It is a truth universally acknowledged in business that when times are tough, the balance of power in recruitment swings in favour of the employer, as candidates chase a smaller pool of jobs. Put simply, the war for talent is still raging.
Yes, the candidate pool is larger, and there is often pressure on organisations to keep an eye on costs – including people. Many have realised that recruitment and retention of top performers are just as key to their short- and long-term success in recession as they are in boom times.
The fear of being 'last in, first out' in a job can be a factor in dissuading people from moving. However, outstanding people are always sought after and you have to give them a better reason not to take a call from a headhunter than simply fear of change.
If one front in the talent war is focused on retention, the other is recruitment. A consistent theme in conversations with people in business is that they are finding recruiting the best people as challenging now as it was at the height of the boom – but for slightly different reasons. There are plenty of people out there, but few employers are simply looking for additional resource when they are hiring; they are looking for strategic hires who will be value-add, not just arms and legs. And, as ever, you have to pay a premium for those people.
In May, Fishburn Hedges appeared in the Financial Times as part of the Great Places to Work league table for the 10th consecutive year; and we were awarded 'master' status within the Great Workplaces Institute.
While I was delighted with this accolade, the reason it was most important to us is because it brings to the fore one of the principles on which we have built our business – that we need to treat people incredibly well, irrespective of economic pressures or other factors.
There are two parts to 'being a great place to work'. The most substantive one is around career development. Our aim is to ensure, at the end of every year that someone works here, if they were to update their CV, it would have developed at least as much here as it would have done had they gone anywhere else.
The second is all the little touches that make people feel they are being treated as people, not part of a machine – from pancakes on Shrove Tuesday through to spa vouchers at Christmas.
Despite the recession, the challenge of hiring and hanging on to the best people continues to be a top priority for many business leaders.
Fiona Thorne (pictured) is CEO of PR agency, Fishburn Hedges
