Economic rain or shine, contract and temp market set to remain buoyant!

A world too connected – but far from bad news for recruiters

As countries around the world contend with inflationary pressures pushing up the cost of just about everything, the shortage of talent continues to be a major point of focus for employers and recruiters. However, it’s far from bad news.

The economic uncertainty and volatility that has been with us since 2008 continues to determine the shape of much of our world. Whether it is the credit crunch, or conflict in Ukraine, the globalised nature of human affairs means things are intricately intertwined in ways that may not be immediately apparent.

The interdependencies between elements of our world that are seemingly far removed from each other sometimes produce major, unexpected, and often unwelcome effects. This begs the question: Is the world too globalised and connected for its own good?

It’s not quite the same as the chaos theory phenomenon known as the butterfly effect, where an insect’s wing beats may feed into a storm at a later time in a different place.

But how many experts predicted the invasion of Ukraine foresaw the results of a refugee crisis, food shortages in Lebanon and other marginalised states, and of course the catastrophic impact on energy markets and the wholesale prices of gas and oil?

A good fit with the needs of some employers

The need to adapt to rapid changes in the operating environment and respond to spikes and troughs in demand has become a strategic imperative for businesses of all sizes.

This has led to the wider acceptance of using self-employed ‘gig economy’ workers. The ethical questions that have been raised about the lack of obligation for employers to provide the basic rights as may be given to permanent workers, are being addressed through legal rulings and legislative action in many countries.

One objective of some larger employers is to acquire workforce flexibility by utilising gig workers as much as possible. When roles need filling for specified blocks of time, the trend for employers working in partnership with staffing agencies to obtain temporary or contract workers seems to be a good compromise position, in that some rights may be afforded.

For jobs where there is a requirement for low-level skills or life skills such as driving, in theory, there should be no shortage of supply. However, this doesn’t hold for roles that require qualified, highly skilled, or experienced workers.

Time for agencies to capitalise!

The shortage of talent and the upward pressure on salaries and reward packages, means recruiters and candidates hold the balance of power in this sellers’ market.

Agencies are able to capitalise on the need for their clients to remain responsive to demand fluctuation by employing temps and contractors. And temps and contractors can negotiate better rates.

The simple logic is that employers that don’t secure the skills they need are likely to find their ability to grow is restricted, forcing them to lose competitive advantage. However, it is important, especially when considering the adoption of technology and the skills to apply it, that companies – including recruitment agencies – do not make rash decisions and costly mistakes.

Minimise costs and streamline for efficiency with ETZ

Recruitment agencies minimise costs and streamline for efficiency when choosing ETZ as their RecTech partner. ETZ is the RecTech partner of choice, helping agencies to navigate the pitfalls and obtain excellent value from technology.

ETZ’s leading timesheet and invoicing solution, streamlines the back office processing of your recruitment agency. Our complementary solutions, ETZ Comply for onboarding and document management, and Caspian for business intelligence give agencies further capability to streamline and uncover opportunities. To find out more call us on 0800 311 2266 or book a demo.