If I thought that the volume of recruitment briefs during 2021 was the highest ever, I think (after only two months), 2022 is going to surpass it. It does genuinely feel relentless with agency clients desperate to hire. And the requirements are across all disciplines - it’s not just paid search or performance marketing, it’s everything from classic account management through to content writing.
It was only really at the end of 2021 that a shortage of candidate CVs started to become apparent. In the old days, a recruiter would probably hope to send a client perhaps 6 CVs which would be whittled down to four for first interview and two for second interview. By December 2021, if you found one CV, you felt fortunate and clients fell over themselves to see who could offer first. Candidates had options - and they certainly still do.
Recruitment is cyclical. I’ve been doing this for a long time and actually, this week PMP is 13 - hurrah! Prior to recruitment I worked in data driven marketing agencies so I’ve always been big on data and CRM. I’m pretty proud of my database and that’s basically my business. It’s a sizable database and every candidate has a life cycle that is constantly rotating. Knowing who is currently searching or ‘live’ is critical, being in the right place at the right time when a ‘lapsed’ candidate who you thought was perfectly content in their role becomes live again is also critical. Communicating regularly with the database so that when an individual does start to think again about looking for a new role, they get in touch with you (and not just AN Other recruiter) is critical. Equally, being constantly on the acquisition trail for new candidates, spotting individuals who are looking for a new recruiter, that’s critical too. Being able to offer candidates choice and to show them that you truly know your market and your clients, understanding what their particular criteria are, what will swing it for them - whether it’s money or being able to take their dog to work, yep critical. Speculatively keeping an eye on agencies that you know would be a great match for individuals….critical.
Ultimately it’s about being on it, all of the time, knowing your clients, knowing your candidates. Hard work, talent and luck.
Once again, I’ve digressed.
However, it is relevant. That’s my model. In the last month, I’ve had at least 3 desperate clients who are urgently looking for new hires. I think in every agency boardroom in the North, clients are discussing how to break through the recruitment problem. Everyone is struggling to recruit. Even the agencies who in the past had always been ‘dream role territory’ are struggling. The three example agencies I am referring to, were all proposing that they essentially pay me between 25% and 30% (quite a substantial lift on a normal hire) if I supply them, and only them with candidates. Thus when I am talking to candidates about the roles open to them, I ignore the other eleventy billion agencies who’d be interested in those candidates and persuade them that this particular agency is the one.
Now, I’m not naive, I get it. These agencies are all looking for ways to get people on board. However, my ‘model’ depends on me demonstrating to candidates that I know my clients, and I know my candidates. It is possible that one of those agencies could be a perfect fit…but equally, they might not be. Everyone has a different ‘equation’ when it comes to finding the perfect role and I’m definitely not someone who does recruitment by numbers. I genuinely think that what goes around, comes around and that’s never more true than in recruitment. By being genuinely honest with candidates about what role/employer might be right for them (and who would not be) is the gift that keeps on giving. Everyone loves honesty and if I then don’t place a candidate at this particular stage of their life cycle, they’ll come back to me down the line. Candidates become clients, clients become candidates….if a recruiter is in it for the long haul then you accept there will be short, mid and long term wins.
So it didn’t sit easily with me. ‘We will give you more money if you give us your best candidates first’. In fairness, all three agencies are great agencies, popular to work at etc but as with all agencies, they have their own cultures and that may suit or not suit future employees. I consider that when a candidate comes to me for career advice, I have a duty of care to lay out all the options that are open to them, it would be dishonest to say, ‘this agency is the one’ when it may well not be.
The other side to this is that the North is a very small market really, it’s quite incestuous. Most candidates come to me with a fairly clear idea of who they’d like to work for and no matter how much I might try to ‘influence’ that, which I do try to do on occasion (for the right reasons), I wouldn’t be comfortable doing it for an incentive. I’d be doing it because it was the right thing to do, a true opinion, an honest opinion. And for me, the incentive is that I’ll place them somewhere - but the right somewhere.
Genuinely, this isn’t meant to be some kind of whiter than white opinionating (is that a word?) or a moral crusade. All three conversations finished in pretty much the same manner. I’m still on those PSLs but as an independent recruiter, I think they each understood that recruiters do have to work hard to find the ‘right’ role for each candidate. It’s not just a case of flashing a job description at someone and saying, ‘well you could do the job standing on your head’. I read something a while ago from a mattress advertiser saying that we sleep for 50% of our time, would you not invest in a decent mattress? I quite like that anecdotally because I think, yes, cost per use, pleasure per use - it all works out! The same is true for finding the right job. We all spend a lot of our time in our jobs which funds our other life activities. We owe it to everyone to find the right job that will give job satisfaction, pleasure, joy, financial reward and friends, life is too short not to.
So for unbiased, honest, pragmatic and friendly career advice. Give me a call. Fiona. 07976 125963.