As we head into 2023 and businesses are thinking about their recruitment plans for the upcoming year, there are several things to consider when looking at your strategy.
Firstly, the end of a calendar year is a great time for business owners to reflect on what worked well and what did not over the past 12 months for their own recruitment. Based on this, it is key to learn from these wins or losses and make that a key part of any strategy going forwards.
Choice of Recruitment Partner
Probably the most important point when thinking about recruitment plans is how and who you use to recruit. When using a recruitment partner successfully they can do a lot of this hard work for you. By them having a trusted working relationship with a business they can sell the benefits of working for a company, the leader of the business and their future plans. Allowing a candidate to have a good understanding before even interviewing. A recruitment partner can share market information about salaries, interview techniques and should make any hire a more efficient process.
External Factors
A key consideration is to look at external factors, such as the current cost of living crisis we are currently in or what your competition may be doing with their recruitment. The rise in salaries over the past 12 months has been as high as I have seen it over the past decade and the salaries that may have attracted new recruits 12 months ago might not be what is required right now. Benefits packages have changed considerably and ever since the pandemic, the amount of office and home-based working is always one of the first questions I get asked by any candidate. The companies that I work with, that are best at recruiting, are constantly reviewing these elements, with some companies even having 3 salary reviews during the past year.
As is documented regularly in the news, we are in a unique position where there are more vacancies out there than candidates so, more often than not, the people that are being interviewed are either fairly content in their current role or have multiple interviews arranged. Companies that are going to attract talent are the ones who not only address the point above but also can make them stand out as a great place to work. It is key to identify a candidate’s motivations and really pressing on how you can meet those needs better than your competition and obtain the trust of a candidate that you are the best home for their career.
Growth Plans
When addressing headcount and where you want to be again in 12 months’ time, your current staff should be a main priority. With the competitiveness of the recruitment market right now, staff retention is key to a business’s growth. A common problem I hear currently is ‘we continue to win work but have not recruited’. In this scenario you risk overworking your current staff and not servicing clients properly meaning that if any staff were to leave this business, then they are in a problematic situation. Where this is the case, recruiting now should be imperative to your future growth and client retention plans.
Flexibility
In a candidate short market, flexibility is also key. Where there is a limited supply of candidates on the market, it can be very difficult to find the perfect candidate particularly when it is time pressing. Businesses I have worked with successfully in recent times, are the ones who are able to adapt their recruitment needs and are able to tailor a position slightly differently if a quality candidate becomes available. You would much rather be in a position where there may need to be an investment in training someone for part of the role, opposed to not having anyone at all.
If you have read this and are interested to know how Rutherford Briant may be able to assist your business with your recruitment needs in 2023, please get in touch. We work with accountancy practices, blue-chip corporations and SMEs across multiple sectors, to deliver exceptional customer service and recruitment expertise in the following specialisms: Accountancy & Finance, Public Practice – Audit, Tax & Accounts, Executive Search, Temporary & Interim, Human Resources, Marketing, Procurement & Supply Chain, Business Support & Administration and IT & Technology.