By Ben Chernoff, Director at Davis Grant
Many working within the recruitment and HR sectors see the so-called Great Resignation as one of the biggest challenges in the months to come.
Many employees are said to be considering switching jobs or have already done so as the pandemic forces workers to re-assess their priorities, with many focusing more on benefits and work/life balance, instead of pay alone.
What’s more, there is growing evidence of considerable burnout among employees, who have had to deal with the stress of the pandemic and an increased workload. This is fuelling demand for temporary workers as well, to cover periods of long-term sickness.
A survey entitled What’s Keeping HR Up at Night?”, conducted by the Human Resource Executive at the end of 2021 showed that 60 per cent of respondents cited recruiting and retaining workers as one of their top two challenges.
While HR and employers may have growing concerns about the potential impact of mass resignations, for the recruitment industry it is potentially a time of soaring incomes and new clients.
Fast-growing businesses are calling out for new staff, while companies facing the loss of staff due to various reasons, need to urgently fill gaps in their team.
There are yet to be any clear UK stats on the Great Resignation, but this is a global phenomenon and the US Labor Department, for example, estimates that 4.5 million people voluntarily left their jobs in November 2021 alone – the highest number on record.
Without seeming too mercenary, recruiters need to be doing all that they can to secure work at this time by networking and listening to clients to find out where gaps are appearing within industries.
This would be a great time to reach out to old clients, while also seeking out new work at the same time.
A significant investment in marketing and additional time given over to connecting with new and old clients could pay dividends – not only now, but also in future.
Recruitment agencies should seek out additional finance to support these operations if they do not have the resources they require and should carefully monitor their sales, profits and losses to make sure that they grow at an economically feasible rate.
Growing too quickly and stretching resources could leave a company exposed and vulnerable to sudden changes in the market, so just take care.
To find out how we can help with the recruitment sector with tax, accounting and business advice, please contact us.