I was determined that this month's blog would not have anything to do with Covid. Fat chance. The world is still revolving around Covid and it almost feels like the UK media is gleefully giving us doom laden reports on recession, second waves, lockdowns and quarantines. So I'm afraid I can't avoid talking about Covid. I also usually try to ensure that the blog isn't just an opportunity for a random recruiter to rant about stuff - again, I'm not sure I can promise that there won't be any ranting either.
I'm very fortunate, I escaped to France in early July and I'm taking advantage of the 'work from anywhere' philosophy that so many of my clients are now advocating. I'm in a relatively rural spot and it has been an absolute pleasure to feel some level of normality. Whilst masks are compulsory in shops, there isn't really much other evidence that we're still experiencing a pandemic. I've also found the French media to be much more 'factual' and less speculative in their reporting. There seems to be a pragmatism that is entirely lacking in the UK media. This too has been hugely refreshing.
So how is the recruitment market as it stands now? Well, we're now working on a total of 14 live briefs and July was a relatively successful month in terms of placements. In 'normal' times, I'd have around 120 briefs at any given time so you can see we are way off where we were for example this time last year. - or even in February this year. The main observation I've had in the last few weeks has been that overall, it feels like confidence is low. That's the confidence of my clients who are trying to plan and balance their requirements over the forthcoming months, the confidence of their clients who are doing the same and also the confidence of my candidates or employees generally. Across the board, confidence feels low.
It's disappointing. I can't blame it entirely on the media much as I would like to. But the consistently negative reporting does have a huge impact on confidence generally. And for the economy to move up a gear, we need to be feeling more positive about the future. Overall, I would say that we are all treading water. Or we're mostly treading water.
Whilst several agencies are back in the office, I would say the majority are still working remotely with the odd communal meeting in the office. Talking to one of my agency clients who are still home-working, the majority of their staff voted overwhelmingly to stay at home because they are worried about travelling on public transport - nothing really to do with being in the office itself per se. The majority of interviews are still all being done remotely with an increasing number of second interviews taking place in person. All my candidates who I have placed during June and July have been on-boarded remotely - including one in Poland!
I did think that we'd see more clients taking on new employees on short term contracts but that hasn't been the case at all. Where agencies have had a recruitment requirement that has been filled, the need has been absolute and those agencies have been confident that there is 100% a role and they're not trying to second guess whether they may still have that same requirement in 6 months time. So there is some confidence in some areas - which is great! I've also anecdotally had a few agencies tell me that they are feeling much more efficient at the moment. Across the board though, new business development is tricky and several agencies are waiting for their big clients to start spending again. Until that happens, there won't be a real up-tick in recruitment requirements. Lots of agencies are frustrated at having to make good staff redundant but are unable to cope with ongoing costs until their clients are active again. There are real pockets of success - agencies with grocery clients, agencies doing packaging and below the line promotion marketing, agencies with lots of E-Commerce clients and agencies with gaming, healthcare and b2b clients. It is heartening to see the success stories and these are the ones I am focusing on. I'm hoping that in the coming weeks, we can move on from 'survival' through to ongoing growth and confidence that recovery is on track. The media does have a role to play here and I would love to see more positivity in all reporting. If consumer confidence is low, this too will impact on business and we'll continue to tread water well into winter.
I'm not an Economist, a Politician or a Journalist - this blog is more about an ordinary business owner hoping that a positive outlook and attitude could help us in the forthcoming months to reach a normality that will give consumers and clients confidence to start spending again. Fingers crossed.