Recruiters around the world have had a tough two years, with the pandemic changing the industry permanently.

Recruitment was a competitive business prior to the pandemic, but now staffing agencies are under even greater pressure to evolve their strategies and adopt new behaviours to retain their competitive advantage.

Top challenges faced by recruiters in a post pandemic world:

Attracting quality candidates

In today’s candidate-led market, job seekers can afford to be more selective, which means recruiters need to work harder to attract quality applicants. This includes acting in the best interests of the candidate and taking the time to develop a relationship so that they fully understand their motivations and aspirations.

There is now greater emphasis on adopting a bespoke recruitment approach that involves matching both experience and personality to the organisation, ensuring recruiters find the perfect fit.

Writing unmissable job adverts

In a crowded digital space, mediocre job adverts won’t attract enough attention. The advert is the first impression a job seeker will have of both the recruitment agency and the hiring organisation. Thus it is crucial that recruiters create high performing job adverts that will stand out and distinguish them from their competitors.

To reach the right candidates, job ads need to be engaging, well-structured and informative. If the ad is lacking in substance and doesn’t answer the candidate’s questions, it will lead to frustration and the candidate will move on.

Adopting a remote approach

Recruitment is all about interpersonal communication and by nature, recruitment consultants are ‘people’ people who thrive off human contact and relationship building.

With staffing agencies favouring a more traditional approach to recruiting prior to the pandemic, one might question whether the shift to virtual/hybrid recruitment practices has stripped the industry of its personal touch.

Neil Walton, Associate Director of CY Partners, says that “Upon their adoption, recruitment companies have discovered that there are significant merits of hybrid recruiting models, which have become the norm. Recruiters are embracing modern technologies to strengthen the recruitment process and enhance the customer experience.”

Recruiters have discovered that hybrid recruitment increases flexibility and opens the door to a wider pool of candidates. They also have a wider range of tools at their disposal and can tailor solutions that suit the needs of their customers. Virtual interviews reduce time and cost, enable flexible scheduling and increase the directness of communication and collaboration.

The variety of online communication tools is one of the many advantages of online recruitment, virtual hiring technology accelerates the recruitment process and candidates enjoy more options for communicating with employers and recruiters. As Neil states, “The move from two in person interviews to one online and one in person provides greater flexibility and means that key decision makers with tight schedules will be more likely to join the virtual interview.”

Improving the candidate experience

In an ever-competitive market where recruiters are battling it out for talent, the candidate experience is everything. Social proof in the form of testimonials and reviews can have a powerful impact on a brand’s reputation, so placing these at every stage of the candidate journey helps recruitment organisations build trust with their customers.

And with the best candidates finding themselves inundated with offers, the pressure is on recruiters to create positive impressions by delivering speedy communication, clearly defining the scope of the role and being readily available to answer questions.

The importance of visibility for recruiters

With so many professional staffing agencies targeting the same clients, it’s more important than ever for recruiters to maintain a strong online presence. Critical elements of this include:

• Optimising their website to attract the most visitors
• Being active on social media and regularly sharing informative and engaging content to establish their team as experts
• Being proactive about growing their network and initiating conversations with potential customers online
• Maintaining regular contact with customers via email newsletters
• Building their talent pool. LinkedIn for example is a great platform for accessing well-established professionals in the industry
• Showcasing social proof in the form of recommendations and reviews
• Paying attention to the activity of competitors
• Boosting site performance and SEO by regularly uploading value added articles to their website

Why marketing matters for recruitment organisations in a post pandemic world

According to data, there are close to 40,000 recruitment agencies in the United Kingdom. The key to standing out in an overcrowded recruitment market? Effective marketing! Developing a marketing strategy can boost the brand’s reputation, add more talent to the pipeline and generate a constant flow of visitors to the company website.

Marketing helps to attract the right kind of customer, which greatly impacts the recruiter’s reputation. It also helps them to build a professional profile and position themselves as the go-to source for all things related to hiring and retention within their industry. Furthermore, powerful marketing messaging helps to strengthen the credibility of the business and results in customers viewing the team as expert advisers whom they automatically turn to when they have employment needs.

According to Neil, “In challenging times, people want to work with businesses they trust. This is why CY Partners strive to be a trusted and long-term partner for all our customers, who can rely on us to deliver the right solution and support for them.”

If you’re interested in talking to our team about how we could help you meet your staffing needs in 2022 and beyond, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here.