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Market Overview By Julia Sandler, Director

Tue, 11 Feb 2014
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2013 was a busy year which saw a steady rise in recruitment activity and a significant increase in client requirements from 2012.  Whilst not quite back to pre-recession levels, the market has certainly continued to move in the right direction.

As the economy slowly emerged from its slumber, the jobs market in 2013 didn’t fare too badly. Whilst we have seen some redundancies, these have significantly decreased from 2012 with fewer of our clients making cut backs. Key trends in 2013 were linked to the investment in long term growth, with a number focussing on employer branding, talent attraction and the retention of key skills and staff. We have noticed an increase in perm hiring and a reduced focus on interim / contract roles, signifying a sustained belief and trust that the market will continue to grow into 2014. Whilst we saw a rise in demand for immediate starts, this was more due to the desire to increase headcount quickly as opposed to temporarily filling a gap in staffing numbers.

2013 has also seen further demand for talented people and skills and a real competition for strong industry candidates. No doubt, demand will rise as the economy continues to recover.  As we continue into 2014, clients will have to broaden their talent pool and be ever more creative in their resourcing strategies.  Partnering with agencies that have strong candidate relationships and provide a good candidate experience will remain top of the agenda.

Industry Evaluation

Creative industries constitute one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK and are forecast to play an even bigger role in coming years. Positions which were once deemed superfluous during the recession are now being reconsidered and standing out from the crowd to attract top talent was certainly of note in 2013.  Skills shortages are still apparent and salaries were definitely driven up in order to compete for key players. Clients that triumphed typically provided well benchmarked salaries and competitive benefits as well as a more innovative approach to the recruitment process.

Predictions for 2014

Employers continue to remain optimistic about the year ahead and business across all of the divisions of Impact – HR, Finance, Support – have remained buoyant.  2014 has started with a bang and as well as consolidating relationships with existing clients we have a substantial number of new clients partnering with us for their recruitment needs.

Clients have highlighted employer branding as a key recruiting strategy for 2014.   Another focus is on the need for recruiting innovators – the wild economic success of serial innovation driven firms like Apple, Google, and Facebook have demonstrated the high economic impact of hiring, retaining, and managing talent.  After years of slack hiring and an economic slump, the competition for top performers and technical talent will continue to increase over the course of 2014.

Partnering with strong recruiters will remain key to providing a competitive talent advantage in 2014.