RECRIUTMENT AND PLACEMENT

Recruitment industry is going through a tough time at this moment, the numbers have dropped drastically for the biggies and I know of recruitment agencies that are battling for survival. Being a co-founder of Synergy Solutions (we provide recruitment services to companies in India and in US) the biggest challenge today is to find newer and better ways to add value to our clients. There is a need to find innovative ways to improve recruitment ROI for the client. I am writing this article to share our ideas with the world so that other companies in the recruiting and staffing business can take advantage of the same.

First things first, the base idea is not to wait and find ways to weather the storm but to take proactive measures to tide the wave. The world is changing very quickly to combat recession and it’s about time we translate our thinking into action or else we will be late. The main reason being the companies who are hiring have recently made drastic cuts in their recruiting budget and are in the process of streamlining their side of the story.

We strongly believe that companies (clients) will demand greater accountability from recruitment agencies and focus on improving their recruitment ROI. Recruitment agencies / staffing companies who are agile in their operation and can quickly adapt to the changing environment will emerge victorious at the end of this recessionary period.


Few areas where placement agencies should focus:

Closely monitoring the way each industry is changing in current times and the way companies within the industries are changing their hiring strategy.
Build stronger relationship with clients thereby working closely with your contact points in the company to get clarity on their internal hiring plans and prepare accordingly. This will also help protect your share in the pie from your competitors.
Clients will use this recession to re-negotiating the recruitment contracts with recruitment agencies. Since numbers are falling every day recruitment agencies will be concerned about their cash flow situation and as a result will have no option but to be forced to negotiate their existing contract. New client would want to start the relation on the terms advantageous to them, that means lower rates and tougher terms.
Look out for companies who are brave and would consider recession as the right time to recruit good quality talent at the right price. These are usually multinationals with deep pockets and would want to drive competitive advantage home. Be smart to attack these companies.
Train your recruiters to be tactically smart and agile in their actions. During the boom there were a lot of open positions and even more candidates available so the match making activity was comparatively easy and largely govern by the good sentiments in the market. During tougher times recruiters need to be smart and get themselves deeper into the fit gap process and ensure win – win situation for the client and the candidate
Use of technology and social media applications to hunt better profiles as compared to job boards. Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social and business networking sites are fast becoming every recruiter’s trump card. Lot of head hunting can happen over these networking sites.
If your salary component are on the higher side and you foresee that it’s going to be difficult to sustain then take adequate action now try and offer a mix of lower fixed and higher variable with an assurance that salaries will get back to normal once the market stabilizes.