In our contacts with senior executives – be they established clients or jobhunters – the most common question is ‘what’s the job market like?’ Given that this is a recurring point of interest, we are happy to pass on our view of what’s happening out there.
There is no doubt that the demand for directors and managers is substantially greater than a year ago. At Spindler we felt the impact of the credit crunch and the following downturn most strongly a year ago, through the months of April to July. At that point it seemed that nearly everybody we knew was trying to avoid recruiting at all costs.
The second half of 2009 saw some improvement in demand for recruitment. Happily the first four months of 2010 have been marked by healthy levels of hiring activity. Small and medium-sized companies have responded quite quickly to the improvement in business confidence – and of course when there is more to do, they have little stretch in their human resources.
Larger companies have, in many cases, been slower to return to hiring. Having worked hard to keep hold of their key people through the tough times, they are now putting the emphasis on looking after the top team, as opportunities to change jobs re-emerge. Retention and re-engagement initiatives are very much in vogue. Bigger businesses are making selective external hires, but we are also seeing significantly more interest in the Spindler coaching and mentoring products.
We have highlighted before that the prospects for jobhunters in the private and public sectors are likely to be very different after the General Election. The much heralded cuts will diminish career prospects in most areas of public service, whereas private sector hiring seems to be anticipating a recovery and moving in advance of the macro- economic indicators. Many of our clients are private industry enterprises doing business with the public sector – support services, waste and recycling, renewable energy, rail and so on – but the private/public interface is difficult to read. Some support the idea that pressure for cost reduction will promote more outsourcing by public bodies; others expect that the effect will be negative, as capital projects are delayed or shelved. Only time will tell.
For the individual jobhunter there is still the need to set expectations at realistic levels. The improvement in demand is from a low base and the market is still not buoyant. Finding that next move will take time; probably 4-6 months at the senior executive level and 3-4 months for middle managers. We’ll bring you up to date and reflect on how the market has moved on in our next newsletter in the autumn.
