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Researchers: A Symbol of a candidate driven market?

Researchers A Symbol Of A Candidate Driven Market

Researchers: a symbol of a Candidate driven market?

Recently, I have picked up several new roles, the likes of which I have never worked on previously. However, despite building positive working relationships with new clients, it has proved particularly challenging to find the right candidates who fit the mould of what they are looking for.

Recruitment as an industry is significantly thriving at the moment, with substantial growth being experienced at all levels, perhaps none more so than in the Executive Search space. Major organisations are growing rapidly as a result of the upturn in the market. With this rapid growth, we are seeing several firms taking on Researchers in order to continue to take their businesses forward and expand their level of knowledge and expertise. But what is a Researcher, you might ask?

Researchers play an integral role within Executive Search firms and are a fountain of knowledge. They are largely responsible for mapping the market, talking to sources and prospects, generating names and developing comparative industry expertise. Researchers also provide a bank of valuable prospects ready for further contact. They are talking to senior level candidates, with many Search organisations working on placing candidates that have minimum salaries of £100k.

The ideal individual for such a role would be someone switched on, able to think outside the box and also commercially aware of opportunities and how they can be maximised, with a natural ability to build relationships with all levels of individuals, particularly incredibly senior figures. But why are they so hard to find?

 

Firstly, most Researchers begin with little or no experience and are frequently taken on from graduate level. In addition, the more experienced Researchers are often very settled in their current positions, very well paid and with long term targets that they are unwilling to sacrifice in order to start over again and build new contacts and clients from scratch. Therefore, finding exceptional individuals is becoming increasingly more difficult, and the supply is simply not meeting the demand in many cases. Hence, Researchers and their niche specialism are becoming symbolic of a candidate driven market in which the candidate holds the majority of the cards.

Therefore, it is becoming increasingly imperative that we as recruiters are thinking more outside the box, and perhaps ironically, using the same skills as the Researchers that we are desperately looking to find. We are therefore starting to adjust to the market and the way it has changed, making the most of social media tools and appealing to our potential candidates in other ways beyond the conventional methods of recruitment.

The bottom line is, in an increasingly candidate driven market, good Researchers will be placed very quickly and we are in a position where we can introduce exceptional candidates to potential clients who may be a suitable fit. This therefore demonstrates how my search for Researchers is perhaps illustrative of the state of our current market and how the world of recruitment is constantly evolving…