Fallout from the Golden Age of Recruitment

I entered recruitment back in 1988. No email, no LinkedIn, no internet, no mobiles.

Yet, we still made placements. Lots and lots of placements.

Over the 37 years since my first day, I’ve observed the impact economic cycles have on our industry. Some were great for recruiters. Others were downright brutal.

A Brief Historical Timeline

• 1980s: Recruitment picked up pace.
• 1990–1992: Recession hit; hiring was tough.
• Late 1990s–2000: The Y2K era gave IT recruiters a boom, followed by a slump.
• 2000–2008: Generally strong years, the internet grows ever more relevant.
• 2008-2010: sharp, painful recession until the credit crunch.
• 2010–2023: Post-recession upswing. High demand for talent, low availability.

I call that period from 2010 to 2023 the Golden Age of Recruitment. 13 years in all and for many it's all they've ever known.

The Golden Age

Why so golden? Mostly four factors:

1. A decent economy.
2. More vacancies than good candidates.
3. People changed jobs more frequently, creating a constant flow of talent.
4. Tech tools making it easy to find prospects.

During the Golden Age, if you couldn’t make money, you may well have considered woodwork or a coffee shop. That’s how good it was.

Now, I fear, the Golden Age has come to an end.

This market will be more challenging and will remain more challenging, but there's still a way to make money.

In fact I’ll share my top 5 ways to win in this market later. But first, what about the Golden Age made it so golden?

1. BD was easy

When there are more vacancies than good candidates it's relatively easy to use email or cold calls to get vacancies or spec in candidates.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t like falling off a log but in my 37 years it was the easiest I have ever seen it be. Compared to the current market, it was a doddle.

But, this isn't the first tough market I've worked. In the many downturns I worked through, we all knew the business was there. We just had to get it.

In other words:

We had to work hard to be a bit better than the next guy.

The first thing to focus on was being great at putting a bum on a seat: fulfilment.

Beyond that you networked smart and you networked hard.

• Keeping in touch with people
• Adding value
• Building a niche
• Becoming excellent at communicating why people should choose you.

Combine great fulfillment, active and scaled networking with a thick skin and enormous work ethic then you had a recipe for success.

People who have only worked through the Golden Age have never experienced this type of market and so are not really equipped to cope with it.

The great news is that, this makes being a bit better than them easier.

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2. Average Fulfilment was OK

?Here at Flair, we build great rec firms with:

• powerful BD and marketing engines
• efficient client care capabilities
• stable and productive teams.

?But that’s not what the client pays for.

Clients want a recruiter who is great at fulfilment

Here's what great looks like: -

1. Deeply understand client vacancies
2. Memorise and sell the client’s Employee Value Proposition
3. Locate and engage perfect candidates that other agencies can’t find
4. Vet and prioritise those candidates thoroughly
5. Present only the best, most suitable and serious candidates to to the client
6. Do all of that in a consistent, efficient, and convenient way

In 37 years the tools have changed significantly, but those activities define fulfilment and always will.

The great thing about the Golden Age was being average was okay. In fact, you could be average at all of them and still make placements.

Now, you cannot.

If you want to be consistently successful you need to be above average at all fulfilment activities.

Better yet, be outstanding.

3. Hard work and excellence

As we have already noted, hard work and an obsession with excellence, especially in fulfilment, is crucial for success.

In the Golden Age you could easily do a 9 until 5 day and still make a decent GP. But now it’s a lot harder.

Before mobile phones we would work from 8am to 5pm. Go home, have tea, and then call candidates until 8:30pm four nights a week and part of the weekend.

If you didn’t do that, you failed.

100% of the time.

No exceptions.

Everybody knew that the more outreaches you made, the more successful you’d be. Well, those times are back.

Of course, there's many more challenges, it’s harder to get people on the phone now, but we also have a lot more tools that work at scale like LinkedIn, WhatsApp and email.

Alone, they are no substitute for the phone.

Combined with the phone they are a massive boost.

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5 Ways to succeed in todays market

In short - combine the proven practices from the old days, with modern technology.

Here are my top 5 suggestions for thriving in the current market: -

1. Work rate: put in the hours. Set your daily outreach goals (email, calls, LinkedIn messages) and nail them, even if you need to work out of hours to do so. 9 until 5 is not the answer.

Research suggests it takes 6 calls to get a conversation. Then 6 conversations to get a lead. Throw your conversion rates on top of that and you can work backwards to see how many calls you need to make in order to get a placement

2.????? Commitment to fulfilment excellence: strive to be the best at the 5 core fulfilment activities. Keep metrics for each one and continually aim to be better this week than last week.

3.????? Network: build and work your network. Everybody can use LinkedIn and the job boards but only those who invest in their networks can find candidates others cannot and will hear of roles before anyone else.

4.????? Persistence: keep going and you are more likely to win. Giving up on a vacancy when there are plenty of others to work on is fine, but that is not the right strategy in this market.

5.????? Organisation and discipline: building a daily activity plan and then sticking to it regardless of any distractions will always deliver better results.

Final Word?

One last thing. Why do I call it the Golden Age of Recruitment?

Because I think that era was the pinnacle.

Looking ahead, the economy’s bumpier, TAs are on the rise, and AI is getting sharper by the minute.

The Golden Age may be behind us but you can still thrive

?Apply my recommendations and there is no reason why you can’t have the best year ever.

?So, let’s crack on, shall we?