Smarter foresight

Changing client and candidate expectations are transforming recruitment, so where are the best new opportunities for growth for recruiters and what will give them a competitive edge?

On 9th March, TALiNT Partners brought together 100 senior executives from the sector’s biggest and best staffing and talent solution firms to hear insights and predictions from a panel of industry leaders, experts, advisors and a renowned global futurist.

The first panel looked at the models and solutions recruiters should prioritise in 2023 and kicked off with Annelise Smith, MD of Lorien, which has invested heavily in its analytics advisory service. “Employers need to understand the market faster and with less resource,” she explained. “Insight is core to our business in helping employers understand where the right candidates are, what’s stopping people applying to them, or barriers in their process.

Clients aren’t looking for static retrospective data or time to hire anymore. They want data to support more agile tactical and strategic decisions about their internal workforce, external labour trends, demand planning or pay rates.

Funding Growth

As employer appetite increases for talent intelligence and a wider range of services, recruiters of all sizes are looking for funding solutions to build capability.

Sonovate has lent £2 billion to recruiters in the last eighteen months to help them develop and deliver new solutions like analytics - but which opportunities should they be investing in?

Mark Thompson, Group Head of Sales at Sonovate, highlighted some key findings from its recent Future World of Work report.

“With high inflation, low unemployment and rising wages, we’re seeing some key trends converging to create new opportunities for recruiters,” he explained. “To a�ract and retain multi-generational workforces, including the over-fi�ies, employers and recruiters need to think about new models. More employees are looking at contracting opportunities as employers explore more flexible and outsourced options – so the future is a larger contingent workforce.”

Recruiters should be using talent intelligence to help employers build the business case for talent solutions and price their services more competitively. More accurate labour market analytics are also helping recruiters to identify niches they can grow into.

Talent Works is a market leader in content and employer brand services but has recently launched a contingent workforce solution for its mid-market niche. “Our RPO is for hiring sub-500, a space we have been successful in for some time,” explained CEO Neil Purcell. “The opportunity is for companies who may not have considered a different strategy, but they may have 10, 15 or even 20 suppliers pu�ng in contractors on crazily different pay rates. The audit and compliance capability supporting our solution de-risks that, but we also have more actionable data and insights to make be�er workforce decisions.”

Umbrella providers like the Parasol Group are levelling the playing field for staffing and talent solutions firms challenging the larger incumbents, particularly those targeting SMEs and mid-market clients, with compliance, payroll and onboarding services at scale.

“The legacy of the pandemic is both employers and recruiters treating contractors more like permanent employees as competition for talent has intensified,” said Parasol Group Key Account Director, Kieler Berry. “Umbrella companies need to add value beyond payroll, developing technologies and solutions to embed themselves in the onboarding process and make it more streamlined for recruiters to re-deploy contractors more quickly. We have developed a benefits package for contractors focusing on their health and wellbeing, which we offer to agencies to differentiate their service.”