I felt that now was a good time to try and get the real story behind the opinions and to try and compile facts, figures, and percentage points of what CLIENTS and CANDIDATES think of this enormous industry.

My wonderful friends at SurveyMonkey ensure that all data collected is stored and verifiable and allows a degree of accuracy. I am in no way looking to take on Monster or the REC, but I am very interested in people’s opinions (recruiters, HR people, job board owners, and job seekers).

Should anyone like to add more points that cannot be completed within the survey, please feel free to contact me on js@leadingemployersblog.com

I have tried to break down the survey into relevant components to make life easier for everyone, but if you’ve got an opinion put it in there!

So, here is the first survey – and we’re starting with the people who have the biggest say in what’s happening (in my opinion) the job seeker! So, don’t hold back all you job seekers, or recent no-more job seekers (well done, if you’ve just got a new role!) We want to know your thoughts, your feelings, your gripes, and if you feel like it name and shame the ones that should make us proud, and others that will want us to bow our heads in shame!

We’re not after you email addresses, unless of course you want to send it, so all responses will be totally anonymous! So, what you waiting for?!?!

Click here to take survey

Not being one to let something go, I’ve felt compelled to have another go at it, and to question the point of it?

Having spoken at length yesterday with @alexhens (A great person to follow for those who don’t on Twitter).

What it appears to be is that these firms aren’t actually recruitment firms at all, or is that what we’ve now become? Has recruitment gone full circle back to the old days and taken all of our ‘consultative’ skills with it? 2010 Recruitment is a very different place, but the question that needs to be asked is did we just convince ourselves what clients wanted? Did they want rebates, SLA, PSLs, Account managers, prepped CVs, interview feedback?

What if they just wanted CVs all along? Did we trick ourselves into thinking that what we were doing was the right thing? Were we dictating to our clients about what service they needed?

Since the arrival of the ‘web recruitment firms’ there seems to be a mass exodus of organisations that now consider ‘recruitment’ as ‘processing CVs’, but surely that isn’t recruitment? We’re not just a bunch of overpaid CV readers, are we? Recruitment is about people, their aspirations, their fears, their hopes, their ambitions, it’s not about 75 lines of text on a screen. What about the fact that they’ve been made redundant, and don’t know what to do? What about the fact that they’ve been at their current employer for 14 years and know that the only thing to do is to leave? Will they ‘fit’; will they get on with their line manager?

Recruitment isn’t about paper its about people.

But are the new breed building a sustainable business, is it a business that has a long term future or does James Caan already have an exit? Speaking to Alex yesterday, he raised a great point…there was a well known recruiter who was furious when Freecruitment decided to charge for their service, and he wasn’t alone in his frustration. He said that his business model would not support paying for adverts on Reed and that Reed were wrong to charge for his ability to find suitable candidates for his jobs (for which he made many thousands of pounds).

So, what if the heads of the big job boards that are currently selling their soul sit around the big table and decide that they no longer want their brands sold-out? Take for example www.theladders.co.uk, who state on their website that they will take one senior job off you for £349, but instead I can just wander over to www.easywebrecruitment.com and can put the same job on a whole host of websites all over the globe for about £500 (I couldn’t find the exact price). So as a proactive HR person which would you do? £150 to go on at least 5 of 6 premium websites? It has to be the latter.

I see how they are shaping the market; I just wonder for how much longer they’ll be around and if it’s just another recruitment fad? So, what are traditional recruitment firms going to do now? Become proactive? Change their stance? Or hold tight?

2010 and beyond could be very interesting for recruitment in the UK!

Could this be one great big reality check?

Not so long ago, job vacancies were plentiful, mortgages available and disposable income was spent on evenings out and weekends away, rather than inflated utility and shopping bills. The great British public lived a life of Riley, safe in the knowledge that their home was increasing in value and consequently creating a nice little nest egg for the future.

Compared to March 2009, this pretty little picture seems to have been painted in a story book.

With redundancy numbers increasing, and more and more companies struggling to stay afloat, people can no longer take their job or their lifestyle for granted. For many people, life has become one great big struggle overnight, and losing a job and possibly a home is a reality that many have to face.

The big question now, is will this change us for the better?

Speaking daily to jobseekers from a variety of backgrounds and industries, I am certainly noticing that most people are more flexible and open minded about their requirements when looking for a job. Unsociable working hours and significant drops in salary are no longer influencing factors, as people are realising that they can’t be as selective as they had been in the past.

Research carried out by Centre for Cities, has shown that competition for jobs in both Hull and Bristol has increased rapidly in recent months. Positions that were recognised as difficult to fill, and traditionally taken by migrant workers are now receiving applications from an increased number of local people.

The increase in demand for these “hard to fill” positions which offer low status and low levels of pay, perhaps allude to a change in attitude of the British job seeker.

Are we reaching the point where any job is better than no job?

Although average salary levels have dropped, it is certainly positive news that the jobs are still there for the taking. Competition will be high and it this current climate it pays to be well prepared and well informed. The AGR today advised graduates to focus on research and reiterated the point that knowing the employer and understanding the sector is highly important.

So for all those of you who can see the first step on their career ladder on Scottish soil – Good Luck and persevere. It will definitely be worth the effort!

It may appear that Mr. Branson and the crew at Virgin has pulled off another first. Not content with pushing the boundaries of business, it appears, at least that they have decided to take the employer route into mainstream marketing.

Maybe because its my background, but I really sense that they’re pushing Virgin Atlantic here as a ‘different employer’, they’re not only showing how their firm has grown over 25 years, but to me it is also showing that they’re a firm with personality, and the type of people they recruit as their crew. 

Admittedly the whole advert is a bit tongue in cheek, but I quite liked the tie-in with the saying at the end about ‘Need a new job’, and I wonder if that is pushing you to think of Virgin Atlantic as an employer (because look at all the fun we can have!)

Of course, I might be wrong, and it may just be a brilliant way to encourage us to fly Virgin next time, but perhaps it is the first attempt at pushing ‘jobs’ and ‘employers’ into the market?

After all, Richard Branson’s quote about Virgin Atlantic sums it up “The people who make up Virgin Atlantic make up Virgin Atlantic.”

I’d love to hear any thoughts on this one!