It has come to our attention that our mainline number is currently suffering from some technical difficulties.  We expect the number to be fully operational by the middle of Tuesday 9th February however in the interim please call Andrew Mountney on 07801 627 654.

Our main prediction about the market last year was that many organisations would employ headhunters directly on the pay roll to source senior level staff and cut out search fees.  This has proved to be in the case although to no where near the scale we expected as demand for senior hires has been low.  This year we’ll put our necks on the block with the following predictions.

• Financial services will continue to lead UK growth (and we won’t mind one bit)
  • Banks may not be universally popular with the media but they are driving growth and hiring for recruiters at the moment, as we reach year end all indicators are expectations in Equities and Commodities in particular will drive recruitment across the city
• Workforce plans will come under real pressure from attrition
  • We won’t claim this one ourselves, Universum the employer branding company earlier this year pointed to a post-recession trend that this time round appears to have been polarised.  Typically post-recession businesses suffer slightly higher attrition levels as people who couldn’t move because of market conditions do so… This time out a market poll combined with the impact of the baby boomer rush to retirement in the next few years is likely to leave organisations facing a far larger recruitment campaign just to keep headcount level, expect to see lots of recruiting in 2010 but don’t confuse it for growth
• Recruitment budgets take the strain
  • In no small part due to the above and the ease with which companies have been able to recruit this year there will be an expectation to deliver low cost high quality recruitment and workforce plans but the reality of a changing market will kick in
  • While there might not be growth two years of salary pay awards and high attrition rates will mean as 2010 wears on there will be upward pressure on salaries for new joiners to attract talent (even if it’s filling an existing role) and to get jobs filled quickly, whisper it quietly but it might be time to start making friends with the PSL again
• Flexible recruiting will be critical and become the “norm”
  • Recruitment and volume of hiring is increasingly planned and driven by point in time demand.  To deliver this companies will increasingly look to outsource recruitment projects to flexible RPO solutions or hire contractors to deliver projects and leave while a smaller core permanent recruiting staff will set the strategy and deliver the day to day requirements
  • And yes we reckon that means more headhunters getting hired directly by clients to deliver better value executive search onto the pay roll
• More change at Aspen Partners
  • After the launch of our benchmarking services we’re looking forward to continuing to develop research and consulting projects for the recruitment function in 2010

Hot from the spreadsheet the Aspen Index for August continues to show improving market conditions for in-house recruiters. The index rose for the third consecutive month reaching 43 after hitting an all time low of 36 in May.