According to analysis by Antal Russia, companies have started to once more hire recruitment managers as a key part of an HR function. This is usually an early indicator of confidence for renewed recruitment levels, and also of an upturn in the economy generally. When Antal Russia looked at the nature of vacancies across 2009 they held on their books, this form of HR represented only 2% of the total in the first half of 2009. As we end 2009, this amount has now soared to 8%. This clearly shows that the recruiting function in HR – many of which were victims of the first wave of cost cutting measures – is being built up once more in many local and international companies.
“These vacancies now are mostly for recruitment manager or head of recruitment”, comments Elena Birukova, the head of HR recruitment department at Antal Russia. “Companies have revised the role of this function. Where it was once all about the volume of candidates a recruiter could ‘process’, now the emphasis is on the recruiter’s ability to focus on and select quality candidates for their company. The recruiter has to define as accurately as possible if the candidate will be the loyal to employer, if they fit into the company’s corporate culture and policy, and the level of potential for career and professional growth the individual has”.
In general recruitment agencies, a traditional indicator of growth or reduction in economic activity, had to cut staff dramatically at the end of 2008 and 2009 to bring their cost base in line with sales. “Now there is a general trend of increasing recruiting staff numbers again. It has already become more difficult to find good recruiting consultants”, says Michael Germershausen, Deputy Managing Director of Antal Russia. Michael notes that Russian and Western recruitment companies are quite active once more, as well assmall “boutique” agencies that will interview candidates for themselves.
“Still, although there are many candidates on the market all at the same time at the moment, it is quite difficult to find people who have deep knowledge of the market”, says Anna Vvedenskaya, Training and Development manager at Antal Russia. “All our consultants work with both candidates and clients, and now we are additionally interested in individuals that have the skill to build and develop their own business backed by the framework of our company. We are ready to hire either people with a recruitment background or those who have succeeded in other professional disciplines and are looking to change direction in their career adding dynamism and creativity to their work. For example people coming from a hoist of backgrounds – including accountancy, finance, HR, IT, sales and marketing and others – are proving to be successful consultants in Antal Russia”.
Meanwhile consultants working in recruitment agencies view moving to internal recruitment as a very viable career step, usually securing management roles as they do. They successfully compete with in-house recruiters through their deeper expertise in defined areas, through knowing the candidate market very well and through access they offer to professionals who are not actively looking for a new job. At the same time recruitment companies treat in-house recruiters looking to move to the world of recruitment consultancy (principally for better pay) with caution.
“People who are used to responsibility for internal recruitment for one company can find the to switch to the working in a consultancy - with demands of working with candidates and clients are very different – very difficult”, says Anna Vvedenskaya.
