- Jo Faragher
Hiring companies suffer from a real tension right now. On the one hand, HR departments are forced to cut costs and constantly justify any investments; on the other, the need to find the right talent is greater than ever before.
A survey released this week by Manpower Group echoes these concerns. It found that 35% of 40,000 global employers faced difficulties in finding staff with the right skills – the highest shortage since the start of the recession. More than half of them (54%) believe it will impact on their ability to meet their clients’ needs.
With all the buzz around social media and the impact of LinkedIn, it can be easy to forget the contribution a good recruitment agency can make in this emerging, new ‘war for talent’. Yes, technology can help us to source suitable candidates better than ever before, but it will be crucial to build relationships with both clients and potential employees to make sure they are a long-term fit for the company.
At the same time, however, many candidates still struggle to find jobs. This week think-tank the Resolution Foundation revealed its analysis of the total adult employment rate, suggesting that there is a “jobs gap” of 930,000. This is the number of new jobs that would be required to restore the employment rate from its present level of 58.5 per cent to the 60.3 per cent recorded in 2008, it explained.So if companies can’t find the right talent, but the employment rate has declined, surely there is a surplus of candidates? Again, the issue is not the number of candidates available, but the lack of those with exactly the right skills to fuel post-recession growth at these businesses. Which is where agencies can help to bring companies and skills together.
A further area where agencies can help to redress the balance is in improving gender diversity. Our story from Technojobs this week highlights how fewer women are entering IT or pursuing computer science degrees because of the perceived image of the profession. Recruiters in this space can do much to dispel these myths – there are networking groups such as the Women in IT forum in technology industry body Intellect, for example – through holding up great female role models and showing the benefits of a job in this fast-moving sector.
It’s not just the technology industry that suffers from a lack of diversity. It’s been well documented how UK boards lack female representation, and while most businesses were thankful there has been no introduction of quotas as there are in some EU countries, there is still some way to go to meet the targets set out in the Davies Report in 2011.
A number of senior-level recruiters are doing some interesting work in tackling this, such as Harvey Nash’s ‘Inspire’ group, which hosts events for more than 1,000 women including directors, chairs, CEOs and partners in private equity and venture capital organisations.
Next month, our feature will look at what recruiters can do to improve gender diversity in our boards. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts at editorial@recruitmentagencynow.com