Coping with the unknown and uncertainty in job seeking or recruiting

If you were only to watch the news to form a view of the UK jobs market, you would assume t there were lots of people out of work as a result of the pandemic and employers could take their pick. Whilst this may sadly be true in some sectors and locations, we are seeing a very different picture across the Yorkshire market in general, particularly within finance roles.

The landscape has radically changed for job seekers and employers over the past 18 months in ways that I would have never anticipated. Let's take a quick view of the before and after impacts of Covid on the finance market in Yorkshire.

Pre Covid:

• High demand for candidates at most levels in finance, especially at the part qualified, newly qualified and second-time mover levels.
• Post December 2019 the election had perhaps provided more certainty around Brexit which meant that the more cautious and lower volume senior finance market was starting to regain confidence in seeking a new role and we saw an uplift in vacancies in excess of ￡65K.
• Buy back from employers, multiple offers and salary bargaining was typical with candidates at times being paid at a higher level than the market rate to secure their talent.
• Candidates were keen to secure roles with more flexibility, but it wasn't essential for many. Working from home was something that wasn't on offer for most unless it was applied for, justified and authorised. There was perhaps a cynicism of whether more junior staff could be "trusted" to perform their role productively from home.
• Location was key, with an expectation people would be in an office within a reasonable commuting distance 4 - 5 days a week minimum.
• A push factor for many was a break down in team dynamics, not gelling with their team/manager or not seeing a clear progression route for their next internal move.

Some of these factors will not be surprising, but what has struck me the most is the shift in mindset to how candidates and clients are now approaching the recruitment market. Here are my observations on how things have changed 12 - 18 months on from the first "stay home" instructions.

Post Covid:

• High demand continuing for finance candidates. Some businesses/organisations have thrived in sectors that have had an uplift in demand for goods and services and some have struggled having to furlough staff, either way they all need to be closely monitoring income & expenditure and profit & loss to make sure that they can respond to the latest rapid changes and key to this is having an effective control of finance.
• The immediate uncertainty of Covid again made the senior finance market candidates more nervous about changing roles over the past year, but demand for senior candidates has remained at a similar level to early 2020 so it's a good time to consider your options if you are looking for a senior move.
• We've seen fewer instances of "buy back" from employers in terms of salary increases, but taking a plunge to learn a new role with a new company on a more remote basis has perhaps been a bit too much for some candidates in the current uncertain world and many have decided to stay a bit longer whilst they wait for the world to get back to "normal".
• Flexibility and the option to work from home is now no longer a "nice to have", but now essential for many candidates looking for a new role. Anecdotally most candidates seem to desire a hybrid pattern of c2 - 3 days in an office, but fewer are seeking 5 days back in an office or 5 days on a home based contract. It seems that a blend appeals to the vast majority so some employers may need a different approach to attract the best candidate for their role. Generally the view is that people are typically as productive working from home and have proved that it can work well at all levels in finance.
• Location has been the biggest shift for me as a recruiter. I've recruited within the Yorkshire market for nearly 20 years and it's always been fairly straightforward to search based on location i.e. "Here is a job in York paying ￡45K, which candidates can get to York and will commute for that salary level?" Now parameters have shifted and it means that a candidate who would have traveled to York 5 days a week for ￡45K, may now look at roles for ￡40K if it's only 2 days of travelling to an office or may travel even further for a higher salary. Some niche skills that may not have typically been available locally, could now be recruited from further afield/nationally if the candidate only needs to be in an office a day a week or even work on a home based contract. Searches are no longer straightforward as a recruiter and companies could be really cute about how they hire niche skills, especially in a remote location.
• Team dynamics are interesting. On-boarding candidates in the current hybrid/remote world is tough. Employers need to think carefully about how to best embed new starters within a team as typically communication in a remote world is focussed around problems or questions rather than the general reassuring presence of seeing in the body language of your team that you're settling in well as a new starter. Team lunches will hopefully be back before too long, but in the meantime it's important to ensure you schedule a balance of check ins without being overbearing with constant video calls/emails with new starters to pick up on any wobbles before they get too far to be fixed. Candidates may feel either a sense of renewed loyalty or disloyalty to their employer based on they've been treated through the pandemic.Typically if there was that person that they just didn't like in the team, a remote set up may have mostly removed that as a push factor to look for a job.
• Market speed - video interviewing has both sped up and slowed down recruitment processes. It's easier to slip out for a quick video interview, rather than take a random day off mid week under scrutiny of your manager to travel to an interview. First stage interviews are rapid to get into the diary now and even some director level processes can be completed in less than 2 weeks as arranging a panel is more straightforward when you don't have to get everyone in the same physical location. If you are an employer and you like a candidate - don't delay your process as they may go off the market quicker than you'd expect. Conversely, the ease of getting that person in the USA to join an interview process or for a candidate to just have another "chat" with another stakeholder can be a great opportunity to get more diverse opinions and input, but it can make your organisation look indecisive and some candidates are reporting 4 stage interview processes taking more than a month to complete.
• The social value, culture, commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and sense of purpose of what an organisation does has more bearing now on who candidates choose to work for. The pandemic has crystallized views for many that whilst they may not be on the front-line saving lives as an accountant, they'd like to work for an organisation delivering something positive in the world and doing things in an ethical way. Marketing these credentials as an employer has never been more important to stand out from your competition.

Finally a little about the headline of this article around uncertainty. In 2008 as the global banking crisis hit, employers were faced with multiple candidates for roles and market uncertainty. The response was to provide job descriptions with huge lists of essential criteria to identify the "perfect" candidate, most likely from a similar role within a similar employer, rather than a different background and transferable skills who would ask innovative questions and bring diversity of thought to the role. With the uncertainty today, we are seeing this again (I'm currently working on roles with over 20 essential and 5 desirable criteria listed!), but conversely I'm seeing similar lengthy wish lists from candidates. Coupled with this nervousness of risk, many candidates report they are spending far longer in front of a screen working, so updating a CV and applying for jobs after 10 hours of screen time is less appealing and means many employer adverts will not see the same volumes of applications.

In many processes for candidates, as the reality they are going to take the plunge and move jobs hits, they come up with additional criteria that are essential to them making a move and because the world feels like a more risky place, many have increased their salary expectations to make a move, as the reward needs to be worth the feeling of increased risk.

So what is the solution? The reality is that we can't control much of what is going on at the moment on a national or global scale, but hopefully some context around just how many opportunities are out there will make you feel a bit more confident about applying for a role or hiring that person. At the very least starting to look now may get you ahead of the curve as more confidence comes into the market. I'm happy to have a chat through with anyone who might be keen to make their next career move, but may not have yet felt comfortable to take the plunge or employers looking for advice as to how to secure the best talent for their team. Feel free to drop me a line [email protected] or give me a call - 07831153688.