All recruiters know the market has been tough recently, but no one has established the best ways to attract and retain more clients despite current challenges – until now.
Generate surveyed 223 CEOs, Managing Directors and Business Leaders who are looking to expand their businesses this year. This audience, who are in prime position for hiring in the next few months, shared what they’re really thinking about in 2024 and how recruitment agencies can support them to improve results for both parties.
This report details their insights, including:
- The surprising differences between the challenges of recruitment agency client businesses according to industry
- The most significant problems that clients are grappling with day-to-day and long-term
- The root causes and hidden factors behind these significant challenges – what’s really going on in the market and why
- What clients are actively doing to tackle these challenges – and what activities are truly delivering return on investment
- How the economic and global climates are likely to impact hiring strategies in the UK going forward.
Download the report to discover how your agency can push past hiring freezes and market uncertainty to tap into your clients’ real needs and acquire new customers in 2024.
The Greatest Demand for Contract Recruitment – Where & Why
44% of agency leaders are planning to increase temporary & contract activity in the next year – but will the demand for contract recruitment really match agencies’ expectations?
In our survey, more than 1 in 3 client business leaders – 36% – said they were only recruiting permanent employees in the next 12 months, whereas 17% said that they were only planning to hire contractors. However, nearly half – 47% – are planning to recruit both this year, meaning that a combined 64% of clients will be recruiting contract roles this year. With almost two thirds of client businesses in the market for contract recruitment, existing contract staffing agencies are set to see demand for temporary and contract hires continue rising in 2024 and 2025.
The popularity of contracting is easily explained by a combination of factors that drive business appetite for reduced short-term costs whilst maximising productivity. With economic pressures and the shortage of skilled talent all set to continue and potentially worsen in the next few years, employers are widening their searches and considering new hiring solutions. In the coming year, over 90% of new jobs are expected to be project-based or involve flexible work arrangements. Contract recruiters are perfect partners for clients wanting to deliver the necessary output and outcomes, but maintain an agile team of talent that desires flexibility and maximising their own time and earnings.
The report showed that industry/sector of client business had a marked impact on appetite for contract hiring in the near future. Industries that stated they were much more likely to recruit contractors include Arts & Culture, with 67% of leaders confirming they would be recruiting contractors this year, followed by Retail (55%) and Construction (54%) leaders. Manufacturing business leaders were considerably more likely to recruit contractors (39%) followed by Education (38%) and Health & Social Care (35%). Least likely were Financial Services (30%) and Business Services (17%).
Recruitment agencies have a marked opportunity to acquire and grow new customer volume in the coming months and year ahead, with clear indicators of where to best place their efforts for maximum effect.
Download the Free Report to discover:
- Clients’ Most Significant Challenges – 74% of employers ranked one surprising thing as their top three challenges for 2024 and 2025
- The Root Causes Behind Client Challenges – Whilst client businesses exhibit high levels of awareness around their problems, we also asked them to delve deeper into the ‘why’ behind each: the root causes of the challenges they face on a daily and long-term basis.
- Problem-Solving: How Clients are Attempting to Address Their Challenges Almost half (48%) of all clients made major changes to one particular area of their business, but how effective was it in solving their major problems?
- The Plan: How Employers are Aiming to Solve their Challenges in 2025 – All business leaders reported deploying a number of different tools to tackle their challenges, with additional actions planned for the next 12 months to incorporate learnings from existing changes and anticipate new opportunities. However, there were clear popular choices, and employers opt to embrace new and innovative methods – and require recruiters’ help to drive forward these plans.
- How Clients Want to Receive Support from Providers – Businesses are clearly well informed about their many routes to talent acquisition, development and retention, and have specific ideas for the ways in which they want the government to aid them. When asked about one action that recruitment providers could take to support them, employers responded with a few common themes.
- What Clients Really Want: Their Personal & Professional Goals – Despite the many challenges on the road ahead to business growth, employers reported optimism with multiple professional goals.
Help Your Clients Solve their Number One Challenge with Generate
As recruiters, you know that talent attraction challenges are best solved with the best partner – and the same is true with talent retention. We provide contractor candidates with on-time payment and expert solutions for any problem, through expert personal services instead of poor automated experiences, to guarantee that your clients never lose a candidate again.
Position yourself as a lifeline to your clients with the payment partner behind the best recruiters.
