Last summer I talked in the blog about the lack of top end candidates on the market and how over the last eighteen months I had witnessed a sharp decline in the availability of them in the digital media, information security and software development markets. What I didn’t say was that this was in the main job board centric.
What I have noticed more and more since last summer is that I have been initially connecting with candidates in a different way a great deal of the time. The top end candidates are still there but they aren’t posting CV’s on job boards as they did previously. As a specialist recruiter I believe I notice this more than a generalist as I live in these markets all day every day. I also record everything, I always have, so I know where the candidates come from and how they like to interact. So my update since last summer is that I’ve decided I was wrong to talk about a decline in availability of top end candidates. They are still there. Lately though I have had to find them rather than they find me through a job board or be introduced by someone who I have worked with that rated my service as above the norm.
I work within the Start-Up and SME sectors and have always tried to embrace factors such as social and cultural fit as well as demanding the most relevant digital ready skill sets to enable the candidate I represent to compete against other candidates from other agents at interview. Whilst the era is different it does feel like it did in the .com age. The difference now though is that there is more technology to enable us all to connect with one another. Job boards are still relevant, but not half as relevant as they were.
So as a client or a candidate I recommend you connect and build a relationship with a specialist recruiter relevant to your organisations product or service who has embraced the social networking interaction highway. They will have a far bigger pool of potential candidates that are engaged long before your vacancy emerges and if they don’t have the person they are more likely to find them than you are by simply putting an advert on a job board. The best candidates have in my opinion always been passive and I am finding that Twitter and LinkedIn to name but two are far more relevant than job boards are now because of their passive nature. Clients and candidates can also find out far more about me and Storm and choose whether they wish to interact and start building relationships.
At Storm we are still very busy working hard for the clients and candidates we have built relationships with whilst working on developing new relationships to strengthen and widen our portfolio. We have had a great start to 2012 and have some interesting candidates, roles and organisations to discuss with you whether you be new to Storm or an old friend.
You can also connect with me on Twitter @stormysolutions, through the website or by finding our relevant Storm Recruitment Services pages on LinkedIn or Facebook.
See you next week…