The first week back after a xmas break is always a strange time in the recruitment world.
You are keen to get moving again but by the same token do not want to appear too pushy when you know your client base is settling back in themselves and may not consider recruitment top of their initial priorities.
Here at Hello Recruitment we are feeling grateful that 2023 finished strongly and we managed to achieve the best last quarter since the business was set up in 2017. This was a welcome end to the year which had got off to a good start rather than spectacular; hit a quiet patch across the summer and then gained momentum right through to January, which has given us a good start to make sure 2024 is the best trading year in our history. You can always say to yourself “what can I do differently?”, “how can I work more efficiently” ?, “how can we be more successful” ? etc etc which are important questions to ask but I strongly believe if you have the right work ethic and follow the basics of the process then this will give you a strong platform to allow you to move forward and think of strategies to develop business and look at different sectors of growth.
I am generally optimistic by nature but do feel there is a lot to be positive about at the dawn of 2024. The economy has shaken business up in the last 12 months but it does appear that despite some bad political moves the rate of inflation has come down which will result in interest rate cuts in 2024 and subsequently give people more disposable income and hence boost the economy which will be beneficial for all of us.
The knock on effect of this would normally see businesses have the confidence to have growth plans and take on additional staff to achieve this which should bolster the recruitment sector. With more vacancies in the marketplace than 2023 this will be a greater opportunity to increase turnover however accessing candidates will continue to be challenging as I envisage job boards to struggle delivering strong potentials in numbers.
The emphasis will divert more to platforms like Linked In and CRM systems to filter more relevant candidates. If I had to make a prediction for 2024 I think we may see one or two established job boards disappear as they are not contributing to placements as they used to in recent years. Job seekers are definitely becoming choosier as to where they leave their details so the importance of developing relationships with candidates will be increasingly more important.
I think 2024 will be a better one than 2023 with a greater feel good factor and a more optimistic outlook from the business community. Having a major sporting event in the summer can often boost positivity especially if the Home Nations do well which could prevent the lull I felt appeared last year. We cannot guarantee we will find you that perfect role from a candidate perspective and cannot hand on heart say we will find the perfect candidate for our clients but we will do our utmost to achieve this and hopefully visitors to our website will see from our many Google reviews that in the main we do leave a positive outcome all round