Ok so we are now in March but in association with the February Monitor I wanted to make you aware of what I’m working on right now for in-house recruitment professionals.
The link below will take you to the Totaljobs website (you’ll also find us on Personneltoday & Changeboard) where some of our roles are published.
http://www.totaljobs.com/JobSearch/Results.aspx?Keywords=Napier+Wolf&Radius=5
In addition to this we are keen to hear from the following groups:
- Executive Search researchers looking to move in-house who have experience of the technology sector and want to work in the Thames Valley area
- Recruitment Consultants in London with experience of the Oil & Gas sector looking to move in-house/onsite or for an account management role for the first time
- In-house direct sourcing focused recruiters in the Oil & Gas sector in the Surrey area
- In-house recruiters who worked in executive search before moving in-house
If you are looking for a new in-house role but cannot see the relevant opportunity here please get in touch via andrew@napierwolf.com or find me on Linkedin or Twitter while I may not be working on the perfect role for you right now I’d like to be able to let you know about it in the future.
March 15, 2011 at 12:23 pm | Candidate, February 2011, Hiring, In-house, Latest roles, Monitor | No comment
February seemed to be a wait and see month for many recruitment professionals in their roles. Those recruiters we spoke to were awaiting higher recruitment volumes and greater attrition rates that they expected to see in February and March as people began to leave post-bonus but in many cases this was not as serious as expected. This appears to be in line with the rather nervous expectations of all communities in moving roles at the moment and as a result the emphasis quickly returned, as with January, to the difficulty of getting people over the line and into the business.
Many recruiters however reported a subtle but significant shift in this experience (in January’s Monitor we reported on how many recruiters were running great processes with great candidates but couldn’t get offers closed). Whereas before the issue was the latter stages of the process Recruiters in February stated the pressure point moved back to engagement. With less New Year cheer and ambition pushing people into considering new roles in the first place those who have been considering new opportunities in February across functions have typically been more committed to moving than their January peers but there are far fewer of them compared to the roles. The big February Front Line trend therefore was around attraction; how do you engage the great candidates and get them in front of hiring managers… But then again is that really a monthly trend, personally I think engagement is going to be the trend of 2011! Let’s see how we all feel about that next month!
March 15, 2011 at 11:14 am | Candidate, Clients, February 2011, Front Line, Hiring, In-house, Monitor | No comment
- With many businesses not having had to recruit recruiters for some time and finance/procurement putting pressure on the department to keep costs low in February a major trend was clients seeking to find candidates at an initial pay grade and then having to increase the salary range available during the recruitment process to attract the right talent
- Note. This was not always upwards, some businesses bought into the commerciality aspect of the sourcing skills of the recruitment consultant over the in-house professional and downgraded the salary and role to bring in external recruiters
- Many of the businesses hiring in February were US owned companies, these businesses still operating in a candidate rich market in the States have put tremendous pressure on EMEA counterparts to hire within the salary range where possible and have often missed out on preferred candidates by being extremely aggressive during salary negotiation
- The noted trend of “paid on results” for in-house recruiters receiving specific placement bonuses for directly sourced candidates has continued in February; while it is still rare there have been stand out opportunities where clients are keen to reward almost as an external recruiter with a percentage of salary or flat bonus
- As it becomes increasingly difficult to hire for all functions there has been an emphasis on seeking to find very strong relationship managers those who can manage expectation at line and ensure that candidates are offered who should be rather than the hiring manager holding out to see “just one more”
- Equally relationship management is becoming a critical part of the relationship with the candidate community. As social media continues to broaden people’s exposure to potential employers and brands there is an increased emphasis on ensuring rejected as well as successful candidates walk away with appropriate feedback and still seeing a hiring company as a potential employer; the risk of the rejected candidate relaying a poor interview experience are now much higher and as such experience of managing this is in high demand
- DELIVERY – This is still a major focus, hiring managers are still extremely focused on bringing in people they feel they can entrust a hiring target to and see it delivered to time and to budget. While many candidates are keen to talk strategy, marketing, routes to market, and about the impact of social media and their role in these areas time and again the client response is “that’s great but I just want someone who will deliver”
- Proper research and headhunting skills remain of great importance to hiring businesses. Many see this next stage evolution of their recruiting function to improve direct access to potential senior hires as a critical cost save and engagement improvement opportunity for 2011 but (SALARY WARNING) the pay rates are not what you would get in search firms and this does put some candidates off when the role is similar and there’s little internal exposure to hiring managers
March 15, 2011 at 11:12 am | Clients, February 2011, Hiring, In-house, Monitor, Salary trends, Skills | No comment
- It’s all about the career – In February there was one overriding theme amongst candidates and it is critical to anyone looking to hire recruiters currently that this is fully understood… “It’s all about my career”
- Candidates are currently extremely nervous of moving, at a time of year when salary rises and bonuses are being paid out by current employers and being received for the first time in a couple of years there is a natural distrust of unknown employers
- With a rise in recruiter opportunities in the market and regular feedback from hiring managers that there is a lack of quality in the market particularly around direct sourcing and stakeholder management the strongest candidates expect to be shown a lot of care and attention through recruitment processes and heading back to the financial piece briefly at offer stage
- Most candidates in the market are passive rather than active, happy to consider “perfect opportunities” but not desperate to move therefore they are looking closely not just at the role they are being considered for but the longer term, what career development is on offer beyond coming in and delivering the headcount?
