Candidate short market? Let's celebrate

By John McCluskey Director - APSCo Australia, Managing Director - Whizdom Recruitment

I am not sure if as recruiters we are getting soft, or many don’t understand what we do?

Most recruiters are seeing a huge number of roles coming across their desk, more work than they can handle, but complaining about a candidate short market. Why…

Personally, I am not sure why, because if there was an abundance of candidates, why would many clients require the use of recruiters?

Did you ever think that the reason we are getting so many roles is because the clients cannot find the talent themselves and thus outsourcing to recruiters?

If it was as easy as advertising a role on a job board and waiting for the candidates to come, why would anyone use recruiters.

Sure, there is the value we add with shortlisting, screening, testing, etc, but all this only happens if you have candidates to access.

That’s why we exist, clients cannot find the right talent for their workforce, so they bring in the specialists.

Candidates currently have more choice than ever before for opportunities, and this is where recruiters have the obligation to sell a role and match a candidate with the right opportunity to support their careers, and not the first opportunity to make a sale.

It is also important during the screening process that we carefully consider the key requirements of the client and the expected outcome of the role.

Promote a client’s business as a valued place to work. If they are not - don’t promote - and provide that feedback to clients. Be brave.

Placing a candidate in a role or client that they are not suited to hurts your business, your client’s business and damages a relationship with a candidate, and the short-term gain maybe offset by losing that candidate and client to a competitor.

Candidate and client satisfaction is always best measured by their referrals, how many referrals are you getting?