Recruitment and the New Reality
Olesya Murashova (Head of Permanent Staffing Department)
In the current context of economic instability, the success of an organization's activities largely depends on the efficient use of its resources. The most important and necessary resource of any company are its people and the quality of the management of the company's staff. Today, employers try to optimize personnel costs and make the use of their labor resources more efficient. However, lack of a professional staff has become an increasingly difficult problem. It is necessary to find experts ready to work under certain conditions, to ensure the loyalty of the employees, and to create a professional team which is able not only to settle current issues but also to withstand the severe shocks of the modern business world, and all these tasks should be settled at minimum cost.
Every employer is primarily interested in the time it takes to recruit staff (namely, the time to acquire a sufficient number of relevant CVs from candidates of sufficient quality). If the terms for recruiting the staff are violated, the company starts losing money. According to statistics, recruitment terms are broken in more than 50 percent of cases.
The databases of candidates in recruitment agencies are formed over years. Thus, the search for required personnel is conducted not only among currently active job seekers, but also among employed professionals. When working with an agency, a company often receives the first CVs in a day or two. That can be a key advantage when searching for staff for last-minute job vacancies. An important part of the employment agency is its role as a mediator which is able to settle most of the difficulties and misunderstandings that arise between the applicant and the employer at the stage of initial contact.
Due to the difficult current situation on the market, many executives have become less willing to take on ambitious new goals, now they are not willing to change the company's strategy. Business owners, on the contrary, have decided that the crisis is the right time to act, to enter new markets and new niches. This is what makes business owners consider changing their top management. They seek initiative and responsible candidates who are ready to meet clear objectives in spite of the market volatility. The company's staff is unlikely to be happy to learn about changes in the management. It is clear that the manager to be changed will not be happy at all. One recruitment agency service is to find a new manager so that a company's staff would not learn about it. Such searches are usually conducted confidentially so as not to leave the business without the control of executives, even for a short period.
Today's economic situation has had a negative impact on virtually all areas of business. Many companies have to carry out staff reduction. Some companies regard the current financial crisis as an opportunity to change their organizational structure, to take the company to the next level. Unfortunately, internal changes make some companies say goodbye to some members of their staff. Whatever the reason is for dismissing the staff, it is necessary to get out of the situation, choosing the best option for all parties involved.
If a company values its reputation, strives to maintain its positive image both in the eyes of the dismissed employees and in the eyes of those who are still working for the company, the best way out of the situation of staff dismissal is to take advantage of an outplacement service, which involves consulting the dismissed staff, vocational guidance, adaptation and promotion on the market. The company's concern of their former employees' future helps to keep a sense of stability and a calm psychological atmosphere in the team.
A socially responsible human resources policy and the absence of public lawsuits and negative feedback about the employer from former employees contribute to its positive image. Business reputation is one of the most important intangible assets, which cannot be overestimated.
Despite the material expenses, an outplacement service gives the employer a lot of benefits and advantages, as well as helping to prevent financial losses.
As a rule, it is a recruiter or HR manager who is occupied with staff searches. When a company wants to reduce personnel costs, it resorts to outsourcing the function of staff selection.
Recruitment process outsourcing is an area of business processes outsourcing, when the employing company fully or partially transfers staff search and selection to a provider.
A recruitment outsourcing service is mostly demanded in rapidly changing companies and in case of large projects, which require involvement of temporary staff, as well as in companies willing to build, optimize or enhance the system of recruitment. Also, this service is suitable for companies that do not want or cannot afford to have their own recruiters or do not consider it necessary to hire additional staff in their HR departments.
The advantages of recruitment outsourcing are evident, namely finding the necessary staff as soon as possible, the formation of company's own database of candidates, the standardization and optimization of operational processes, as well as risk and cost reduction as far as staff recruitment is concerned.
In this difficult time, companies face challenges not only in recruitment but also in retaining key employees. In the last year, salaries have risen only for certain employees (as a rule, for highly effective employees), bonuses were reduced or new bonus calculation schemes were created, salaries were tied to the exchange rate or, on the contrary, salaries started to be given to employees in rubles. However, all these measures turned out not to be enough. After all, competent and efficient experts are always needed in various companies, regardless of the crisis. That is why it is not recommended for the companies to give up work on the formation of an attractive compensation package for such employees.
A good tool for this is an overview of salaries on the market. Such an overview can be prepared by HR companies and will make business owners aware of trends in the labor market in terms of compensation and changes in compensation packages. Thereby companies can, on the one hand, retain their key employees, and, on the other hand, reduce staff costs.
Even in times of crises, every company can find optimal forms of cooperation with HR companies, choosing this or that service, but the result will always be aimed at cost customization and achievement of the company's strategic objectives in a particular field of work with its staff.
The Moscow Times, 20.04.2016