Demand for recruitment software grows

April 26th, 2022 | Industry News

A recent international report suggested that the recruitment software market saw a year on year growth of 4.74% in 2020, at a time when many industries were flat-lining due to COVID-19. With a projected market growth of £521 million between 2020 and 2024 and Europe providing maximum growth opportunities, it all sounds good for companies like Recruit So Simple. But what’s driving the demand, and where is it likely to lead?

One consideration is the linkage between the economy and the recruitment industry – low unemployment leads to a decrease in demand for recruiters, but even when unemployment is low, there can still be substantial skill shortages. One of the biggest growth areas predicted in the recruitment software sector is SaaS recruitment agencies, as these have particular appeal for SMEs and companies recruiting short-term expertise, allowing for maximum flexibility in working hours and responsiveness, exactly where SMEs excel.

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Recruitment: trends, ‘talent crisis’ and Ukrainian refugees

March 22nd, 2022 | Industry News

A recent American survey reveals that a third of employees who were consulted, said they are considering changing employer in the next 12 months. It’s clear evidence of the way that people are approaching employment. SAAS recruitment agencies are seeing that candidates are seeking to move companies, a trend that is in line with the talent crisis and which is being driven by the belief (75%) that they are loyal to their employer while their employer, 56% believe, is not loyal to them. Some companies are calling this a ‘talent crisis’ while others are describing it as ‘consumering employment’. In other words, candidates are looking for the same experience in recruitment as they do in purchasing: rapid responses (often automated, like self-checkouts), 24 hour engagement (like chat bots when shopping) and frictionless processes (fewer hurdles, or applications become like abandoned shopping carts).

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Hidden trends in UK recruitment

March 8th, 2022 | Industry News

Every industry is having its recruitment issues – and one that we’re probably not that aware of is the crisis in the security industry. From prison work to door duty to driving, the security industry has faced a crossroads with employees sitting in furlough and looking at the demands of high-risk work and antisocial hours. Online recruitment software has definitely seen this trend, with a high number of security officers registering their interest in a career change.

Problems don’t end there: security personnel also have to maintain Security Industry Authority (SIA) qualifications and undertake compulsory training at their own cost, while many of them have been in the front line, facing a high risk of contracting COVID-19. Finally, many security personnel have not renewed visas and moved/returned to EU countries.

Recruiting and retaining talent has become essential, and key approaches include:

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Recruitment sector by sector and online

February 27th, 2022 | Industry News

In the finance industry, multinational companies have set up bonus policies and bonus parity schemes to try and combat the Great Resignation and to retain talent or attract new employees. Recruitment software is being used to track the bonus schemes offered by rival finance institutions so that bonuses offered have parity, with the addition of a sign-on policy and a loyalty bonus at the end of the first year, they hope this will bring talent to their organisation or keep it there.

In construction, in the USA, where women are 14% of the workforce and ethnic minority representation is a mere 6%, recent research shows that less than a third of individuals believe construction is an industry ‘for them’. Online recruitment software can find individuals with transferable skills and signpost them to sectors they might not otherwise have considered, but industry-wide there’s a drive to create a new perception in social media to help grow recruitment in currently underrepresented groups.

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UK recruitment trends: fact and figures

February 8th, 2022 | Industry News

A survey of more than a thousand UK HR decision-makers shows that work priorities have changed: while COVID-19 cases are still a major preoccupation, causing concern for 44% of respondents, inflation and the cost of living are expected to impact 62% of organisations. 17% of employers say they will struggle to pay competitive salaries in the current market, while 42% of the UK based workforce is seeking a higher salary in the first six months of the year. Even more startling, 71% of candidates are willing to change sectors to obtain higher wages. Recruitment software is going to need to demonstrate increasing sophistication to recognise transferable skills and identify potential candidates from outside the standard sectoral boundaries.

Recruiting software and the Great Resignation

The best recruitment CRM will also help HR professionals meet another challenge – the Great Resignation. The claim that there are ‘talent wars’ may be overstated, but certain sectors, such as construction, healthcare and IT are seeing intense movement as people seek better pay, greater opportunities or just decide to take several months off, knowing that there will be a job for them when they return. This behaviour which began early in 2021, shows no sign of disappearing and certainly in IT, where individuals can boost their income by taking time off to earn a new certification, returning to the workplace ‘retooled’ for a better role.

