RPO Alliance SIG Pulse

Looking to gain insight into RPO and upcoming trends? Visit this site for monthly pulses!

May 2012

The RPO Alliance SIG believes that there's some good signs for the economy and for hiring based on the following observations:

• The housing market is doing slightly better—facilitates employment movement and the employment market
• Hiring is going up overall—up in certain skill sets, down in others
• There’s a new emphasis on sales hiring—this uptick is a leading indicator for the economy
• Companies are gearing up intern programs
• Companies are top grading talent
• Now we believe there is less chance of a double dip in the Domestic economy, but Europe is a wild card.
• More requests for compliance audits—could we a sign for hiring to come
• There’s a large interest rowing for technology only solutions

June 2012

The RPO Alliance SIG is noticing that recruiting for HR Professionals, especially Recruiters, is on the rise.

In May 2012, more than 31,000 job postings were placed online for HR Professionals.  This was an 8% increase from 2011 and a 40% increase from 2010.

• 73% of the positions were advertised by employers.
• 27% were advertised by recruiting and staffing firms.
• Recruiters were the most in demand position within the HR field. 
• More than 50% of all the HR Positions advertised were for recruiters.

A natural assumption is that as employers expand their recruiting staff, they may be gearing up to hire more individuals across their entire organization.

*Statistics from WANTED Analytics

July 2012

Global Thoughts:
o   Global clients are cautious in the U.S. based on business operations in EMEA.
o   Prioritization in Europe is trending downward, especially from a banking perspective.
o   Keeping an eye for a potential Asian slowdown and its impact on America.
o   In the U.S. rec volume is the same, slightly down in Europe—will this bleed over?
o   Asia also seeing a slowdown in the banking sector, but not seen in  a lot of other sectors.

U.S. Unemployment Rates:
o   The most recent unemployment rate does not show the full picture of what’s happening in the U.S.—there are thousands of jobs going unfilled due to the lack of mobility and the mismatching of skills.
o   Healthcare is one industry seeing a vast lack of education needed for certain jobs.
o   Many Americans have given up the search, thus inflating the numbers, and many of them are also in jobs that are below their skill level.
o   With the Presidential elections coming up in November, we are seeing a lot of caution on the hiring front and a desire to stick with the status quo until we know the outcome.   Even after the election, it could be a while until companies understand the full implications of the outcome and how to plan for future staffing needs.
 

August 2012

The RPO Alliance SIG is noticing that there is a trend in companies hiring individuals with various Social Media Skill Sets.
According to Wanted Analytics, social media and social networking skills are much in demand:

•         They compared recent job postings including social media requirements from June of 2012 to June of 2011 and found a 65% increase in job posting volume 
•         As more and more social networking sites are being created; new ways to leverage these sites in regard to recruiting, reaching customers, etc. seems likely to continue
•         Hiring for sales representatives with social media skill sets have almost doubled from June of 2011 to June of 2012

The natural assumption is that staffing organizations may see increased competition in attracting potential candidates with this growing demand for social media skills
 

September 2012

•        The industry continues to wait with bated breath to see the results of 2012 U.S. election. Each candidate has their own implications on jobs/recruitment.

•         The RPO Alliance SIG Board continues to see difficulty in filling complex positions for oil/gas, manufacturing, sales, healthcare and skilled trade positions.

•         According to the ManpowerGroup’s 2012 Talent Shortage Survey:

•   GLOBAL: TOP 10 JOBS EMPLOYERS ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY FILLING

•  1 Skilled Trades Workers

•  2 Engineers

•  3 Sales Representatives

•  4 Technicians

•  5 IT Staff

•  6 Accounting & Finance Staff

•  7 Drivers

•  8 Management/Executives

•  9 Laborers

•  10 Secretaries, PAs, Administrative Assistants & Office Support Staff

•   Click here to view the ManpowerGroup’s 2012 Talent Shortage Survey 

•        The financial industry will continue to be quiet during Q3 and Q4as the markets continue to be slow and the uncertainty due to the European Debt crisis

•        Groups are beginning to review how they handled the 2009 recession to view lessons learned

November 2012

•        The election results didn’t change the stalled hiring market; employers are waiting to see how the “Fiscal Cliff” issue is resolved in the coming days.  

•        However, 2013 bullishness is being seen both in rising hiring projections and a record high in new contract business over the last month.

•        Internship recruitment is also providing some initial evidence that hiring will be picking up.  One company saw increased competition with their college intern recruitment program; the previous year’s 80-90% acceptance rates fell to 60% in 2012 across engineering, supply chain, and HR internships.

•        Seeing an uptick in the recruiting of engineering positions; the increased need is making it more difficult to source these positions.

December 2012

•        Healthcare hiring is picking up due to continued increase in demand (e.g. aging population); recruiters have to increase their familiarity with this segment to effectively hire  healthcare employees.

•        Over the past 6 months, sense in the market that RPO clients expect their provider to eliminate agency costs and paid job board costs within the first year; this is no longer a goal or game-changer.

•        Increased interest in executive searches being conducted using an ‘agency inside’ approach.

•        Seeing a more sophisticated buyer in the marketplace; as more 2nd and even 3rd generation programs emerge, buyers are learning both from experience and from peers.
•        Shift of focus from ‘Big Data’ to ‘Good Data’; as more HR and Talent Leaders recognize the need for data analytics to inform C-Suite decisions, they see the focus really needs to be on ‘Good Data’ – data that is accurate, accessible,  and trustworthy.  This often requires working hand-in-hand with their RPO provider and getting ‘back to basics’ to ensure the data is entered correctly.