I've been in Hong Kong almost 9 years having arrived right on the back of the dot com demise of 2000 and then going through SARS of 2003 I'd like to think I've seen my share of ups and downs in this market. However the challenges we face in 2009 are somewhat unique as the dot com bubble was largely limited to a particular sector in IT&T and SARS was really an Asia only problem. 2008/2009 however is global and on a scale unseen by many including myself in my working career.
The changing landscape requires us as recruiters to change our attitudes and adapt. I suspect that the vast majority of us will continue to do the same thing tomorrow as they did yesterday and expect different results... I think that is the definition of insanity. Recruiters must realize that they are no longer in the driving seat and must adapt accordingly.
1) Candidates are still hard to find but now also are the jobs!
Eh? Surely with rising unemployment candidates are easier to find... wrong! The dynamics of the market are the same but the goal posts just shifted. Moving jobs is about confidence in the future. If you aren't confident about the future and unsure you are more likely to just stay where you are because 'better the devil you know than the devil you don't'. Add that to the fact that the global workforce is still ageing and that qualified and experienced candidates are still hard to find and you have a market that is even harder to work.
The challenge is now further complicated by the fact that the jobs also are hard to find. Companies hire when they are confident and when they are unsure they either freeze hiring or they scale back just in case. Better to cut hard and deep than to not cut far enough is the old adage. To illustrate the point I had a meeting several weeks ago with a client contact who is from a global company currently under a global head count freeze. He told me that he has a client that they supply services to that he needs to add another resource on site that they can charge more money for, yes they will make money off it however they are not aloud to hire anyone right now no matter what the argument or business case and so they just have to make do as best they can. Sounds crazy but its happening in a lot of places.
2) Increased competition, only the strong survive.
I was traveling home the other day on the ferry with a good friend of mine from another recruitment firm. One of his comments rang true with me when he said that one bad quarter right now could sink any recruitment company. How true a statement this is. Unlike in the past you had some ability to forecast your revenues to a large extent currently there is no visibility on the future. This means everyone in the recruitment company needs to be focused and pull together to make it through. If you work for a recruitment company then you need to be figuring out how you can add more value, work hard, do more and ask for less back. Letting people go sucks and having done it many times I'm never happy to do it but it is part of business and I can't change the market. Sure it might not seem fear to you but once again it is a reality, get used to it.
3) Recruiters need to revisit their own expectations.
When I first arrived in Hong Kong 9 years ago the base salary package for a recruiter was 40% of what it was in 2008. Salaries/benefits and over all compensation had moved from a base to commission ratio of 30/70 to 60/40. This wage and package inflation was driven in large part by the buoyant economy and lack of experienced recruiters in the market. Well that's all changing and changing quickly. Recruiters, you must understand, you are sales people! Recruitment has always been a commission driven model where you are rewarded on results and delivery not just on showing up and giving good advice.
4) Get real!
Its mayhem out there. There is no such thing as a guaranteed outcome. You will have to work longer, harder, smarter and with more energy and enthusiasm then you have ever done. To top it off you will get more rejection from clients and more calls from candidates than you can possibly handle. This is your new reality, deal with it. If you used to do 50 client calls a day to fill your pipeline now you need to do 100. You control your own destiny and failure to realize YOU are both the problem and the solution will lead to your own failure.
5) Its always a cycle
Sure this is a cycle, the global economy will survive. Sure it may look very different but it will come back at some point. Recruiters need to understand that you will be measured by how good you are at the worst time in the cycle not the best. This is the market to shine. The old saying is "you are only as good as you are at your weakest moment". Nothing could be more true of the challenges we face now.
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