A love story: recruiters strengthen the relationship between organisations and candidates

​One thing we know for certain, and something that doesn’t look to be changing in the short term, is that the market is candidate short. How has this happened?

The breakup

18 months ago, we saw that people didn’t feel the need to move. They were comfortable with their employer and didn’t know they could be doing better. But with a lockdown to follow and changing demands from candidates overall, they ultimately went through a ‘know your worth’ phase. There was a shift in priorities, therefore a shift in jobs. Cue the peak of the great resignation. Candidates were dumping their companies and these organisations were out looking for another match.

The trouble with this, for organisations, is that post-break-up, a serious rethink was needed in terms of what they had to offer their current and future employees. There was a (widely reasonable) demand for organisations to tick the below boxes, and so they got cracking:

·         Flexibility in work arrangements

·         Better workplace conditions

·         Strong culture

·         Sufficient/leading technology

·         Tools and resources to do the job properly

With this, employees who moved to suit their priorities were happier and getting settled into their new roles, not looking to move anytime soon. Hence the candidate short market.

With those currently trying to move, we are now seeing much shorter tenure within recent positions due to there having been so much movement within the last 18 months. This is still overarchingly not ideal in the eyes of hiring organisations, and with this comes a need to filter through candidates even further. Sort of like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Matchmaking recruiters provided another chance of finding ‘the one’.

As a result of the last 18 months – it’s been so difficult for clients to source candidates and more organisations are beginning to realise that recruiters actually can help in finding these needles within haystacks.

With a vacant role, the company is likely already time-poor. Add the stress of finding a candidate that is happy with what you have to offer, brings the right skills, is a right fit for the team and hasn’t jumped between permanent jobs too frequently, and it becomes less than feasible to hire using internal resources.

This is exactly what recruiters are for, and throughout these 18 months, organisations have recognised that the service they provide isn’t just a person to fill the job: it’s the skill and time of hiring the right fit through a thorough process.

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Will organisations keep this dynamic going, even when there are more fish in the sea?

Eventually, the market will turn, where there will be more candidates available to fill the available roles. Although this means more options for hiring managers, it doesn’t ease the process.

A newly single friend once said to me, “if these are really the fish in the sea, I’m going vegan.” This wasn’t based on a true representation of the fish, but a conclusion after the first weekend she had spent back in the sea. This too happens in hiring, where there is a short time frame in which a company has to fill a role, and a whole sea of fish to get through.

With a plethora of candidates available, most hiring managers will use their time to sort through a portion of applicants, picking the best of a random bunch and leaving the rest. From a candidate point of view, what does that say about their relationship with the brand? Most organisations will find that their applicants are also customers, and after being ghosted, these applicants won’t be left with the best impression of the brand.

The need for a recruiter’s skill and time-saving doesn’t go away when there are more candidates available in the market. In fact, there is now even more of a requirement for this if you want the job filled effectively and without hurting your brand.

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Achieving ‘happily ever after’ through recruiters

It is important to identify what achieves optimal matchmaking results from your recruitment strategy. Some important things to note are:

Volume

Having 10 agencies on a panel will provide a large number of candidates, however, organisations need to spend enough time with their recruiter to establish enough understanding of the business so that the culture can be represented properly throughout their communication with candidates. This allows for quality over quantity and brings a higher level of investment from the recruiter.

Partnership

As most organisations have now established a relationship with select recruiters, now is the time to invest in those relationships to further strengthen the mutual understanding of business requirements and industry insight. Both parties in this partnership have value to offer, and these are shared on a deeper level as the relationship develops.

If your organisation is looking for love, reach out to one of our professional consultants here for a conversation.