- Career transition – Just as in January there remains a trend amongst recruitment consultants and executive search professionals to move in-house as a sea change in a career. Rather than this being a possible “New Year new career” blip we have seen a continuation of this trend
- As the salary data above indicates this group is very experienced in their current profession and are making a balanced career move to come in-house based on preference and also a perception that their own markets are being increasingly squeezed by their in-house peers delivering increasing amounts of recruitment in-house and thus affecting their own capacity to generate revenue
March 15, 2011 at 11:07 am | Candidate, February 2011, Hiring, In-house, Monitor, Skills | No comment
Permanent & FTC experienced in-house recruiters
- The average salary of this group in February was £47,400
- This is £6,000 higher than the average recruiter spoken to in January and represents a market trend for experienced in-house recruiters currently looking for a new opportunity
- This group are typically at the very top of the “recruiter” roles with no reports or potentially some administrative support but carrying out full life cycle of the recruiter role
- The average target salary for the group was £53,000 representing an expected salary rise of £5,600 to move, only slightly lower than January’s expectation at £6,000
- Bonuses ranged from 0-45% of base salary
- On average most recruiters were receiving a bonus of c.20% of base salary
- At the time of year when many recruiters are receiving their bonus or being advised recruiters we spoke to were broadly happy with their 2010 pay-out stating bonus was in line or slightly above expectation (albeit most had low expectations!)
- The average base salary of this group was £48,000
- The average target base salary of this group was £46,500
- So where this group in January were looking to break even on the transition in-house there is now not only a willingness to forgo bonus and commission they will now take a lower base salary to complete a career move
March 15, 2011 at 11:03 am | Candidate, February 2011, Hiring, In-house, Monitor, News, Salary trends | No comment
Graduate Recruitment statistics from the AGR
During January I attended the AGR’s AGM. We’ve worked with them in the last couple of years to provide surveys on graduate recruitment professionals salaries and aspirations but the data presented at the AGM will be of more interest to you and your graduate recruitment campaigns. Twice yearly the AGR with their Research Partner CRE survey over 200 companies on their graduate recruitment campaigns, below are some key stats I picked up with due deference to the AGR and CRE for providing them!
- There was an 8.9% rise in graduate vacancies in 2010 – bucking the predicted half year forecast
- Predicted growth in graduate recruitment of 3.8% in 2011
- Consulting is driving growth predicting 89% growth this year in graduate recruiting
- London still accounts for 42% of all graduate hiring
- The average graduate scheme base salary is £25,000 remaining static for the third year, the big payers being Investment Banking (£38,250) and Law £37,000)
- Only FMCG firms expect to increase graduate salaries above inflation this year
- The average total marketing spend on graduate recruitment for a company is £20,000
- Graduate recruitment is going retro with a return to favour for face to face contact and marketing spend on recruitment fairs
- For every 100 male graduates hired 63 females are hired
February 16, 2011 at 10:50 am | Candidate, Clients, Front Line, Graduate Recruitment, Hiring, In-house, January 2011, Monitor, Napier Wolf News | No comment
Front line trends
In this section some statistics that we’ve picked up from elsewhere or anecdotes about recruitment trends that in-house recruiters have mentioned to us are put forward. These are not necessarily trends for recruitment function roles but the day to day issues facing recruitment professionals whatever they recruit.
