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Meeting Recruitment Challenges With more than 35 years working in recruitment, CEO at Citrus Group Paul Smith has a wealth of experience and expertise in the industry. Here, he explains the state of the current recruitment market, the challenges and strategies for hiring. How would you describe the current recruitment market? It’s challenging, to say the least. There has been a major shift toward choice for the candidate, which means speed to market is now more important than ever. What are some of the challenges the recruitment industry faces right now? An ever-shrinking candidate market, most candidates are now passive and are spread thin across all available roles. Client needs are increasing, however candidate availability is not. All employers are struggling with attrition and looking to recruiters to solve this issue. Attrition really is proving to be the next biggest challenge for employers outside of the shrinking candidate market. Companies are having to get creative on their EVP (Employee Value Proposition) and are looking to us for help with this. How could these be overcome? Tapping into and creating new talent pools, such as regional locations around Australia, also increased overseas talent (unfortunately, we have not seen a dramatic increase of travellers and students compared to pre COVID days). Our clients need to articulate the EVP into their
organisation to differentiate them in the market. Flexibility is key when hiring. This covers salary, WFH (Work from home) or hybrid working models and the hours of work on offer. Outline some key strategies for hiring the best staff in the current market. Understanding what skills/attributes are critical to the role and what can be learned and/or developed to widen the candidate pool applying to the position. With workforce movement high in the current climate, how important is it for employers to offer a strong yet flexible workplace culture? Extremely important. If they aren’t offering it, someone else will be and the choice is there for a job seeker. What do you believe are some of the driving factors to retaining quality staff? A clear and precise introduction to the position, including what flexible arrangements are offered, a detailed and comprehensive induction and training program, making sure that whatever was discussed and offered in the initial interview is provided as agreed, including growth and development in the role and making sure the salary is competitive in this market.
