Throughout the pandemic, many of us were bracing for a strong recovery and return to business as usual. Providing we could survive the short-term, the long-term future looked promising for recruitment.
But recruiters know a candidate shortage when they see one – and the reality is that experienced, skilled candidates remain difficult to find.
What happened to the promise of a swamped recruitment market, full of high earners that were hungry to get into a new role? And, if the candidate shortage is real, what can recruiters do to find the kind of people your clients will love?
#1 JOB SECURITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
For the past eighteen months, we’ve all read stories of businesses struggling, going under, and leaving an entire workforce unemployed. It’s a time of huge uncertainty and low confidence. Right now, many people just feel lucky to have a job at all.
The usual recruitment market movement has slowed down significantly. Even where the circumstances aren’t ideal or the compensation isn’t great, people are sticking with what they know.
As ever, recruiters have an important role to play in proactively finding great candidates, whatever their current status. But encouraging them to consider a change is an increasingly difficult task.
#2 THE BEST CANDIDATES HAD BETTER IDEAS
Many of the more experienced candidates had an opportunity to take stock and plan for the future during those long, furloughed months. According to the Financial Times, there has been a surge in UK business incorporations with many talented people striking out on their own.
The kind of candidates we’d all like to meet – the entrepreneurial high-earners – are creating their own businesses in huge numbers. As a result, we all need to shift our focus to more junior candidates and fresh new rookies. With the right learning and development, these are the people who’ll become tomorrow’s superstars.
#3 DEMAND IS SURGING FOR EXPERIENCED CANDIDATES
While there’s a real sense that the candidate market has shrunk, this is just one half of the issue. At the same time, businesses are all focusing their recruitment efforts on the most experienced people as they continue to recover and start to ramp up growth once again.
Increasingly, we expect to see people focus on those less experienced candidates, with a stronger programme of learning and development to help them succeed. For recruiters, a structured, fast way to onboard and train new hires will be instrumental in growth.
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