Associates Of The Academy Of Business Strategy (aabs) Executive Recruitment Innovation

This is a strange time for the recruitment industry

. Record numbers of candidates are registering with recruitment companies and online job boards alike and yet there are very few employers who are actively recruiting. The ratio between candidates who are registered and the employment vacancies actually available is a staggering 1.67. This means that for every 67candidates registered there is only 1 employment vacancy. Consequently and given the fact that the average membership of online recruitment companies or job boards stands at approximately 1.5 million, then each organization in return offers no more than 22,388 vacancies. Just how many of these vacancies are up-to-date and subsequently still vacant is always open to question. Bear in mind that we are talking about vacancies here too, not positions allocated. It is impossible to find any online recruitment company or job board which publishes figures relating to the number of candidates who have successfully found employment. There are plenty of published figures relating to the number of candidates who are registered and the number of vacancies on offer, but there are no figures relating to firm placements. The fact that recruitment companies and online job boards earn their income either from candidates who register with them, or from employers who place adverts, does not help because none of this income is performance related.

The economic downturn has contributed to a position where the majority of employers are implementing major staff reduction programs which are unprecedented and have only niche recruitment plans for the foreseeable future. Any positions that may be available are being offered to existing employees in order to retain sustainability and to avoid punitive redundancy costs. The market is stagnant.

But we are hearing that there are visible green shoots of recovery - surely this provides some cause for optimism? Unfortunately history has taught us that when ever countries start to come out of a recession, unemployment actually continues to increase for a number of years. The reason for this is because it takes time for product and service demand to increase and when it does employers are invariably only able to react to it after it happens. It tends to be rather like the pendulum on a clock. Once the unemployment swing starts, you tend to have to wait for it to stretch as far as it can go before it starts to move back again.

All doom and gloom then? Not necessarily. Another thing that history has taught us is that human nature is relentlessly adaptable and evolves to adapt in the face of crisis. Indeed many of the great products, companies and government policies that we have today have been born out of a crisis. This is already happening now in the recruitment industry. A high number of people who have either lost their jobs or are in fear of losing them are going independent, either by setting up their own businesses and companies or by working in a consultancy capacity. Employers are happy to accommodate this change because it enables them to retain required skills as and when required without the risks usually associated with employment.

I should point out that I am not a recruitment specialist and never have been. I am a professional Head Hunter. I have worked for global firms within the professional service industry and the IT industry and my brief has always been to identify the right candidate for core vacancies that became available. So you could say that I come from the other side of the fence from recruitment companies and job boards. My responsibility has always been to the employer, not to the candidate. Having said this I know precisely how many candidates have achieved employment under my watch. It stands at 74,568 as of 1st May 2009.

During the last 10 years of my career I have worked as an Associate Director for the Academy of Business Strategy. As the company name suggests, this is a business school, not a recruitment company. The Academy is actually a small private corporate business school which operates globally. They provide 20 post-graduate programs of which 16 are only available to clients. The other four programs are available either to independent consultants or proactive employees. The Academy manages about 600 students annually, which is comfortably small for a corporate business school. My role at the Academy is still that of a head hunter, only this time I am responsible to the Academy's extensive client base amounting to in excess of 2,000 organizations worldwide. I manage a team of five highly skilled Associate Managers and our task is to identify suitable candidates from the Academy of Business Strategy's registered student base to undertake Associate assignments lasting between 6-18 months. Rates of remuneration are fixed at $100.00 per hour or $800.00 per day. The employment ratio for Associates of the Academy of Business Strategy has been sustained at 2:1 during the past ten years but has now increased to 3:1 during the past 12 months since the recession as more and more companies are being forced to outsource to independents. This means that out of every four Associates registered, three will ultimately be placed on an Associate assignment. When you compare this to the recruitment industry's performance as a whole, the difference is staggering and proves that individual candidates are going to have to be much more proactive and innovative in the way in which they seek employment. Associate membership at the Academy of Business Strategy is free of charge, but is only available to registered students at the Academy. It is effectively a complimentary service which is provided to the Academy's clients. It is just one example of a unique way for proactive candidates to obtain a significant competitive advantage over their executive peers in the search for gainful employment and combining this with professional self-development.

by: Justin. P.R. Lewis MBA DIM

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