By Clive Jefferys, JMA Network: We can all sense the recovery: The news trumpets growth figures to be proud of and order books are strengthening across all business sectors. However, the challenge of hiring new staff seems to grow with every day.
The latest KPMG employment survey highlights that new candidate registrations on jobsites are at a ten year low, with little sight of improvement. On the other side the CIPD has declared that SME companies are embarking on a hiring spree.
Trouble is, no-one can easily find the candidates to put in these new jobs. It's going to take a long, long time before employees are as relaxed about swapping jobs as they were in 2004!
Certainly as an agency we are doing very well this far into 2014. However, this has mostly come about through an increase in the net worth of each placement. The actual number of transactions has remained stubbornly level. So we finish our sales meetings every week with the catchphrase 'Just one more!' to encourage our consultants to find that extra sale every month. Sound familiar?
Fortunately, we are so well established that we can find the right people, in the right place, by mining our ten year old database of candidates for leads, and the key word here is 'referrals'.
I think we reached a turning point at the end of last year when our referral commissions exceeded our conventional advertising spend for the first time ever. Every month since has been the same and I've come to the conclusion that the search for passive candidates is the only way forward, whether you are an agent or employer.
So if you are hirer and you need to fill key positions, you need to increase the volume of your voice in this seller's market. That's a tough proposition when so many people are shouting so loudly, so the best thing you can do is to go where everyone else goes.
It's the old adage about why shoe shops are always next to other shoe shops, and it's no less true in recruitment. So if you need to hire people, the only place to go is where vacancies and candidates congregate.
Maybe it's a bit like going to the doctor about the little problem you've had for a while, but just won't go away. Once you've made the decision to ask for advice, you'll feel so much better when you let the professionals sort it out for you instead.