Recruiting Trends
The view from 5,318 feet
While this recovery is much slower and longer than most post-recession recoveries, most economists anticipate modest growth for the rest of 2012, and stronger growth in 2013. The National Association for Business Economics panel predicts an average monthly growth of 188,000 of jobs in 2012, up from the previous forecast, with GDP growth of 2.8 percent.
So what does this mean for recruiting?
The health of the U.S. recruiting sector is obviously linked to the health of U.S. businesses. A recent survey by Bullhorn Reach showed that 70% of respondents (in the U.S.) reported that their firms either reached or surpassed their revenue goals for 2011. And the vast majority – 96% of survey respondents – expect 2012 revenues to increase.
A strong indicator of where recruiters feel the economy is heading lies in the firms’ own hiring plans. 79% of recruiting firms responding plan to add staff.
Recruiting success, beyond the overall economy and business confidence, is attributed to the greater use of social media, improving technology infrastructure, and old fashioned cold calling. “Recruiting remains very much about the basics,” reports veteran recruiter Greg Schreiner who manages the Clean Tech Recruitment at Redfish Technology. “We need to talk to as many people as possible, cold calling and reaching out to our networks by phone is as important as ever.”
What does this mean for companies recruiting new staff?
The employment services industry is adding jobs, and has been since July 2011. This category includes employment placement agencies, temporary help services, executive search services and professional employer organizations.
The employment services industry is a bellwether for the labor market in general. When the economy is in recovery mode, it is first seen in temporary hiring, followed by permanent hiring with some lag time.
Executive recruiting has been picking up, with 2012 already making a significantly stronger showing over 2011 year to date. “2010 was a vast improvement on 2009, and 2011 showed strong growth over 2010,’ said Rob Reeves, President/CEO of Redfish Technology. “2012 year to date is already much more robust as compared to last year at this time.”
The challenges remain a slower recovery than in the past, and political and economic uncertainty that lingers. That said, there are many companies feeling more confident about their earnings allowing them to loosen the purse strings and invest. There is also a lot of pent-up demand for new staff following several years of reigning in spending.
Another factor contributing to the need to recruit new talent is increased turnover. This rising turnover is partly attributable to increasing numbers of passive candidates being willing to take a risk on a new job, and active candidates who also feel more confident about making their next move.
With the relatively large supply of labor, and a lesser (but growing) mobility of the workforce, recruiting means more screening out unsuitable candidates, and more persistence in tracking down the right talent and luring them away.
New challenges and changes require new talent and new approaches to solving problems more quickly, discovering new applications more adeptly, building better widgets more economically. Attracting the right talent is a job in and of itself!
These are some of the main reasons executive recruiting continues to thrive at this time. This is the view from our Sun Valley area headquarters at 5,318 feet.
About Redfish
Headquartered at 5,318 feet in the Sun Valley area, Redfish Technology, Inc. is a nationwide IT and Clean Tech recruiter. Recruiting since 1996, the company offers nationwide coverage and boasts offices in Silicon Valley, the East Coast, and the Intermountain West. We specialize in locating talent in the High Tech and Green Tech / Alternative Energy sectors.