An employment update from Kinetic Recruitment
In the last four weeks we have seen a big change within the job market.
Since the beginning of this year, there have not been many candidates with secure jobs wanting to apply for new positions. Most have been "head down" and flying under the radar rather than risk
being pulled up by HR and given their walking papers.
However I can safely say now, based on our work levels, that as businesses have become more comfortable with what the future will likely hold for them, employers are moving towards securing new resources, on both a temporary and permanent basis.
One thing that has come through strongly when interviewing candidates, which we do daily, is the amount of people who have found the last year exhausting and who are ready for a change.
Candidates we meet are consistently saying the same thing; they are tired of being expected to pick up the workloads of redundant positions. In many cases their workload has doubled and they feel a lot of pressure internally. This can make for an unpleasant working environment.
When we hear this we always advise speaking to a manager in the first instance to give the company the chance to provide solutions. However in a small number of cases, it seems that some employers are sticking to their "no recruitment" policy.
So now we have movement within the market. We are seeing realistic, well qualified and skilled individuals who are ready for a new challenge and a change of scenery. We are also seeing candidates who have taken on roles earlier this year on a lower salary, start to resurface and seek other, more challenging opportunities.
I have just spent two weeks in the States. It was interesting to see first hand how hard the recession has hit them. We have all heard the stories, but to see it for yourself is always enlightening.
In speaking with people over there, it is clear to see that they are actually optimistic (the American way), but they are also cautious. For the past two months, retail sales have seen a consistent increase and that boosted the US equity markets, but is this a blip or a sign of things to come?
Auckland has shown more life in the employment market in the last four weeks than we have had for a while. Clients who, reluctantly or otherwise, recruited themselves in the first half of the year are now utilising our services to assist with the end-to-end process rather than just part of a service.
When you look at the statistics online from the various job boards, it doesn't necessarily reflect the available opportunities within the market. We track our fill ratios ( per cent of jobs we work on that we fill successfully) and on average, 67 per cent of roles are placed without even being advertised. Why? Well not only is our database the best that it has been in years, we are able to "tap" candidates that we know are ready to move and are the best in their field.
Employers' expectations of the candidate market are high - shortlists are expected within 48 hours rather than a week and because of the high quality of candidates registered with us, we are able to provide. If we do advertise online, the response is still slightly overwhelming, but the numbers are lower than in recent months and the quality of the response is role dependant.
Going forward into the latter part of the year, as the trend of improvement continues, the weather gets better and moods lift, we hope that employees will become happier, available candidates will start to find more opportunities and company culture will improve for many.
Hopefully, with the emphasis moving away from cutting every possible corner, workloads will reduce to normal size so our stress levels can decrease and we can get balance into our lives.
* Kate Ross is director of Kinetic Recruitment as well as the Return2work programme, in partnership with Sarah Paykel.