Recruitment for cybersecurity and why you probably need a recruitment agency

April 8th, 2021 | Industry News

Cybersecurity recruitment issues

There’s a substantial talent gap in the cybersecurity industry, and that’s hardly news. What’s exacerbated the problem is that 2020 turned every functioning company into a technology company, and 2021 is causing many organisations to look at their long term plans and work out how much of their activity they want to keep entirely online. Recruiting software data reveals the truth – it’s not just e-commerce organisations that are seeking cybersecurity professionals. Organisations that are planning to keep their remote working capacity now they’ve found how easy it is are also using online recruitment software to try and find skilled individuals who can help them with issues like ransomware, phishing, and of course, GDPR.

Why such a problem? Partly because there’s a gap between the theory of taught cybersecurity and the on-the-ground (or in the cloud) needs of organisations trying to manage external threats and compliance issues. Narrow curriculums lead to candidates who lack a 360 view of their sector. Recruitment software UK specialists recommend looking at skills based events to recruit proactively and focusing on in-house training as part of the deal.

Social media recruitment fail

Sometimes you really need a real recruitment expert to hold your hand. When Spicerhaart, a leading leading estate agency group, posted about 15 vacancies in its operation (subsequently reported on the Colchester Gazette Facebook page) it probably expected a simple, cost-effective recruitment drive. Instead it got a social media feeding frenzy. Of course recruitment agency software should always be capable of handling a social media campaign, but sometimes it takes an expert to know if you should actually run one. For Spicerhaart, the answer was no. More than two hundred comments later, the company is focused on damage limitation, not recruitment. While some responders praised the company, many former employees left bitter and detailed comments about their treatment. In particular, several of the 300 people made redundant in 2020 have made it clear they are confused and wounded by this new recruitment activity.

While the company are putting a brave face on it, saying, “We know there are many people who do want to work in our call centre – having had over 1,000 applicants in just three days” one of the expressed concerns has been why the appeal was necessary at all – given that the best recruitment CRM should have been able to identify 15 ideal candidates from the hundreds of CVs that every virtually UK company has received in the past 12 months. In other words, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should, as Spicerhaart has learned, to its reputational cost.