Something significant has happened in UK recruitment.
Permanent placements increased in August for the first time in nearly four years.
Not dramatically. Nobody should pretend the recruitment market has suddenly returned to the boom conditions of a few years ago.
Employer confidence remains subdued and vacancies continue to fall.
But the direction has changed.
The latest KPMG/REC Report on Jobs found permanent appointments increased slightly in August, while temporary billings grew for the fifth consecutive month.
Starting salaries also increased at their fastest rate since January.
Just one month earlier, permanent recruitment had merely stabilised after 45 consecutive months of decline.
For employers, that matters.
More candidates does not mean unlimited choice
Candidate availability remains high, partly because redundancies and weaker hiring have put more people into the market.
That has encouraged an assumption among some employers that recruitment has become easy. It hasn't.
The number of available candidates and the number of suitable candidates for a particular role are very different things.
That distinction is especially important in the areas People4U recruits into.
A Health & Safety Manager with the right operational background, a Fire Safety professional who understands complex occupied buildings or an FM professional combining technical knowledge with compliance and contractor management cannot simply be substituted with someone who happens to have a similar job title.
Current vacancies illustrate how specialised these roles are becoming. Recent positions combine building safety, fire compliance, Golden Thread responsibilities and regulator liaison while FM positions increasingly combine operations, engineering, statutory compliance, contractor management and safety.
The employers who move first will have an advantage
The recruitment market does not need to become candidate-led again before hiring behaviour matters.
If activity continues to recover, the strongest candidates will gradually have more choice.
Employers who have become accustomed to:
waiting three weeks before arranging an interview,
adding another interview stage,
changing the specification halfway through,
or waiting for the mythical candidate who meets every item on a twelve-point wish list
may discover that the market has moved before their recruitment process has.
Hiring confidence may be low. Hiring standards shouldn't be.
The CIPD's latest Labour Market Outlook shows only 62% of employers intend to recruit during the next three months, with employer confidence remaining close to historic lows outside the pandemic.
That makes every hire more important, not less.
If businesses are recruiting fewer people, those appointments need to be right.
A sensible recruitment process starts with three questions:
What does this person genuinely need to be able to do?
What experience is essential and what can be learned?
What will persuade a good person to take this job?
Answer those properly before advertising and recruitment becomes considerably easier.
The market may finally be moving.
Employers need to make sure their hiring processes can move with it.
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