As we enter VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) times, recruitment consultants are often seen as a barometer of the economy and, consequently, asked our thoughts on the state of the market, based on recruitment trends.
So, what are we seeing at Procurement Heads?
James Dobbin, Director and Head of Practice for our Financial & Professional Services sector, shares his thoughts.
- In-house recruiters and RPOs being let go by their companies
- Hiring managers recruiting directly (this invariably involves posting a poorly written job advert not dissimilar to a job specification and hoping for the best)
- Job adverts (in the loosest sense of the word) in the market for an unhealthy length of time and then hiring managers adding more ‘agencies’ to a job after poor service (and in doing so repeating a cycle which isn’t working)
- Procurement professionals going from tentatively engaging with the market to juggling multiple job offers
- Organisations everywhere are missing out on recruiting some of the best people because of slow, convoluted hiring methods
I recently engaged with a new client who dejectedly reached out to me because they were exhausted from a recruitment process that was bearing no fruit.
They’d been recruiting for the role for three months, and appointed three agencies, believing they were tripling the effort and covering more of the procurement talent market.
In reality, what they were doing was diluting the effort, tainting their brand and making people believe the role was a poisoned chalice.
Fortunately, they listened to us, took our advice, stood down the agencies and removed their advert.
After a discovery session and kick-off meeting, we were able to handle the entire recruitment process from start to finish, optimise their job advert and complete the mandate in four weeks.
The old adage too many cooks spoil the broth definitely rings true when it comes to recruitment.
So, what are the benefits of retaining an experienced procurement recruitment agency and why does it enable our clients to attract the best talent?
- The recruiter has skin in the game and so do you and will partner with you to deliver
- Agreeing on clear SLAs and what good looks like from both parties
- They can’t bail or give up when something more interesting comes along
- You can hold each other accountable, working towards a common goal
- Increased market visibility as the commitment of a retainer enables the recruiter to speak openly about the role, its unique selling points and the organisation’s culture
- It demonstrates to the market you are serious about recruiting for the role and not just undertaking a benchmarking exercise and in doing so candidates will take the opportunity more seriously
- The client gets a better experience, the candidate gets a better experience and the recruiter gets a better experience as it isn’t a bun fight to get the most CVs over quickest and time can be taken to do a thorough job, meeting all candidates in person and undertaking behavioural, technical and cultural based competency vetting
At Procurement Heads, we have always advocated and offered advice without obligation and with decades of recruitment experience we strongly believe in the benefits of a retained recruitment campaign and we would be happy to meet with you to discuss your mandate.
