MISCONCEPTIONS

We hear it all the time….But aren’t there lots of candidates out there….?

It’s going to be easy to hire, I’ll just put out an advert and have lots of applications right?

Actually, mainly wrong but partly right. If you are simply looking for somebody in Customer Service, you will probably have lots of choice.

However, if you are looking for anybody with a specialism, digital, technical, sales or leadership – then it’s a strategic approach to hiring that will work coupled with hiring well in advance of needing someone.

Since the advent of COVID you could be mistaken for thinking there are lots of candidates out there. However, most of the really good talent was snapped up in 2020.

2021 AND BEYOND

In 2021, we are starting to see the shift to a candidate driven market, the search for great talent will become highly competitive as the market comes out of lockdown.

Whilst it may not have quite gotten to being an actual battlefield, businesses will find that their biggest challenge when trying to attract new staff is the amount of competition that is out there in what will be an increasingly candidate-led market.

The other compounding factors at the moment, are a general reticence of talent making a career move due to the perceived ‘risk’ and a great deal of loyalty to their companies, if they have been well looked after during the crisis. Says Helen Plumridge, CEO of King Recruit and King Executive.

‘Candidate Driven Market’ is the biggest recruiting challenge in 2021

What does this mean? It means that in some sectors whilst there used to be significant competition for many jobs leaving employers spoilt for choice, a shift in the availability of good quality talent for desirable positions has created an extremely candidate-driven market. This means that there is an increasing demand for a limited pool of suitably talented individuals for certain positions.

We are already seeing an uplift in positions vacant, and this will continue to rise as we see restrictions being lifted.

 UK business leaders will be increasing their recruitment budgets

According to studies, just under a third of all UK business leaders will be increasing their recruitment budgets this year. Recognising that recruitment is a key factor in business performance and growth, this means that some of your competitors will be stepping up their game when recruiting, making it increasingly difficult for you to attract key talent.

It’s not just about the quality of hire, it’s about the time to hire

Of course, the quality of hire is the most important result of any recruitment campaign. But what is known as the time to hire is crucially linked to this and is something that the savviest companies are now concentrating on more and more.

In a candidate-driven market, it’s crucial that companies act fast when identifying ideal candidates, and their internal recruitment setups simply aren’t equipped to do this.

Planning ahead

If you are thinking of hiring key talent – it’s best to take a strategic approach that is well mapped out in terms of timescales and the emphasis is on ‘sooner rather than later’ should you wish to engage the best talent on the market.

Working with marketing departments and planning your engagement ahead of the curve is a great way to capture talent now, and build talent pipelines that may be useful further down the line.

Of course, if you are a fast growing SME or don’t have the internal resource, a trusted recruitment partner can work with you to plan ahead and access great passive talent.

Working with trusted recruitment partner

Working with a trusted recruitment and search partner can be the most efficient way of bringing on new and quality talent to your company.

Recruitment is an ever-changing environment and a professional recruiter is best-placed to focus on the right avenues to secure your business the very best talent. They have access to an extensive network of contacts that may uncover the perfect candidate who may not be actively looking for a new role but would be interested if the right one comes along.

By bringing on board a recruitment partner, not only are you bringing on specialist skills and a network of high-quality potential candidates, but you’re also freeing up your own key members of staff to get on with what they’re good at.

For more information on King Recruit and King Executive.

If you’re interested in utilising the help of a recruitment or executive search partner, call King Recruit or King Executive. Tel: 01392 790725. Web: www.kingrecruit.com | www.kingexecutive.com Email: enquiries@kingrecruit.com

To speak to our CEO Helen Plumridge, contact her on 07808 537696 | helen@kingrecruit.com