the UK industry it seems during the recession, either leaving the industry completely or moving to an in-house recruitment role instead.

There has been a movement emerging in the UK to address this problem now before it gets to the point where recruitment organisations’ growth plans are not only restrained, but the lack of talent impacts their current levels of business as in-house recruiters, technology, other competitors and RPOs take their existing market share.

Internationally, the recruitment sector needs to work together to drive initiatives that attract new talent into the industry before it in effect runs out. At a more localised level, recruitment organisations need to elevate their internal talent attraction strategies to meet the standards that they would themselves provide to their top tier customers.

The learning that comes from this is that we need to become both a true industry of choice as well as employers of choice if we want to exploit the opportunities the emerging economy is creating.

The UK market is certainly looking very positive and many of the recruitment organisations across the Elite Recruitment Network have been enjoying record months of billing, profitability and forecasted pipelines, but they are also organising themselves for what is to come based on what is starting to happen.

In hindsight, those international markets where the GFC is now starting to lessen its grip should use this time now to prepare their organisations for a similar period of growth that is undoubtedly starting to emerge, and ensure that future opportunities aren’t squandered by some of the potential limiting factors that come with what is clearly a very different post-recession economy.

Article written for Global Recruiter