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

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