We keep offering what they want but they won’t join or they’re trying to negotiate
- This is something happening across sector and I’m going to explore the risks of this in a longer blog piece later this week
- Many in-house recruiters are reporting that where candidates, particularly ones they have approached, have been interviewed directly they are often rejecting offers or expressing dissatisfaction with the base salary offer made even if it meets with the initial indicated expectation of the candidate earlier in the process
- Buy backs are back – while companies are not willing to stretch in traditional pay reviews there is a clear trend to try and keep talent if they try to leave with significant counter offers. Some are reporting these in apologetic terms; ‘we wanted to give you this anyway but corporately we just couldn’t until you tried to leave’
- Hints of candidate apathy – After a period when candidates in all sectors were less in demand that has changed in the last few months, with agencies in all sectors increasingly competing with businesses directly recruiting a candidate pool that has never been more readily accessible particularly through Linkedin there are some indications that candidates are getting bored of being approached – again I plan to expand on this theme in a blog posting in the coming weeks dealing with the ramifications for branding and basic ability to attract talent to an interview
February 16, 2011 at 10:48 am | Front Line, Hiring, In-house, January 2011, Monitor, Napier Wolf News | No comment
Client hiring trends
Salaries
- Most clients and businesses now have a very clear idea of how recruitment fits into their organisation, as a result jobs are defined and typically so are salaries in the market at the moment; there is little flexibility at offer stage on pre-approved salary levels and typically little reason for them to be to make a successful hire albeit there is less comfort this year than last amongst candidates with the salaries being signed off
- Paid on results? For the first time in several years I am speaking with businesses and recruiters who are looking to pay ‘commissions’ to recruiters directly based on performance. This agency style model sees tiers of flat bonuses paid per recruit made based on direct sourcing and time to hire. While still quite rare it’s a trend to watch in 2011 particularly in businesses where recruitment is lead from the US
Skills & Attributes
- The expectation of hiring managers for in-house recruiters is still very high and can make for a frustrating market for the more active candidate – many candidates are finding that because they have not worked in exactly the same market as the hiring firm they cannot get an interview
- The rise of the researcher; taking direct sourcing to the next level many businesses are going back to where they were looking in 2007/8 and seeking real executive search skills for their businesses bringing in researchers from headhunting firms who can map competitors accurately and provide a bespoke approach for specific roles this is particularly prevalent in professional services, energy, and TMT businesses
February 16, 2011 at 10:45 am | Clients, Hiring, In-house, January 2011, Monitor, Napier Wolf News, Salary trends, Skills | No comment
Candidates – other trends
Reasons for moving – non-financial
- No to RPO – In January as with any typical month part of our registering group of candidates came from RPO firms; nothing unusual and they came with some of the usual concerns about the conflict between the interests of their employer and the demands of line management
o The big difference in January was that every candidate registering from an RPO stated one of their main reasons for moving was to get client side and no longer be employed by the RPO
o This was prevalent in the banking sector particularly where businesses employ directly recruiters to manage senior relationships and can then prevent the RPO recruiter in the same product area from accessing senior management – the more open the structure the happier the recruiter
- Time served verses Going Perm – many recruiters feel the market over the last three years has driven them to a critical point in their career and for businesses who are serious about recruitment this presents an opportunity to get great talent to commit long-term for one of two reason:
o Many recruiters have seen out the recession in one place but have done so by staying longer in one role than they might have planned; talented recruiters who are risk averse with very stable CVs are considering critical career moves for the first time in a long time
o Conversely many great recruiters due to the market were forced to contract or found themselves taking on several roles in a short space of time. Looking to build a permanent career again this group is looking to commit to permanent opportunities but finding a natural hostility from a concerned hiring manager population fearing their capacity to see a job through; tough on the candidate but as the market continues to tighten for talent surely a great opportunity for a hiring company to find a recruiter who knows they will need to be loyal in the long-term
- Career transition – While this does not need great explanation we have seen a surge of interest from agency and executive search recruitment professionals looking to move in-house this year for career reasons. This is worth noting for two key reasons:
o The old adage of the failed recruiter moving in-house was always a misnomer but the fact that the average base salary of a registered candidate from this background is over £40,000 demonstrates that those looking to transition are clearly successful, earning above average in what they do and having built a career in that field before transitioning, is there now a more commercial and talented external pool available? I think so
o Historically when expressing interest in moving in-house this group tended to want to do so for a number of misplaced reasons; better work-life balance, higher basic salary, easier job. It is striking in 2011 that the vast majority of this group are registering because they see their own sector squeezed by in-house direct recruiting and expect the shift in power to continue to move in-house over time so take the view that this is a critical career move
February 16, 2011 at 10:43 am | Candidate, In-house, January 2011, Monitor, Napier Wolf News | No comment
Candidates – Salary trends
Permanent & FTC experienced in-house recruiters
- The average current salary of this group in January was £41,000
- The average target salary for the group was £47,000 so recruiters in general are expecting a £6,000 base salary rise to move
o There were typically two main reasons for this expectation of a near 15% rise in salary; failure of current employer in the recruiter’s eyes to pay them the going rate or give an increase in salary for the last two years (often off-set by new joiners coming in at higher levels), and an expectation that this year’s review would give a significant increase so to merit a move a new employer would need to ‘buy them’
- Bonuses ranged from 0-30% of salary as an OTE and attainment of these in 2010 varied considerably; few received 100% of bonus for 2010
o As a result of the mixed levels of bonus payments recruiters are emphasising the value of their base salary due to failure of current employers to meet expectations in the last couple of years whether reasonable or not in the climate! Companies emphasising bonus in their package need to demonstrate that it has been paid out to prove value in many cases
Day rate recruiters & contractors
- The average day rate of recruiters registering in January was £320
- Half of those registering with us or speaking to us were looking to move into a permanent role (as the majority of our roles are permanent and those roles we advertised were permanent this could be expected)
- Day rate recruiters looking for new opportunities were looking to match their current rate or were willing to take a cut in general of up to £30 per day
Recruitment agents and executive search professionals seeking an in-house move
- The average base salary of this group was £44,000
- The average target base salary of this group was £45,000
- To make the transition to in-house recruitment this group were willing to forgo between £10,000 & £20,000 in bonuses and commissions that they currently earn per year. They expect improved benefits usually having none bar a basic pension scheme and far lower OTE
February 16, 2011 at 10:41 am | Candidate, In-house, January 2011, Monitor, Napier Wolf News, Salary trends | No comment