Global Recruiting

It is often difficult to know if things are getting better for recruiters or if the forecast for executive search is bleak. I look to those that survey the industry to offer signs that can predict a direction.

ExecuNet is one of the survey organizations I watch. They engage is recruitment forecasting surveys frequently. Their most recent survey had four positive indicators for the months ahead.

• Recruiter confidence reached 51%, the best in more than 2 years. Recruiters are getting more positive about recruiting. Since recruiters are eternally optimistic, this indicator alone needs someone good news connected to it to make it feel real.
• Executive Job Creation Index moved in a positive direction in January 2014. 30% of companies expected to add executive positions early in the year, up 10% for the prior year.
• Recruiters are forecasting 15% growth in assignments, an increase from 2013 levels.
• ExecuNet also captures metrics on voluntary “quit” rate. This is rate is reported as on the increase, so retention of top talent will be an issue for companies in 2014.

What trends or forecasts do you watch? Is there one that you find most accurate?

Image courtesy of jannoon028 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As a recruitment agency, the thought of global recruitment may be daunting or even frightening. So how must your client companies feel? Sometimes they do not have a choice…they must engage in a global search because local talent is not available. You have the luxury to opt in when you see the value or when it fits your plan.

So is 2014 the year you expand your horizons? Will you expand recruitment globally to support a client need or because you see the future of recruiting? Will you move proactively or will you wait until you have lost business and been out-positioned by more nimble competitors?

The case for global recruitment is based on a few developing trends:

First, everyone is doing it. Well, not quite. But in a recent survey sponsored by an ATS provider, nearly 50% of those responding said they were expanding into new territories in 2013. Global access to social media and technology tools like video interviewing are making the stretch into new geographies that much easier.

The second reason for the growth in global recruitment has to do with the war for talent and demographics. It is a fact that some of the world’s strongest economies are not producing the engineering and technical talent necessary to fill the needs projected. In North America and Western Europe, employers will be facing a “double trouble” situation as experienced employees reach retirement age at the same time that the overall need for talent increases. Even today, high level or technically specialized jobs can take months to fill as recruiters search for the “right fit” skill set and talent match. Recruiters are not being engaged to fill easy jobs; they are being called on to do the impossible. More and more employers will open their minds to global recruitment as the ability to fill jobs with local talent evaporates.

There is a war for talent. The news reports are not keeping up with employment reality. By 2016, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected a doubling of technical hiring. The needs projected cannot be filled without accessing talent outside of current borders or alternatively investing deeply in on-the-job training. Since on-the-job training programs have all but stopped, employers will be more willing to navigate the waters of international recruitment to secure the people and talent they will need. The question is, will recruiters lead the way or be chasing the need down from behind?

What is your plan?

Image courtesy of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today’s guest blogger is Liz Longman, the Managing Director of TEAM (The Employment Agents Movement). Liz has been involved in recruitment for over 20 years and previously headed up a region for a generalist agency before joining TEAM some eight years ago.

The TEAM network of agencies with over 400 locations and a combined turnover of approx £1 billion is the largest network of independent recruitment agents in the UK.  TEAM’s main ethos is to assist in the promotion and networking of business and innovations in the recruitment industry across its membership.  TEAM also has a growing number of international affiliates.

TEAM has just completed the round of first-quarter regional recruiter meetings across the UK for its members. Whilst many reported an improving market during 2013, there is now a unanimous show of hands for 2014 being set to be even better. Permanent vacancies are rising at their strongest rate for 4 years which is great news, but demand is far outstripping supply. Nil or sluggish growth on salaries have led to employees staying put and there is increasing evidence of the talent war as many sectors  are reporting difficulty sourcing appropriately skilled candidates.

However, there are signs that employees are gaining confidence in the upturn in the economy and are beginning to “spread their wings.” Those enlightened employers (or perhaps those that have listened to their recruiter!) who are prepared to offer improved remuneration rates are the ones that are currently snapping up the best choice of candidates.

The recruitment market is constantly shifting and good recruiters need to be nimble-footed and ahead of the game. This market calls for recruiters to perhaps spend more time with their clients explaining the dynamics of the recruitment world and how with a professional and well thought out campaign you can still secure the best available candidate for them. The recruiter also needs to acknowledge that the talent war will probably get worse before it gets better. Those quality candidates are the proverbial “hen’s teeth” so when you find them…use them. Even if you don’t have the ideal vacancy, there is a fair chance that another recruiting partner has…so get on that phone and network, network, network.

How are you winning the talent war?

At NPAworldwide we do a twice-annual survey of business conditions for global recruitment agencies. This survey was distributed to the active members of our network, representing more than 400 independent recruiting firms in more than 30 countries. Our member recruiters experienced an improvement in business conditions for their businesses in the last 6 months and are optimistic about the growth potential for the employment markets in the next 6 months. NPAworldwide’s global recruitment firm survey showed that 97% of those surveyed see conditions improving or remaining the same for their businesses over the next 180 days.  That is good news!

Some other results of this survey showed are:

• 53% of these independent recruiting firms reported improved conditions in the last 180 days, 23% indicated no change, and 23% reported worse conditions.
• 72% of our global recruitment agencies reported employment markets performing at or above expectations in the last 90 days.
• 37% of NPAworldwide’s respondents see their market getting more competitive.
• Only three percent of the respondents have a negative outlook for the next 6 months.
• 15% project fees to be below the levels realized in the prior 6 months.

This is good news for NPA members and perhaps the contingent recruiting industry in general. On a worldwide basis, it seems that conditions are improving and growing stronger.

