In this month’s recruitment deep dive, we dissect and discuss the challenges and trends of recruiting in the Channel.
This month, I sat down with Roger Griffiths, co-founder of SynerG, a membership platform for specialist recruiters that shares vacancies and candidates. The platform also looks to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Recruiters can benefit from specialist recruitment agencies, with their discipline and experience combined with the breadth of capability that larger agencies possess. Here’s what Griffiths had to say about the challenges for recruiters.
Moh Lalani (ML): What is the current situation with recruitment in the Channel?
Roger Griffiths (RG): “There are a number of challenges we face at the moment, but primarily serving the Channel with candidates. Since the pandemic, the market as a whole is behaving and performing in a way we haven’t seen during my 13 years in recruitment. The market took off post-pandemic and was focussed on growth, resulting in large value clients all clamouring for the best talent in the market.
“However, sensibly so, that talent wasn’t necessarily looking to move in a time of uncertainty, so the big, inflated salary shift began. This was driven primarily by new hires, but to protect their assets, companies retained their talent with inflated counter offers. The outcome being that the talent was now in a very strong position to negotiate at the top end, but the investment in employees entering the industry was reduced.
“I believe that we are now seeing a shortage of candidates at the junior level that are expected to develop for the future. From a recruitment perspective this has shrunk the candidate pools we work from.
“The market as a whole has steadied itself now, and we are seeing the kind of movement we would expect as the larger companies reduce their headcounts again.
“This has increased the talent pools, but the salary expectations are still high. We are working very closely with our clients to ensure they are getting the value they expect, as they have become more selective.
“We believe that agency collaboration is key to delivering the diverse talent pools that our clients are now demanding, as the traditional ones are still lacking the expected quality.”
ML: Have you noticed any trends in terms of creating attractive packages for prospective employees?
RG: “Hybrid working is absolutely key to the majority of candidates we speak to nowadays. The pandemic has taught us to value our time, and to do that effectively, there has to be flexibility.
“That flexibility can be where you work or the hours that you work, but most importantly it’s the feeling that you’re entitled to that flexibility.
“Companies that offer hybrid working in its truest sense are finding it easiest to attract the talent they are looking for. That, coupled with trusting your employees to deliver what’s required, is the current market game changer.”
ML: Which technologies are now best used to recruit?
RG: “Tech has always played a massive part in how we streamline recruitment, from ATS portals to specialist job boards, and we don’t see it stopping there. Social media is also a massive player in the market now. We are driving our own agenda to bring recruiters together with our bespoke platform to allow seamless collaboration.
“We feel that clients want smaller PSLs but better performance, and by offering collaboration as a service to our clients, they can see the huge benefits of engaging indirectly with a platform of this nature.
“They’re able to outsource more of their roles to their preferred suppliers, even if they hadn’t possessed the knowledge to fulfil those roles in the past. Now, they can share them with the huge knowledge base the platform provides.
“In addition to that, clients can now work indirectly with agencies they may have passed over for positions on their PSL. When tech delivers trust and security for collaboration, everyone walks away benefiting; be that financially or with the quality of the talent pool.”
Comms Business Jobs is an industry-specific consultative platform for jobseekers and recruiters, not just a jobs board. Jobseekers and browsers can search and apply for the latest jobs within specific sectors, by function, location and salary band. If your requirements are specific, you can register to receive email job alerts, so that when relevant vacancies are published, you can easily apply for the best available roles.
For recruiters seeking to attract talent, all standard job listings are currently free to advertise until the 31st March 2023. Your vacancies are automatically sent to relevant candidates who match your criteria on our database. Jobs are also searchable by recruiter, making it easy for jobseekers to find your company and latest jobs. We offer tiered packages, designed to suit every need. Featured jobs are listed within a special weekly email, sent to 19,000 Channel subscribers.
This article appeared in our January 2023 print issue. You can read the magazine in full here.