With spring officially underway we thought we’d take some time to reflect on some of the biggest developments in recruitment during Q1 of 2022, what we’re expecting to see during Q2 and how you can best prepare for recruiting talent into your team.
Not got much time? Here’s a speedy breakdown
What we saw in Q1
We’ll be honest. We fully anticipated a difficult start to the year as Covid cases began to rise, but fortunately we, like many businesses, experienced the opposite.
2022 has begun strong with recruitment demands growing by 20% across Pitch compared to Q4 of 2021. This has largely been driven by agencies and in-house businesses requiring additional talent due to new client wins, increased demand and rescaling following … well we all know what.
That was the good bit! But Q1 brought many challenges. Some we anticipated within our 2022 recruitment trends report, others seem to have come out of nowhere!
Talent shortages - Were a key challenge in Q1, with limited movement within the account handling, PR and marketing space alongside specialist skillsets (SEO, PPC, Development).
Salaries increasing - We fully expected salary demands to increase amongst in-demand skillsets as businesses compete with each other to attract the best talent. However what we didn’t expect were increases due to rising costs of living. Some employers have uplifted salaries by anything between £1,000 to £10,000 in some more extreme cases.
The creative resurgence - Creatives have had a c@!p time over the past few years, but things seem to be on the up. More businesses across the agency and in-house space are looking to take on graphic designers and artworkers (amongst other skills) and talent availability so far looks good! In short it’s a great time to be and recruit creatives.
Counter offers - We’ve seen more counter offers in the past 3 months than probably the last 3 years. Awareness around talent shortages means more companies are doing their best to retain talent by offering promotions and enhanced salaries + packages, but whether they’re successful depends on having a strong relationship with employees and a commitment to put actions where words are.
In Q2 we’re expecting
The challenges faced in Q1 sadly won’t magically fix themselves overnight (we wish!), so unless growth across industries begins to plateaux, then talent shortages are set to continue.
However if companies are willing to be creative in recruitment and invest time in new hires, there will be a surge in immediately available talent around May/June as a new wave of graduates enter the market. If you can give them a chance, they’ll be willing and eager to learn as whilst some may have a year or so worth of experience, others will have experienced challenges finding work experience in light of job reductions throughout Covid.
We’re also expecting …
There may be some movement amongst candidates looking to increase their salary in light of rises in the cost of living. If struggling to recruit, it may be worth hirers considering whether they can afford to increase salary brackets to attract this market.
With this you can expect some candidates to be asking for higher salaries during interview stages.
Disgruntlement with counter offers - If an employee has been counter offered during Q1 and the promise hasn’t been fulfilled then there’s a chance that individual will look to re-enter the job market.
