Recruitment Industry Rides Market Surge as Competition for Talent Explodes

The recruitment industry is still changing as employers and candidates learn to work in this new environment following the global pandemic.

Many employers (especially government departments) are unsure what to do with vacant commercial office space as a result of the trend of employees working from home and changing jobs frequently, which has permanently altered the market.

Numerous incentives are being provided by employers to employees in order to keep them, including more leave, performance bonuses, additional volunteer days, and, of course, very flexible working hours.

Even so, not every employee is persuaded to remain at their current position; for Gen Z, switching jobs happens usually every two years.

This presents opportunities for recruiters as well as difficulties. People who are always on the lookout for better options will do so even if those options don’t exist.

Opportunities abound, though, for those specialized recruitment agencies that can fill their books with marketable talent.

“Iterate have got one of the better client and partner lists in the market and we’re able to offer candidates introductions to many of Melbourne’s leading tech teams and organizations,” says Ryan Lynch, the principal, and director of Iterate.

“By providing $500 toward online training courses for the candidates we place, we also give something back to the candidates, which earns us a lot of recommendations from our network as a reliable, trustworthy partner.

Recruitment Industry Rides Market Surge as Competition for Talent Explodes

“We actively participate in the community; we recently sponsored the NO/BS Conference in Melbourne, and we will soon sponsor a meet-up with BeerOps, the biggest DevOps and Cloud Meet-up in Australia. We like to think that Iterate is not only a recruiter for the tech community but that we’re a part of the tech community in Melbourne.”

Specialist recruitment is one area of the recruitment industry that has room to grow. Employers want to work with recruitment agencies that can recognize and have quick access to specialized talent as the global job market becomes more specialized.

A generalist recruitment firm might slow down the hiring process and prevent contacting a qualified candidate if the position is placed with them because they are not on the company’s records. But by concentrating on recruitment agencies that divide up their talent in the appropriate ways, that issue could be resolved.

“We certainly feel there’s a genuine place for true specialist recruiters out there to add value to their clients and partners, beyond putting bums on seats,” says the Director and principal of Iterate, Michael Boyd. “Due to the highly specialized nature of our work, we frequently compete with more established consulting firms. As a result, we’ve been hired to build entire “squads” for teams, which has inspired us to introduce a new service to our clientele called “Iterate Squads.”

“Now that everything is on Zoom or Teams, it’s simple for everyone to lapse into a more transactional mode of operation. Given that our entire focus is on being able to identify and create that cultural and team fit for a business, we see the obvious risks here.

“At that point, Iterate must pay special attention to finding the best candidate for the job by adhering to the original brief and making sure the candidate will fit into the role over the long term.”

The IBISWorld report Employment Placement and Recruitment Services in Australia, published in March 2022, suggests demand for industry service will increase “as companies continue to focus on their core business and government departments increasingly turn to specialist recruitment firms to locate and attract potential candidates”.

“We firmly believe that there is a genuine need for true specialists in the field of recruiting who can go above and beyond simply filling seats for their partners and clients.”— Michael Boyd, Iterate director, and principal.

“The industry’s scope is expected to expand over the next five years as many new companies are anticipated to operate in specialized markets or in new geographical areas. Furthermore, the specialized nature of these recruitment services providers allows for new players to charge higher prices.”

According to the IBISWorld report, industry revenue will likely reach $16.4 billion in 2022, with an expectation that it will increase to $18.4 billion in 2027.

Interestingly, the report states that the professional services sector where specialist recruitment firms provide specialist services to clients was “the largest in the industry in the current year, due to the large number of people employed within the relevant industries, with high demand for these types of professional services”.

However, there are still significant obstacles that skilled migrant workers must overcome in order to obtain the required visas in order to work on these shores.

Even with historically low unemployment rates, it can be difficult and time-consuming for foreign workers to get the right visas.

“There’s a lag in visa processing times and a clunky system in bringing in specialized tech talent from overseas,” Lynch says. “There has always been a “supply” problem in getting more local talent to emerge during the time I’ve worked in recruitment.

“It’s also been a bit of a rollercoaster the past few years, with rapid growth for tech teams and recruitment teams, followed by layoffs and market uncertainty.

“The market’s remuneration trends have been influenced by this; over the past 12 months, the principle of “highest bidder wins” has predominated in the talent market. Fortunately, the market has stabilized, as recent “corrections” in salaries and contract rates show.”

Reference: https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/careers/recruitment-industry-rides-market-surge-as-competition-for-talent-explodes-20221125-p5c19s