Despite signs that the employment market may be turning in favour of job seekers rather than employers, a new survey of just over 200 in-house recruiters has found the majority confident that they will be able to source the talent they need through tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and job boards.
Almost three quarters (71% )of those questioned on behalf of the specialist corporate and marketing communications recruiter, VMA Group, believed that they would be still be able to source mainstream entry to mid-level talent directly without using outside help. Key motivations behind keeping the recruitment function in-house were cost saving (52% of respondents) and control of the employer brand (46%).
However a sizeable proportion of the research group (77%) admitted that they were likely to seek outside help in recruiting for more specialist, non-core roles in their organisations. As one in-house resourcer put it: “It’s simply not worth my while to have highly specialist recruiters on the payroll who might only be called on once in a blue moon. Trying to handle absolutely every vacancy that comes up just wouldn’t be viable. At my company, for example, we need to be focusing on the techies that make up the majority of our workforce and give us our competitive advantage.”
Almost two thirds (64%) of respondents also reported that they faced a significant challenge identifying the best platforms to engage with non-core specialist talent.
Lucy Cairncross, Head of VMA Direct – the Group’s entry to mid-level recruitment arm– commented: “The changing working environment over recent years has led to a more pressurised environment for resourcing managers. With on-going financial constraints and increasing demand to source the best entry to mid-level talent, internal recruiters are facing tough times. As resourcing teams look to attract this talent quickly while also delivering a high quality, simplified recruitment process, there is an obvious need to bring employers and candidates from specialist markets together on one platform. It has become clear that specialist recruiters have to evolve their offerings to suit the market if they are to continue to provide a value added service to their clients.”
“While social media channels and job boards go some way in providing access to candidates, the huge volume and variety of job seekers using these mediums will result in significant time and cost implications due to the amount of sifting required.” Cairncross continued. “Using specialist networks that connect resourcing managers directly with the right candidates – PR and communications professionals for example – or even just using a specialist recruitment partner to sift the initial response levels – will reduce both time and cost.”
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