posted 30th March 2022
Time for the quarterly blog I am told by Lori, our Marketing Manager. It is time to add to the ongoing story of reopening and then trying to grow our specialist IT recruitment firm, TSR Select, after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
The reality is that as a UK firm that specialises in IT recruitment, we have a great opportunity to grow in the current market conditions. Numerous clients are looking for IT professionals and salaries are rising for IT jobs. Therefore, we should be able place lots of qualified IT candidates and grow the business.
But are we knocking it out of the park? Do we have so many IT sales and technical roles to fill that success is guaranteed? To be honest, despite the IT recruitment opportunities available, there are three things that are a challenge.
1) Compensation level of IT job offers being made by many companies are just not high enough to persuade qualified IT candidates to leave their existing roles. Candidates are aware that the IT job marketplace is hot, and they are looking for significant pay and benefit increases. Therefore, low offers get rejected by job candidates.
However, many companies struggle with the fact that these compensation rates are above what they pay their existing IT staff. This means that due to the inflationary market their existing IT staff are in effect, underpaid.
2) Remote, hybrid, and office-based working is now all part of the recruitment mix for IT jobs. Candidates generally look more towards remote and blended working, while clients seem to prefer office-based or hybrid. This adds a new layer of complexity to an already difficult recruitment process. The same job at the same company, offering the same money, but offering remote working will appeal to roughly 3xs the number of candidates as one that is office-based, and the salary is worth more with no travel expenses. However, more and more companies seem to be saying, we want people back in the office.
3) Counter offers by current employers - we have never had so many candidates receiving counter offers. The IT candidate shortage means that companies looking to replace a person who has resigned, often see how difficult it is. Or they may have already known because they have open IT sales or technical roles that they are looking to fill. These companies therefore try to make persuasive cases for people to stay. This can be in the form of financial benefits, by adjusting how people work, the type of work they are doing, or all of the above.
These are the issues we have to face in the IT recruitment marketplace. Now that we understand the problems - we need to solve them. We must carefully consider how and when to bring up these issues with clients and how to advise them so that they can get the best IT candidates for their open roles.
As a company, we are settled into remote working with a training hub. However, it has proved hard for new staff to pick up skills, understand expectations, and bring the intensity needed to be successful as an IT recruiter. Once again as we start to understand the challenges, we have started to introduce the solutions even if it is a work in progress.
We are behind in headcount and completed placements if not in offers made. However, we cannot take on more staff until we know that new people can be onboarded successfully. Plus, we will struggle to hit revenue targets unless we can improve the number of offers accepted by candidates.
That is an honest update as we end Q1. I am though, excited by our prospects due to the number and profile of companies reaching out to us and the quality of the new IT technical and IT sales roles that we are taking on. The improvement of our internal systems and training and development, plus the quality of our remote working staff make me feel like we are close to creating a disciplined work environment, that operates with a sense of purpose to provide successful placements for candidates and clients. Bring it on!
Gary Sargeant, Managing Director
If you are an IT professional looking for a new role or a company looking to recruit IT professionals in the MSP, IT VAR, IT networking and security sectors, we can help!
Get in touch by emailing us at contact@tsrltd.co.uk or calling us on 020 3837 9180. We look forward to speaking with you soon!