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Salaries

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

Skills & Attributes

In February there have been two very different drivers for clients when recruiting; relationships and delivery.

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

Reasons for moving – non-financial

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

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