The last 12 months has changed working lives in ways that we couldn’t have imagined, from working at home, to regular video meetings. This has led to major changes in how firms recruit, therefore the purpose of this blog is to outline the pitfalls and considerations that clients need to assess before starting a search and how to counteract these issues.
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Candidates’ priorities
The reality for many is that these have changed over the last 12 months. Many people have become accustomed to working from home (myself included) and will prefer a similar lifestyle in the future. Again, this isn’t for all (particularly more junior candidates), might prefer the opposite, so it’s key for clients to have flexible policies in order to attract different candidates.
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Candidate Attraction
With the increase in working from home, the ability for recruiters to speak to candidates has never been greater. Candidates don’t have to leave the office or go into a meeting room to take a call and they are more active on job boards and social media; so how clients attract candidates has never been more important. I have seen multiple clients instruct 5-6 agencies to work on a mandate, the role is advertised on numerous channels and leads to be contacted multiple times about the same role, which in many cases causes them to lose interest. Is this really the best approach to take?
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In demand candidates
Over the last 12 months, there has been an increased demand in certain sectors and geographies, such as Logistics and Germany respectively. This has meant that candidates with backgrounds in those areas are involved in multiple processes, so a key question to ask is, what differentiates your firm from other organisations?
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Counter Offers
This is not a new problem but given the risks involved in moving, candidates are more susceptible than ever to accepting a counteroffer. Many organisations know how difficult it is to recruit and are making more attractive counter proposals to their employees. In some cases, they will even make multiple approaches to their employee in order to keep them.
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On-boarding process
In some cases, it will be 6 months from signing an offer to starting a role, so being innovative in how you stay in contact has never been more important. Many of my clients have invited new starters to join team quizzes, meetings and even team yoga events to get them engaged with the company before they commence employment.
How are you preparing to approach recruitment coming out of Lockdown?
The reality is that in Real Estate the recruitment market has become very active, and I am forecasting that activity will continue to increase over the course of the year; so planning your recruitment process and what’s on offer to candidates, has never been more important.
Many firms will do what they’ve always done and engage with multiple recruitment agencies, give them a brief JD and ask them to send CV’s. Given the issues that I have highlighted, it is likely that you will experience problems with one of the points that I’ve mentioned. The recruiter is unlikely to highlight issues with their candidate until it’s too late as it’s not in their interest to do so.
My recommendation has not changed on this and engaging a recruiter on a retained basis has never been more important to manage the issues that I’ve mentioned. Given the everchanging environment for a candidate, it is vital that there is honest dialogue between client and recruiter in order to achieve a successful hire for all parties.
If you are considering your next hire and would like assistance with the search, I would be happy to arrange a conversation to discuss in more detail.
Jamie McCord, [email protected]
