In an article published by Online recruiters directory call 'Recruiters in 2007' - a survey report, it was found that for most recruiters the biggest challenge they faced in 2006 was - finding qualified candidates.
This was especially true for the IT sector and most recruiters surveyed echoed the same sentiment and that the market has turned to a candidate driven market and employers were faced with greater demands from hiring perspective.
From what I've seen in Q1 of 2007 the trend seems to be pretty much the same as 2006 but at a much more acute pace.
Today, Singapore market, say unlike 2-3 years back is flooded with mushrooming recruitment firms and the competition for a share of the same pie is developing into a very fascinating affair.
We have the same group of recruiters and resourcers finding and talking to the same group of candidates and at times the same candidate ends up being represented to the same client couple of times.
This definitely does not bode well for both the candidate and the agent. The fight for the same group of talents ultimately resulted in some cases in the candidate holding on to 2 or more offers at the same time.
This truly is the candidate market! And I believe that this trend will continue in the same vein at least for some more years to come and I say this because Singapore is proving itself to be a preferred location to set up and conduct business for many of the employers in Europe and America.
I was talking to a senior recruiter with an Australia based recruiting firm here in Singapore who incidentally is recruiting for a leading bank and he confidently declared -
"Joe, I've market mapped Singapore and I know and have spoken to most of the candidates here and the same goes for India too and I am only sourcing for candidates now from non-traditional and unlikely sources/locations."
He continued to awe me when he nonchalantly declared that he has more than 80 jobs at any given time and he simply does not have the time to do justice to all the requirements and he needs extra hands.
He might have exaggerated a wee bit there but there is more truth in what he commented. Because just after a few days of receiving this great insight I was commanded in no uncertain terms by one of the recruitment manager in a leading European bank-
"We've seen all the candidates there is to see in Singapore and India and we are now focusing our attention on attracting talents from Australia or UK".
And that’s exactly what we got into doing by releasing advertising campaign down under and buying new job boards in London.
Not only do I see shortages of qualified candidates but I also observe an increasing shortage of experience recruiters by the number of calls that I continue to get from headhunters and also by the way I struggle myself to recruit consultants and recourcers for my own organization.
As we continue to operate within many limitations and demands of the market we evolve into being a specialised and effective recruiter and this is necessary in order to stay ahead of competition.
One area that we can all look forward to in the coming days is gaining success in honing our skills in international recruitment and in diversity recruitment.
After all that is what the clients and the market increasingly wants us to be and as a recruiter we have no choice but evolves with the changing times.
*** happy hunting folks***
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