There's no skill shortage - candidates just aren't that in to you

Recruitment is doing great right now, in fact it’s been buoyant for the last two years. Billings are continuing to rise and the number of new agencies entering the market is seeing competition within the sector hotting up, much like the weather we’re experiencing right now.

Yet I still hear recruiters bemoaning a ‘lack of talent’ and there being a ‘skills shortage’ in their sector. But hang on - the economy is strong and recruiters haven’t had it this good for the best part of eight years, so how can this be possible? Something doesn’t quite ring true, but I think I know why – it’s about branding, or more specifically a lack of.

Take the Accountancy and Finance sector.

Over the last 12 months the ‘Big Four’ employers collectively received a staggering 101,000 applications for just 5,800 open positions - PwC alone received 39,000 for 2,000 available positions. Why then did the REC’s Kevin Green state in April that Accountancy and Finance were amongst the top two most in-demand sectors along with Engineering? And why, as reported in The Telegraph a month later, does there remain upwards of 85,000 unfilled vacancies in this sector - a rise of 11% in six months? What’s going on?

It’s a not too dissimilar situation in the NHS. London’s NHS hospitals have a well-documented shortfall of over 8,000 nurses, with 2,500 more posts created in 2014 than in 2013 and fewer than 40% of all posts being filled. In West London alone, a record £44 million was spent on recruiting agency nurses in 2014 - up 148% from the year before.

Let’s flip the scenario on its head for a moment. If there was a real shortage, how many nurses currently live or work within a commutable distance of these hospitals? If the answer is zero, there is a very real shortage.

But if the shortfall of hospital-employed roles is being met by agency nurses then there isn’t a shortage – it’s just that the talent which is available currently work for the hospital’s competitors (the agencies).

The problem is not a shortage of supply or available talent – the talent pool is evidently there otherwise there wouldn’t be a surplus of applications in finance or roles filled by agency nurses. It’s a recruitment issue – specifically, the inability of recruiters and employers to effectively attract (and retain) the right people they need for their organisations.

The same people who complain about the shortage of talent today are the same who complained about the exact same thing at the height of the recession – at least then they had a good reason, but what’s their excuse now?

Recruiters and employers no longer have the luxury to cherry-pick the candidates they want – we’re in a ‘sellers’ market now, one where it is the candidate who holds the trump card rather than the buyers (recruiters).

That means that hiring managers need to work harder than ever to position themselves as the employer or recruiter of choice. In other words, they need to focus on improving their employer brand.

Over the last 12 months, as a PR agency which specialises in the recruitment sector, we’ve seen a steady rise in the number of recruitment firms taking a hard look at themselves to ask “Does our brand really represent us as a business, does it enable us to compete in our market and attract the best candidates to work for us?”

Often the answer is No and this has prompted a rebrand – whether in the form of a new website design, focused social media campaign and public relations or a combination of all three.

Indeed, whilst their existing branding may have served them well, the increasingly competitive nature of the recruitment industry since 2014 means that no business can rest on its laurels – those that do will get left behind.

Still unconvinced as to the power of having a strong employer brand?

Just remember – if the Big Four have a surplus of talent, with 101,000 people applying for just 5,800 jobs, why do 85,000 jobs remain unfilled in that sector – it’s certainly not because of a lack of talent is it? Similarly, if the NHS can fill many of its roles using agency nurses, why aren’t those nurses still working with the NHS directly – what made them leave in the first place?

It’s all to do with branding…get it right and you can stay ahead of the curve. Get it wrong, resign yourself to being an also-ran agency still blaming the recession for a perceived skills shortage and for not being where you think you should be…if recruiters can’t fill their own vacancies, what hope for the rest of the economy?