Key Positions

Firstly, I have to say, what a total relief it is to have people back to work, eating out, going to the office, and generally leaving the house. 

The last 18-months period has been a real challenge to navigate for every business and there is an audible note of appreciation across all sectors we work across and an element of returning normality. 

“Normal” isn’t really a word which can be related to the current recruitment market – it is unique. 

Some businesses still have a perception that there are thousands of “perfect candidates” out there, just expected to work for less than their pre-covid salaries. I think this was called “February”; things have moved on. 

At CORE, we cover a wide range of roles from mid to senior levels and we are seeing trends happening internationally. 

The UK and the US are certainly the strongest markets for us right now. Investments are being made, businesses have momentum and sales are returning the fastest. 

For the Asia and Oceania markets, we are predicting it will take a little much longer to recover; we have an office opening there in October that we hope will be well-timed to make the most of businesses rebuilding. Only last week, we were briefed on three senior management roles for a resort business in Thailand interested in recruiting expats and this something we have not seen for the last 18 months.  Across Europe, with our business covering France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, the market is really starting to show signs of promise, with international companies which are now looking to pick up ‘good deals’ and recruiting fresh management and head office support roles; however, we have also seen a number of local operators looking at re-scaling and building back. 

SUPPORT OFFICE – with four main areas of growth: technology, people, marketing, and finance. 

TECHNOLOGY: a key part to the strategy of any business which now needs a chair at the table in unit operations, remote ordering, digital customer journey, reservations, e-commerce and growing quickly reporting and dashboard. Things are moving fast. Companies can’t wait till the end of the month to review figures and analysis; they need to be responding daily/weekly to adapt and respond accordingly. 

HUMAN RESOURCES: an area that has a new level of kudos within businesses now. Historically, and pre-pandemic, there was a lot of talks about HR being irrelevant; “tissues and issues” was a phase often used to dismiss this area. I personally think it should be coined “People Engagement” rather than HR, as that is a lot of what our clients are looking for. 

How can you drive front line teams, retain high calibre senior leaders and motivate those at the top to inspire the rest? Anyone who has been working as an HRD thought the pandemic deserves a medal. 

MARKETING: digital is the way forward. The area of difficulty here is that a lot of operators in hospitality, leisure and retail do not really understand this area or how to use it to their best advantage; it is difficult to recruit and manage teams for functions you don’t clearly understand. We have a specialist team looking after this area and we have been helping clients develop job descriptions, establish their needs, advise on salaries and manage the candidates through the interview process. We often have to attract people from other high-growth sectors into areas that have been more negatively affected by the pandemic. Companies need show they have a strategy plan in place, or at least want one for the long term, otherwise the best talent will not move due to a lack of job security.  

FINANCE: Again, like H.R., this has been an incredible time where lots of new skills have been learned. Financial modelling analysis and proven fundraising abilities are all at the top of the list when recruiting FDs and CFOs 

There are some great candidates on the market who (for whatever reason) are available immediately. Most of those we are currently placing are passive job seekers, they are not actively on the job market but are keeping an eye open for the right move. 

A large piece which we are trying to work on with our clients is on how to attract this talent: what’s the story, what’s the plan, what is the company culture, or what do you want it to be? if there has ever been a time to be a unified team, it’s now! We have found, working with a lot of great business leaders (specifically with MD and HRD level) that candidates are resistant to move: many feelings “wedded” to reopening. It seems people are viewing this potentially as a personal ‘final hurrah’ milestone before they make a move. 

Recruiting mid and junior level post-covid. If I had one piece of advice on this it would be: first and be fast. People are not around for long. When you see a CV, a candidate, a person you like: pounce. We are finding some candidates are only on the market for a couple of days before being snapped up. Our consultants are often writing short career synopsis for submitting candidates rather than a full CV in order to speed the process. 

Businesses customer base in another market we are advising our clients to make the most of. Candidates constantly tell us they want to work for businesses they are interested in, have a passion for, an affinity with, be it food, fitness, tech... If you have a customer base, try and use this channel first, especially at frontline level. The old adage of “recruit for attitude and train for skills” could never more true. 

PSYCHOMETRICS: this is a great management tool to understand your team and great for building a culture. Headhunting the right candidate means you have researched that person, you have spoken to their previous boss, team, you have seen or heard of their achievements. Organising meetings and interviews is very much like courtship: they like you, you like them, you look at any potential problems or speed bumps and then you commit. So many people whom I speak to find psychometrics a real turnoff and it really sours the process, in many instances. The argument can also be made that, if you are too like the group you are entering, what are you going to add? It’s a two-way street, but we know this isn’t really the case. If you are going to use them, we can supply them, but we really recommend that they are less than 10% of the decision-making process in any recruitment situation. 

Overall, everything across the board looks much brighter. I am not focusing on Brexit or COVID in this article as there is no point being obsessed in what we can’t control (I’ll save you three years of therapy right there), however, all the above are active things any person recruiting or managing teams can use to assist them. 

All the very best for the continued recovery. 

Krishnan and the team at CORE