The first three months of the year saw a flurry of recruitment activity in both digital and data with the highest number of new roles recorded in March. Unlike this time last year, the jobs were plentiful but the inability to bring in overseas talent has caused problems in the more technical roles where international talent is typically welcomed (data science, data engineering and modelling roles). This has resulted in organisations throwing money at the problem to attract new hires and retain talent when at the risk of losing employees to their competitors. While money is talking in some instances (typically more at the junior to intermediate level), employees on the whole want to feel valued. Other considerations such as flexibility and working from home arrangements have never been more important.
If you snooze, you will lose!
Interestingly, even though there are plenty of roles available, the quantity and quality of candidate responses have been lower. As a result, proactive search and referrals have accounted for over 50 percent of the placements we have made within digital and data in the last three months. This shows Covid is still at the forefront of people's minds when making decisions about their job search and they remain hesitant to make a move without some coaxing. Time to fill roles has greatly reduced and permanent roles are typically filled within a month as clients start to make recruitment/hiring a priority for access to the best talent available. Candidates typically have multiple opportunities on the go at once so if you snooze, you will lose!
In digital, the most challenging talent shortages appear to be in the Intermediate digital marketing space, with over 300 roles currently being advertised. Also in UX/UI, with over 250 roles in Auckland alone. With this in mind clients may need to decide which combination of skills are going to help fill some of their needs if they can’t find the elusive unicorn.
From a recruitment point of view, clients feel the best way of securing their talent is to spread their net far and wide which has seen some roles having over five recruitment agencies working on it. This has not helped with the quality challenge as agencies rush to submit candidates first as opposed to the best. I would urge employers to think about partnering with those that are best suited2 to advise and consult you through the process.
Get in touch with our experienced Digital & Data team here at Tribe here.
