Big Wednesday

2009 Overview

It would be easy for a 2009 year end review from a recruitment firm, to be full of woeful stories of candidate retrenchments, shrinking budgets, increase in hours, lack of jobs, decrease in pay etc. etc. etc.   Too easy to take a half glass look at the year and hurry forward into sunrise on the 2010 horizon.  But then, there are plenty of business “journos” who will do that for us.  So, instead lets celebrate some facts:

1) More ‘new’ jobs have been created in the past 6 months than in the previous financial year*.  And by ‘new’ I mean never before existed. Not a change in job title, or a subtle tweak of a job description; but brand spanking, never been done before, lets create space for, “new”.  Many law firms, engineering firms, design firms, insolvency firms, professional associations even recruitment firms (us included) have risen from the doom & gloom to harness the challenge of reinvention; to look at how we engage with clients, how we promote and deliver our services and how we sell our brand.

Marketing & Business Development, as a discipline, actually fared well from the GFC.  Yes, there were casualties, but not as many as expected, and for every downsizing operation, quickly came restructuring that created new opportunity.  Like renovating a house, those dark dusty corners of business, never utilized, give way to light, open spaces of entrepreneurialism and courage.  Jobs are better thought out, ‘buy-in’ is established and there is an increased interest in how marketing & BD can help the business.

2) People got more serious about life.  When jobs are under threat we are forced to reevaluate what is important to us.  For many this meant a refreshing look at how they manage their work-life balance.  A move to part-time or shortened hours (to help reduce the effects of the GFC) led to an increase in sport & leisure, home dining and time with family & friends.  Many I spoke to this year, actually felt relieved that they were able to slow down (even if when they were at work, they worked harder).  More importantly the culture of business in the high performance business community of Professional Services, appeared to soften.  Fee-earners, now more vulnerable, open their mind to marketing & BD strategies, and express that they value what we do. **.

3) Less of our talented marketers went overseas, and some who had left, returned.  As a recruitment agency that has fully encouraged and supported international career moves, it may surprise you that we would see this as a positive.  However, Australia and New Zealand create some of the best marketing talent in the World and it now has an opportunity to fully nurture it.  A recent survey of our key clients has revealed that L&D is firmly on the agenda for marketing staff, and we are starting to see real innovation in the way professional services firms develop their staff.  Long may it continue.

4) Candidates were given a timely reminder that sloppy past career moves could and would go against them in a tight job market.  Firms who are hiring, and especially those who have created new jobs, want the best, the very best and nothing but the best.  And they are prepared to wait.  Those candidates who had credible tenure in current firms (3+years) and who could demonstrate that they had been completer-finishers; secured most offers; whilst others had to work much harder at convincing employers to overlook past ‘misdemeanors’ such as job-hopping and poor academics.

5) Salary rises stalled.  Why is this a good thing?  Because it creates more parity across industries and firms.  In a market which is fairly unregulated, this means the under-paid have a real chance to move up into jobs that the overpaid cannot afford to take (without dropping the $$).  It also means ‘moving for $$’ is not as rife, forcing some to stay longer and thereby actually improving their career pedigree.  Think about it…it works.

6) Seldon Gill changed.  Like any transformation it had painful moments, we lost staff we valued and we were forced to navigate a new landscape with scary “what if” scenarios.  But we rose to the challenge, like so many of our clients.  We evaluated our strengths and weaknesses, we reconnected with our clients and candidates and we were forced to ask ourselves if we still wanted to do what we do.  As you can see, the answer was YES!

So whilst there maybe fewer parties this year, and whilst many of you will not be enjoying the financial bonuses of previous years; lets enjoy the fact that we work with some of the most successful people in business, we generally get to share in their success (be it lavish modern workplaces, access to good IT or above average salaries) and as a profession we are more understood and better respected than ever before.  Your glass may only be half-full, but raise it anyway.

*Review of recruitment campaigns assigned to Seldon Gill June 09 – Dec 09.
** APSMA Value survey 2009