What's Happening in the SaaS Software Recruitment World?
I frequently get asked: “What’s happening in the market,” “what are hiring conditions like currently” …or something remarkably similar.?
So, I thought it would be useful to summarise the hiring landscape. Despite the uniqueness of the last 2.5 - 3 years, recruiting conditions within SaaS tend to follow a (semi) predictable cycle.
First, some context. I’ve been recruiting within this industry for 25 years now. I thought I’d seen it all! Then Covid happened. I’ll be the first to admit that in early 2020, like many, I thought it would all blow over quickly. How wrong I was. Our recruitment business went from 100 miles an hour to 0 in less than a week. In the face of massive uncertainty, all our clients decided to press the pause button, baton down the hatches and prepare to weather the storm. No one really knew if they should risk hiring and those that did faced a candidate population who were afraid to change jobs. The consequence of this was a period of stagnation.?
In August/September 2020, that all changed. Our recruitment business went from 0 back to 100 miles per hour just as quickly as it had slowed down. It was literally like someone had turned the lights back on. Looking back on this period, there were two key factors that came into play here. Firstly, after this period of stagnation, there was huge pent-up demand to “get back to normal.”?This coincided with the fact a significant percentage of vendors will start planning the hiring for the following year in the final quarter of the previous one. It was as if everyone was sprinting to try and catch up on lost time.
There then followed the craziest period of hiring – across-the-board hiring – that I have ever witnessed. I’m not generally known for throwing around hyperbole, but for the last two years, most of the typical hiring cycle rules went straight out of the window! Everyone was recruiting again – more so than ever before. In consequence, the market became what we recruiters refer to as “candidate short.”?
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This is where it becomes slightly counter-intuitive. Everyone assumes that in a buoyant market, talent abounds, and hiring should be straightforward. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Because there is so much opportunity, a number of things start to happen. Firstly, candidates are less inclined to move at all. Business is good, deals are getting closed and numbers are being hit. Better the devil you know. Those candidates who are open/looking for something new, are typically spoilt for choice. This means that hiring companies struggle to engage talent at all and, when they do, they find that they are competing with 3, 4 or more vendors for the same candidates. Offers are made, counteroffers follow as the competition heats up. Candidates resign and are then “bought back” by their existing employer. Supply and demand kicks in and we have a perfect salary inflation storm.?
Welcome to the last 24 months in software sales recruitment.?
Now, as I mentioned earlier, recruiting within the world of software is typically cyclical. For some months now, we’ve been waiting for the inevitable correction. And, after such a long period of (frankly unsustainable) hiring, it started to arrive last summer.?War in Ukraine, soaring inflation, energy prices through the roof. While the SaaS world will frequently buck the trend, no one is immune from the unprecedented set of crises we currently see being played out on the global stage.
And this brings us nicely to the present day.?What’s the market doing right now??The Tech industry is notorious for overhiring when the markets are booming and then cutting back when everything slows down. Some companies have slowed their hiring. Even more, have stopped. An alarming number are going backwards. Layoffs reminiscent of the days of the dot.com boom (anyone as old as me will remember it only too well!) have begun. Meta, Amazon, Twitter, and Salesforce to name but a few…?The list goes on. The hiring market has flipped 180°. Candidate engagement is up, but hiring opportunity is down. We’ve gone from 'too-many-jobs-not-enough-candidates' to 'too-many-candidates-not-enough-jobs.'
BUT. It’s not all doom and gloom. IF you are in a position to recruit, hiring conditions couldn’t be better.?You won’t be competing with six other vendors; your preferred candidate is much less likely to receive a counteroffer and the marketplace is awash with some truly talented people! We are seeing a significant uptick in hiring activity from our startup client base. These (typically) Private Equity funded vendors looking to build out an organization/region from the ground up are amongst the key beneficiaries of all the market churn.?
So, if you are a seller looking to explore your options, or a client looking to capitalize on the current economic conditions, get in touch. We’re always hiring!?