Keep up with the latest hiring trends!
Last Thursday saw the National Recruitment Federation’s (NRF) Annual Conference take place in Dublin’s Citywest Hotel and, as usual, we were there soaking up the atmosphere and asking the agency directors in attendance, their opinions on a number of pressing issues the industry is facing right now. What do they believe are the most in-demand skills of the moment? What barriers to growth do they perceive for the reminder of 2014? Are they utilising performance metrics? Would they welcome an agency ranking site? Find out:
What are the most in-demand skills right now?
In the last 6 months, the once booming construction and engineering industry has been making a comeback, and recruiters are seeing a much increased demand for candidates with those skills.
Healthcare positions for doctors and nurses are also proving to be in abundance, with little or no candidates to fill a growing pile of positions.
What could be the biggest obstacles to growth in 2014?
Hays lamented the fact that very often clients are seeking “the finished article” and overlook those candidates with great potential, but with a slight lack of experience. The challenge for agencies is to try and educate their customers as to the current availability of skills and really push candidates they feel will really suit the client regardless of their experience level.
It was also pointed out that there is a definite shortage of new recruiters, especially those with a sales mentality and tenacity (corresponding with the need for more recruitment skills as mentioned earlier). It would seem that a lot of graduates still assume no one is hiring and therefore recruitment is not a good space to be in, and although the economy is much improved, it is still believed to be causing this attitude amongst graduates.
One of the best observations about future barriers came from Peter Cosgrove who believes the only obstacles we should be fearing are the one’s we don’t know about yet. At any moment, a new piece of software, a new social network or tech enabled product or service could interrupt our industry quite dramatically. We need to stay attuned to what is happening in the industry and always be ready for ‘the next big thing’.
How important are performance metrics?
Would you welcome a site that allows job seekers to rate and rank agencies and the recruiters who work within those firms?
What’s your opinion? What do you feel ate the most in-demand skills of the moment? Do you perceive any major obstacles to growth within the industry in the next 7 months? Do you use analytics to measure your team’s success? Would you welcome a specialised agency ranking site? Let us know in the comments below.