Businesses must hire carefully to find suitable candidates in today’s fast-paced market.
According to global software and fintech executive recruitment consultancy Oakstone International, businesses face a perfect storm due to massive growth and a shortage of suitable candidates.
With most industries becoming automated by tech, the demand for staff is constantly growing. As a result, many new recruitment companies have appeared in recent years. In addition, remote recruiting, primarily due to the pandemic, has sped up recruitment procedures.
The recruitment market is increasingly competitive, and potential candidates are getting many more job offers than they were just three years ago. Decisions are typically being based on immediate financial motivation instead of career prospects.
Companies are encouraged to invest enough time, money and expertise to attract the right people. If different employers offer potential employees roughly the same money, the candidates will make decisions based on leadership quality, market position and working conditions.
Tristan Heywood, divisional director at Oakstone, comments: “I’ve been in this business for more than 21 years and I can’t remember a time when I was busier. What is very clear is that everyone is hiring, which is not only driving salaries up, but leading to candidates to make poor choices – and that situation is unlikely to change in the near future.
“The single biggest challenge is that with not enough people for the volume of roles across every function – technically geared, engineering-related and sales – candidates get many more offers and typically will make decisions based on instant financial motivations rather than career prospects.
“Some recruiters just throw CVs at businesses in their haste to conclude a deal, but we consider that akin to ‘people trading’ and we don’t cut corners. We invest time in finding the right person for each role – putting the wrong candidate up for interview not only damages our reputation but slows or stops the process.”
Oakstone International divisional director Dan Hammond-Smith, added: “As we continue to move towards a hybrid working model, most clients who we partner with have adapted and adjusted.
“Those that haven’t – and those that aren’t willing to – will lose candidates because employees are more than ever calling the shots about when they want to be in the office. People’s priorities have changed.
“There is probably a 20 per cent increase in terms of base salaries within senior technology roles from even where we were last year – coupled expectations of bonus, decent pensions, investment in people’s betterment, learning and well-being – and you have a pretty competitive landscape.
“At the start of 2021, the standard interview process within technology was 27.5 days – now, for most of my clients, it’s 14 days. That’s because they have now got to be even competitive in the market to succeed.”