The survey also identified “strong” and “weak” industries/segments of the employment markets. The most active markets identified by the survey of our global recruitment agencies were manufacturing/construction/mining and chemical process jobs. Weaker-performing segments were identified related to positions in the areas of accounting/financial services.

What is your outlook for the next 180 days?

If your client is reluctant to hire candidates from other countries, here are four reasons to help change their minds:

1. Consider the skills gap. Your clients want to hire the best candidates available, right? More and more, those candidates are not being found in the USA. Multiple studies points out that we are producing fewer college graduates in the critical STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) disciplines than are needed. Clients and recruiters alike bemoan the dearth of qualified candidates. Yet, few will consider hiring international candidates. It just doesn’t make sense. By opening the talent pool to a larger population of candidates, employers are more likely to find the right candidate for their job. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you like buzzwords like I like buzzwords? There is an interesting presentation on the most overused buzzwords of 2013 and the ones that dropped off the list since 2012.

So those are the overall leaders, but what about for the worldwide recruitment industry? What are the buzzwords that global recruiters overuse?

Here is my list of buzzwords overused by recruiters globally:

1. Outsourced
2. Insourced
3. Social Media
4. Mobile Recruiting
5. Free Webinar
6. Post
7. Search
8. Tweet
9. Millennial
10. Endorsed

Which words would you like to add to my blog? Oops, there’s another one… “Blog.”

As an executive search network, we try to stay current with what is changing in the global recruitment profession. During a recent research project, I came across an informative white paper by a group called ScoutRock (www.scoutrock.com). The title of the white paper is Changes in the Executive Search Industry.

One of several observations and projections this white paper identifies is a clear direction toward a greater focus on international experience, global labor mobility, global talent management, virtual global teams and cross-border business practices.

Here are some interesting numbers collected and discussed in the ScoutRock paper:

• 75% of senior executives expect to grow or enter international markets in the next 10 years.
• 54% expect management to be more international by the end of the decade.
• 92% of SHRM respondents expect to contend with global labor mobility issues.
• 85% forecast an increase in virtual global teams.

The impact of these trends and directions on the global recruitment profession is complicated. For larger, multinationals and Fortune 500 businesses, this means an increasing focus and dependence on internal global recruiters. Search assignments that may have gone to independent global recruiters may move in-house to best manage expectations and outcomes for large organizations with many global recruitment needs and a constant supply of position openings. Social networks and social recruiting have increased the ability for companies to build employment brands and a talent pipeline to match their needs. For smaller organizations and infrequent players in the global recruitment space, there will be perhaps a trend toward the use of boutique and niche firms either directly or through a search network relationship.

The quantity of executive searches engaging independent recruiters may decrease and those assignments reaching the independents will be complex and difficult. Employers will place value on things like:

• A global network of partners offering localized expertise
• Decreased cycle times
• Rapid access to global talent pools

The ScoutRock white paper is a good and interesting read for any recruiter working in a global recruitment space. A summary statement quoting from the paper:

“…to be successful, firms must develop capabilities and cultures of shared mindset, talent, collaboration, speed, accountability, learning, and leadership…”

Today’s post is courtesy of Joshua Ro with People Consulting Group in Seoul, Korea. People Consulting Group places senior executives in manufacturing, information technology, consumer products, banking and finance, telecommunications, logistics and distribution, professional services, entertainment, and fashion. Joshua serves as a member of the NPA Board of Directors.

I recently read an interesting article about increasing productivity where different qualities are needed in the workplace. The same traits can help build a high-performing recruitment team.

According to the article, it is human nature to hire someone who has abilities and skill sets similar to your own; however, it is believed that hiring someone totally opposite could increase the productivity. It described three different (and diversified) elements and areas that a productive team should possess such as different gender, different thinking styles and personalities (intro and extroversion).

The first point was that the best teams have both men and women. A survey done by Credit Suisse over 2,400 global companies recalls that any company with more than one female board of director has performed better than those without. Companies with diversified gender roles in leadership positions resulted in better performance and were well balanced.

Another survey in 2011 showed venture corporations with 5:5 gender ratio resulted in the highest performance compared to others, possibly through monitoring and checking upon each other’s performance. What does the gender balance look like on your recruitment team?

Secondly, you need introverts and extroverts in your team to create better performance. Those with the loudest voices aren’t necessarily the ones with the brilliant ideas. UCLA researchers came up with similar results. For 10 weeks, they put together a team of staffs containing a mixture of introverts and extroverts. As many anticipated in the beginning, extroverts, who voiced their ideas louder and more aggressively, seemed to gain respect by constantly inputting ideas. However, toward the 10^th week of the project, introverts earned higher respect and eventually the status of both was well balanced. How can you help the introverts on your recruitment team be heard?

Finally, you need one analytical thinker (maybe more) on your recruitment team. Many of us are familiar with open-minded business approaches like ‘brainstorming;’ however, some scientists suggested there should be at least one analytic thinker on the team. The Tepper School of Business researched that a team with at least one analytical thinker performed better in executing a given task than those without. Focusing more on small details in a process aroused creative conflict amongst teams with both ‘big picture’ and analytical thinkers.

If you are running a search firm and want to put a recruitment team together for a given task or even running your own firm with a small number of consultants and researchers, it isn’t necessarily a good idea to select only those who seem to have the same qualities as your own in terms of skill sets, experience, attitude or characteristics, etc. Diversify your choices to bring a broad spectrum of different thinkers to create better performance and provide opportunities for everyone to participate. Have them get involved to make contributions with well-deserved benefits. This will build a better performing recruitment team or firm of your own.