Read the latest insights below from our Commercial Director, Josh Tumbridge

He delves deep into the current employment landscape, as well as the the latest learnings and trends to come out of the sector.

Read on to be inspired!


Feeling the post-pandemic employment glitch

The clouds are gathering as the post pandemic reality looms overhead. As the domestic and global economic pressures linger in the consumers back pocket, the employment market glitches have become reality. Having re-emerged after Covid-19 induced restrictions were lifted, global markets are experiencing a scarcity of workers, creating an imbalance between unemployment and vacancy rates.

Some workers have chosen to retire early. In the UK’s case, this is elevated by a country fighting an aging population with half a million additional people dropping out of the workforce because of long term illness since 2019 .The aging population is not just a problem for the United Kingdom – in the same week that the global population topped 8 billion, experts are predicting that by 2030 the world’s five largest economies are estimated to lose 30 million working-aged people.

The tech space, a traditionally high growth market is in a state of employment flux. With Twitter and Meta announcing a combined workforce decrease of 14,700 and Amazon preparing for 10,000 redundancies, these are just the latest in a spate of 60,000 lay-offs in 2022 as multiple Silicon Valley giants press the reboot button.

Job to job flows in the UK are still predominantly driven by resignations; an indication that the global ‘Great Resignation’ is still at large; however, the gloomy economic outlook will undoubtedly be putting second thoughts in potential candidates minds; as fears of a cost of living crisis, anticipated double digital inflation and domestic austerity will all be factoring into decision making as employees evaluate their next career move.

With a global recession looming, the recruitment market is facing a decrease in the supply of candidates after being furiously impacted by economic & cultural challenges. A squeezed labour market means the mindset of candidates that businesses want are passive or resistant, as their decision making becomes increasingly focused on self-preservation with the impending economic worries.


Disrupting Traditional Recruitment Strategies

Traditional routes to hire would suggest that job board buying is the route to talent acquisition success. How can you argue with the logic of placing job ads in virtual spaces where candidates will actively browse and engage to find the next career move? In a traditional market I would agree with you; however, this is no traditional jobs market.

The lack of active candidates in the market is creating a behavioural change in the talent acquisition space. The leaders that I speak to are reporting increasing rises in the cost to hire via job boards with businesses having to spend increasing amounts to capture the quality of candidates to fill their talent pipelines. This means that brands need to meaningfully engage with passive candidates, where making themselves the employer of choice as a motivation for moving roles must be the solution. If not, recruitment budget is wasted and the impact and effectiveness of talent acquisition is minimal.

Integrated media as part of talent acquisition thinking must become integral if employers wish to create better strategies. The ability to carefully target and interrupt candidates’ day to day lives via media platforms should be treated as a unique advantage to any recruitment strategy and with the right content can offer the ability to cut through a noisy space.

Behaviours are shifting, content is now available at a swift thumb movement. The consumption of content will vary from market to market which offers a perfect opportunity to showcase your value proposition across diverse recruitment audiences at the touch of a button.

Just look at TikTok. The disruptive digital platform that was born out of viral dances and lip syncing videos has now become a diverse video ecosystem that hosts hundreds if not thousands of sub communities where audiences can watch anything as they swipe through masses of video content that is being delivered, just for them. The ability for recruiters to tap into these communities using compelling visual content must offer a more effective strategy that just relying on a ‘build it and they shall come’ job board approach.


Be the Employer of Choice

Economic slowdown may well filter into the labour market over the coming months however we must shake up our talent acquisition strategies. Be better, be effective. Identify budget waste and create engaging brand campaigns that drive maximum impact.

The current jobs market is a candidate’s world where their connection to potential employer will drive their decision making. This means that employers must find ways of meaningfully engaging with those passive & resistant candidates, creating the motivation to move, owning the digital platforms those candidates live on to be the employer of choice.


Have a Chat with our Experts

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