The government is heavily reliant on the private sector to create jobs. But with so many applicants for each vacancy, where should businesses look to bolster their teams and find the best quality? We talk to the experts to find out how you can make the most of the recruitment process
Traditionally the last quarter of the year is lively for recruiters. Blue-chip companies usually invite applications from September through to February for their graduate schemes, and school and university leavers attempt to enter the job market. According to the latest survey by the Association of Graduate Recruiters, corporate companies could be busier than ever this year. The AGR's figures show that on average 83 people are applying for each vacancy compared to 30 in 2008, while association members predict vacancy levels will rise by 2.6 per cent in 2011.
November and December can be buoyant for SMEs as well. Smaller firms tend to employ against need rather than on a formalised intake, but if they're planning to expand their team then directors often prefer new recruits to start in January.
But there's little about the labour market that you could call traditional. Through the recession businesses were trying to hang on to staff but redundancies were commonplace. So with only a sniff of growth in the air you can understand why the attitude to hiring remains cautious.
Nevertheless, the government is pinning its hopes on industry to drive economic recovery. And at the moment, the odds are stacked in recruiters' favour – it's a good time to cherry-pick the best talent. But managing large volumes of applications and identifying the strongest candidate can be a challenge, especially for firms without a dedicated HR function. So what are the most effective and least time-consuming ways for businesses to recruit and how can you spot quality? Here are some tips…
Work with your local university
Steve Wood, project manager for Graduate to Merseyside, a graduate placement scheme for Merseyside SMEs run by the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University, says his service is a free resource for business. Working closely with the region's regeneration divisions and support organisations, he says there are similar schemes in cities around the UK.
If a director identifies a need or "gap" within his business then Graduate to Merseyside will advertise the vacancy on its website and consult a database of job-seeking candidates. If a CV meets the firm's requirements – usually academic skill and the attitude to fit in – it will be forwarded. "There's an ongoing support process," adds Wood. "We'll draw up a plan when the graduate starts: what the key targets are and what the key outputs will be. That's a good way of focusing the business on what they need to get out of the individual."
With many SMEs operating within tight resources, Wood admits that bringing in another member of staff sometimes isn't affordable. But he would encourage smaller companies to think of recruitment as an investment. A lot of the time, he says, the new employee will support and enable the director to drive the business.
Use social and professional networking
"If you've got a product, or a brand, or a position to fill, then you want to be where your consumers are. Where are they? On social network sites and social media," says Dr Mariann Hardey, associate director of the Centre for Communication Science at Durham University. Social networking for business purposes is now common practice and companies, including Vodafone, have run successful recruitment campaigns through sites such as Facebook.
But as generation Y begins to realise that its personal space needs to be protected, professional networking sites such as LinkedIn may be more useful for recruitment purposes, points out Hardey. "There's this pull away from the personalisation of things like Facebook. People want more of a business presence. So you've also got professional networks like Viadeo, which is taking the Indian, Chinese and European markets by storm."
LinkedIn helps recruiters on several levels, claims Ariel Eckstein, LinkedIn's managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He says around 20 per cent of its 100 million global members are seeking a job while the rest use LinkedIn to connect with professionals in their industry. And there is a "whole suite of hiring solutions" focused on helping companies find talent.
Eckstein says LinkedIn helps companies shape their recruitment message appropriately, asking directors how well they understand the candidate pool and how their business is perceived. There's a direct sourcing product, which helps recruiters look for a candidate based on skill, geography, industry experience and previous companies. And in terms of cost, he says LinkedIn's recruitment tools are "for the most part a flat rate, whether you hire one person or 100", so bringing it in-house saves money.
He adds: "We've built our products to be so easy that if you can do a search on a search engine, then you can use our product. People are often up and running within two hours."
Don't dismiss traditional agencies
There's a lot of pressure on recruiters, says Carmen Watson, managing director of Pertemps Recruitment. Emerging from recession, they have to justify hiring and quickly find the person with the best skills and attitude to fit in to their culture and deliver added value to customers.
