posted 14th January 2022
Another year is over. Running an IT recruitment agency since the start of the pandemic has certainly been an experience. In fact, it has been a complete rollercoaster ride from the initial shutdown in 2020 to the stop/start nature of business in later 2020 and 2021 to the hope we were finally leaving the worst of the pandemic behind in early December only to be hit by Omicron at the very end of the year. It has been quite the adventure that has been both tough and rewarding.
During this unique time of the pandemic, we have taken the opportunity to focus on defining the two sides of our business, IT sales recruitment and IT technical recruitment and refining our outreach and marketing messages to show our areas of specialisation within Managed Service Providers, IT security and networking, high-end VARs, system integrators, and related technologies. We are dedicated to our areas of specialisation but also not closing ourselves off from other new, exciting opportunities that would be of interest to our candidate base.
But what is the state of the IT recruitment market? The truth is very busy. Currently at TSR Select, we have more live vacancies that we are looking to fill than ever before. These are high quality, unique jobs with very good pay and conditions. I am sure that most IT recruitment agencies are experiencing this type of demand. For TSR, the fact that we specialise in the certain market areas seems to be even more valuable to our clients than ever before. This value is due in large part to our ability to offer advice and guidance regarding salaries, the state of the IT jobs market, and what is driving candidate decision-making.
At the moment, the market is a candidate driven. This is due to a combination of factors including companies growing despite COVID; Brexit leading to qualified, high-quality staff returning home; and a shortage of new entrants to the IT sector resulting from training difficulties. These IT job market conditions have led to both higher salaries and subsequently a higher level of counter offers from existing employers. All in all, this has created a busy but challenging IT job market.
For TSR, the end of the 2021 saw us vacate our old permanent offices in Twickenham to replace them with a new meeting and training hub based in the Regus office near Twickenham station. This is part of our move to be an IT recruitment agency that completely embraces remote working.
Another by-product of our move to remote working is a management style designed to provide more targeted help and support for new consultants while taking a longer-term view toward their sales success. There is a need for us to create a partnership with new consultants, to use more online training resources, and to ensure help and support is available as needed. Remote working has also demonstrated that the right drive and character is essential for our recruitment consultants.
As we go into the New Year, we have a great, settled team consisting of Luke, Jayde, Lori, and Millie. The whole team has a clear understanding of our new internal database, IT systems, marketing practices, and candidate and client outreach protocols. Plus, we are pleased to have a wide range of clients actively seeking IT sales and IT technical professionals for a large variety of roles.
Starting Q1 of 2022, we have targeted goals for the New Year. First, we want to hire two new recruitment consultants for warm desks to connect our existing clients and candidates as soon as possible. Second, this is the year we want to get our email marketing initiated to effectively communicate with our contacts. Finally, we aim to foster an IT recruitment agency that works hard to deliver successful job placements, is efficient, and provides a superior service for candidates and clients.
We hope you all had a successful 2021 and we wish everyone a healthy and happy 2022!
Gary Sargeant, Managing Director