Though it depends which roles you are recruiting for and where, as recruiters we are spotting some common trends which may impact you as a manager.
Across both agency and in-house, we are recognising an increase in demand for digital skills. This is in part driven by strategic marketing shifts by businesses, where in-house teams and agencies alike are increasing their digital advertising/marketing spend to better attract digital natives.
However as this demand has increased, not all employers have adapted accordingly. With only 25% of digital leaders believing the UK workforce holds the required knowledge and expertise to execute planned digital strategies.
This trend is especially prevalent across in-house brands, for whom the 80% undergoing a digital transformation, makes securing the right digital and creative talent vital. With reports indicating the digital & creative skills gap (especially across IT) is larger in the UK compared to the rest of Europe, some companies are increasing salaries to attract the right candidates. This potentially reduces the available talent pool further.
This helps to explain why the average recruitment process has lengthened by an additional 52 days. This is shown to have a knock on effect on project deadlines (including digital transformations), which will inevitably impact on staff satisfaction and retention rates.
To ensure cost efficiency, businesses will aim to reduce this timescale, but care must be taken. Hiring talent which does not fulfil your whole criteria is shown to have an equally negative effect on time resources and productivity.
Whilst you may be confident in your ability to source talent directly, utilising a recruiter can provide you with an advantage in the current skills shortage environment.
Hiring timescales depend on a number of factors, but what good recruiters can do is reduce the time you invest in this process.
At Pitch, we adopt a strategic approach to sourcing the market, meaning we do all the planning, benchmarking, market mapping and CV reviewing - even providing some administrative support in arranging interviews and communicating advice and support for your brand.
Importantly, we are also able to contact both the active and passive job market. Around 75% of the employment market is made up of passive candidates, who are not actively searching but often hold the in-demand skills many businesses are seeking.
Approximately 3 out of 4 of our placements are made by contacting these individuals, demonstrating the value of accessing a market which would have been potentially locked without the assistance of a recruiter.
Whilst finding a niche web developer or PPC executive with the right skills is important, around 89% of hiring managers state bad hires typically lack soft skills, with 57% struggling to assess these candidates correctly. By using a recruiter you are more likely to bypass these issues. Not only do we thoroughly screen all applicants before you see their CV, but we are also able to offer advice on recruitment practices. These have been ensured to match the best talent to your specific business requirements.
Acting as an extension to your brand is our aim when providing you with recruitment support. However, if you require a more in-depth chat about how our in-house and wider team can assist you, get in touch with us today.
