Yes, it’s a Candidates’ Market at the moment, and has been for a while, probably twelve months or so.
What has caused it? In simple terms, economic upturn following the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. Companies (except those in the relatively few sectors which benefited from Covid) reduced recruitment or stopped it all together, and some downsized. At lower and mid-tier levels, many of those displaced and jobless retrained, changed career direction or, in the case of many Europeans, went home. At higher levels, executives sat in, most kept their jobs because governments were happy to incentivise companies to retain, but virtually nobody moved. As we emerged from the pandemic, everyone started hiring again.
So what happens in a Candidates’ Market?
At executive level, the best people are targeted by (often) multiple suitors. The salaries companies are prepared to pay rise sharply – if you aren’t prepared to pay you won’t get anyone. And existing employers, desperate to keep their executives, are prepared to counter-offer if their top human assets decide to hand in their notice. Never has the incidence of counter-offering been higher, and therefore neither has the incidence of candidates accepting a job and then being seduced into staying put, later than the eleventh hour.
How can companies get the right people in? There is no magic formula, frankly, and much of what we would recommend is based on the largely unchanged checklist of questions we have been asking our clients for years. Here it is:
- What is it about you as a company/employer that will be attractive to a prospective senior-level candidate?
- How can you sell your organisation’s culture?
- What are you offering in terms of career progression?
- Are you offering genuine personal development opportunities?
- Is there something in your offer that will genuinely make a candidate think “this is different to what I have at the moment or to what others are offering”?
- Is the basic salary competitive and is it at the right level to realistically attract interest from the calibre of individual you covet?
- Are the right performance-related incentives in place, short-term and long-term?
- Are you clear on what you can offer in terms of workplace and location flexibility, and is everyone in your organisation committed to this?
- Are you prepared to relocate, and to pay for this if necessary?
- Are all the key stakeholders in your business aligned on all these things to ensure the messaging is clear and consistent, and articulated enthusiastically?
If all these questions can be answered positively, a prospective employer has a strong and differentiated proposition. As an ambassador for our clients, we at Henley are happy to deliver not only strong messages, but strong candidates.
The other area in which our clients can achieve this differentiation is how they handle candidate management. Too often key stakeholders are unavailable, timescales get protracted and candidates’ enthusiasm wanes – they’ve been sold something exciting but nobody seems to want to close the sale.
Some companies are successfully adopting very aggressive timelines in recruitment processes, with candidates meeting with key stakeholders over the course of one week and then an offer being made. Not only does this demonstrate how committed the company is to securing that candidate, but it also reduces the likelihood of offers being made to that candidate by other prospective employers.
Mark Senior, April 2022
Get in touch: mark.senior@henleyresearch.com