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Starting Out and “Selling Out” – thoughts for 2022

January 26th, 2022 | Industry News

Starting Out

So you’re thinking of starting a recruitment agency? Good for you. As we continue to adjust to living with a pandemic, few things contribute as much to personal wellbeing and the economy as employment. Given that 73% of candidates claim that job-hunting is one of the most stressful things they’ve ever done, good recruitment agencies can really help improve life for many people.

Are you going to specialise?

Your choices are:

• Executive and head hunting
• Specialist recruitment
• Temporary recruitment
• General recruitment

Of course, with good online recruitment software you can segment your offering so that you work in more than one area, without looking like you’re spreading yourself too thinly. Natural partners are Executive and Temporary (placing interim executives is lucrative and rewarding) and Specialist and Temporary (same deal – if you’re recruiting in a limited area, you probably have a pool of candidates who could be placed via short term contracts using recruitment database software to meet client needs effectively).

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COVID + recruitment – the effects so far

January 10th, 2022 | Industry News

The Covid pandemic, which has killed an estimated 5,500,000 people worldwide, and has damaged many businesses, some of them irreparably, has caused seismic shifts in the recruitment industry.

During 2021 recruitment companies bore much of the brunt of the various lockdowns and restrictions. While actual recruitment, especially via HR departments, almost disappeared at times, employee retention – not usually a focus for recruitment agencies – became a paramount concern. Recruiting software that combines the best recruitment CRM with online capacity has given recruitment agencies who make the most of this software the ability to support their clients in keeping the staff they have through:

• internal promotion and team-building
• expression of organisational values through internal recruitment adverts
• developing onboarding processes to help organisations remain afloat in turbulent waters by reassigning personnel and redefining job descriptions.

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Recruitment strategies for 2021 and beyond

December 6th, 2021 | Industry News

There are national, and even international, changes that are affecting the world of recruitment. In Taiwan, a new law has allowed for greater flexibility in recruiting foreign professionals, and especially, making Taiwan a more attractive place for graduates to come and live – and work. Web based recruitment software shows a definite trend for major companies to have upped their game around international recruitment, and the legislation makes clear it’s not just C-suite positions that they are recruiting for. Another thing that recruitment software reveals is the extent to which all potential candidates above entry level are being sought, even wooed, by forward-thinking employers. From LinkedIn articles through to targeted advertising, graduate level employees are being exposed to employment opportunities and introduced to potential future employers in systematic ways that require creative approaches and excellent recruitment CRM software to identify, engage and maintain relationships with a talent pool.

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Hidden reasons to use a recruitment agency

November 30th, 2021 | Industry News

Many people understand the obvious reasons to use recruitment services:

• Saving money – recruitment agencies and recruitment software in particular, save any company money by working more efficiently, automating processes and freeing up your personnel to do their jobs
• Drawing on wider resources – your exposure to your own industry can be partial at best, because there’s all that stuff about confidentiality and competitiveness that can make it difficult to have real depth. The best recruitment software for agencies helps recruiters to identify outstanding candidates that might not be visible to you.

But there are other reasons that should be taken into account when you’re deciding whether to use a recruitment agency, such as:

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Budget responses and candidate ‘journeys’

November 16th, 2021 | Industry News

When Rishi Sunak suggested that funding for apprenticeships, skills bootcamps and creating new Institutes of Technology would help fill the vacancies gap, the response from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation was swift. Whilst welcoming these initiatives a spokesperson said that the apprenticeship levy was ‘acting as a brake on prospects for young people’.

Recruitment database software confirms that many younger candidates lack entry level skills for a lot of jobs, and that while the proposed numeracy programme – Multiply – may help, recruitment management software cannot resolve the issue that access to training and development is unevenly applied across the UK.

For employers, especially when recruiting at the entry level, this can be a huge issue. There’s not much scope for relocation or commuting at that end of the career spectrum, and yet without good candidates at the base level, organisations cannot up-skill or train employees to grow with their employer.

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