Using a recruitment agency means you find an objective match of candidates, claims Watson. "We've invested in a talent match programme that enables us to match candidates' skills and profiles very quickly – literally in five minutes. The USP is that all of these candidates are dealt with personally – it's not a cold and faceless click-click technology system."
Using an agency means you gain ready access to thousands of prospective candidates that are already vetted; a lot of the legwork is done by qualified recruiters, which is satisfying because "if that role is placed and for whatever reason it doesn't work out then the business has some redress", explains Watson.
The disadvantage is cost, she adds. "It's interesting because businesses spend millions of pounds promoting their brand but they query the cost of a professional hire. I find that curious. But I do believe that given that people are a company's greatest asset and they are the key to growth and sustainability, that price is well worth considering."
Is there a service that fits your niche market?
Using an agency whose function is to serve your industry can help to bring core recruitment requirements in front of the right people. As Michael Davies, head of editorial at media intelligence firm Gorkana, explains, a niche operator provides recruiters with information that they value and request.
"It's very important to find the specialist in your area," says Davies. Gorkana's simple, transparent and functional site delivers to people exactly what they want – "the details of the job". He adds: "The point is we're niche and that means a well-defined pool of talent."
Looking for jobs should be about using all the tools you can, advises Paul Halliwell of Trinity Mirror Digital Recruitment, the company behind Totally Exec. Even though the market has recovered "slightly", he says recruiters are careful about whether the position they're filling is one they really need and are much more focused on looking for people with direct experience. "Senior executives looking to move sectors or roles have to work harder in the current climate to demonstrate their suitability."
Halliwell says the CV continues to be a reliable filter and over the last few years the ubiquity of online tools has given recruiters a powerful advantage. "It's possible that a recruiter will find the CV a candidate has used for a particular application as well as their more generic CV or even access one they've used on a previous application," he explains. So he thinks there will be a growing trend to use the cover letter "as a way of tailoring their application rather than writing a CV for every single job". The competition for jobs has become fiercer but the basics of how a candidate stands out haven't really changed, adds Halliwell.
Understand the mindset of the younger workforce
According to research by Ashridge Business School and the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), there is a lack of understanding between generation Y and management about what they want from work, how they want to be managed and career advancement. This means that most plan to move to different organisations within two years of joining.
High turnover wastes resources. You've got to be smarter about how you recruit, advises Peter Cheese, ILM's chairman. "You need to be sure that the people you're recruiting not only have the intellectual firepower or the specific technical knowledge but that they will assimilate positively into your culture," he says. Recruiters need to understand their own culture so that the people they're trying to hire understand what they're looking for.
He says employers must be able to articulate these things during recruitment. "A lot of it is about spending time with the candidate and in a small business you can bring potential candidates in. They can meet peers, it doesn't have to be a formal interview," he says.
It's crucial that employers are open and transparent at the recruitment stage about what they're expecting, adds Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters. "By giving a realistic idea about what's involved, it may put the people who are only marginally interested out of the frame. Young people today have grown up in a world of marketing and branding – they're used to it. You're dealing with people who are pretty knowledgeable and savvy. If you're trying to get away with something it just won't work."
For SMEs that don't have the luxury of "an all-singing-and-dancing website", adds Gilleard, directors should focus on building links with universities. "There is a trend now to make contact with students at
a much earlier stage, which brings internships and work placements into the equation. They're ideal opportunities for the student to find out more about the place and a great opportunity for employers to get fresh thinking into the business."
Recruitment in numbers
81%
Press adverts (81 per cent), online job searches (76 per cent) and web adverts
(72 per cent) are the most used sources for new jobs.
73%
More than 73 per cent
of graduate recruiters require a 2.1 for entry into their programmes.
42%
Two-fifths of AGR recruiters hold a first interview at their head office while just under half conduct initial talks over the telephone.
20%
A fifth of AGR recruiters use online screening exercises.
