Opening the market by understanding transferable skills and sectors

Written by: Lee Narraway, Managing Director, Antal International.

When working in a technical market the chances are it will be candidate driven, there are a number of reasons for this.  Firstly skills in the technical space tend to be high demand and short supply, the second is that many sectors experience a recessive period and during this period the candidates still need to work so they migrate out of the sector.

During an upturn, the sector looks back to the market and suddenly finds that all the candidates have gone and they struggle to fill the roles that they may have.  But don’t worry there is something you can do in order to counter this.

The first thing that you must do is change your mindset, the market has changed and so has the availability of the candidates, the skills the candidates posses have developed and in changed allowing them to adapt diverse markets and new challenges, this is a good thing for you so don’t discount them at first screen stage if they are not currently working in your sector.

I have placed a number of candidates back into a sector that once left behind and they have all gone on to do great things, one candidate had been out of the automotive sector for over 10 years and the client was a little unsure whether to look them at the first screening stage.  At the initial brief with the client I spoke about this particular person who I felt matched the role perfectly.  The client wasn’t keen initially but I managed to convince the client that this candidate was very much worth looking at.  He now heads up the business and has turned them around from a loss-making situation into a profitable situation.  The candidate had learned some very valuable lessons in other sectors which really allowed him to bring those lessons into the automotive sector and developed a new way of looking at things whilst maintain the values of the new business.

I was also in a meeting with a client recently who was a senior manager in a very large automotive company, this particular individual had taken some time out of the sector into FMCG. He said to me that he felt the FMCG sector was way behind automotive in terms of process and systems.  For the FMCG sector this would tell me that they need to look at automotive candidates who may be able to help them with the process and systems needs they have, I know from my experience in FMCG that there is a huge need for good systems people, finding processes which take care of Health and safety, quality and efficiency are so vital to any manufacturing company that they simply cannot ignore this. 

Another example would that aerospace candidates tend to get nowhere in automotive as they are considered to be less urgent than the automotive sector.  I personally have found that aerospace people tend to be very detailed and methodical and this translates into automotive as perfection paralysis although it really isn’t always the norm as we placed a program manager from aerospace in to automotive and this candidate has been amazing for the client, he has taken on a massive workload on is managing the load very well and developing the team accordingly, he has also brought in other project engineers for the team, some from the sector and some outside the sector.  He has a calm approach, which is considered and detailed whilst still maintaining an urgent sense of attitude. He has been a real breath of fresh air for the client who ordinarily would not have taken him.

Other examples of how we have helped clients build teams in a sector.

One of our clients won a contract to maintain a large capital asset, they needed to build a team that were familiar with the asset but also up to speed with the latest more efficient methods of machine management.

Once we had established what the organization chart would look like we then focused on the positions which were likely to be more demanding in terms of sector experience and knowledge.  Once we had completed this assignment we could then blend non sector candidates alongside and look for other complimentary sector skills sets around the maintenance piece. We also looked at some of the more routine roles and recruited ex forces people into these roles, as they tend to find routine more confortable and take a rigorous approach.  The result was a really well balanced team, which has contributed to the asset being the world’s most productive machine in the sector.

Another of our clients wanted to build a middle management team, which had a different culture to the current team.  The client was going to redeploy the current team and we were assigned to search and bring in skills to help drive culture change and improve productivity.  During the search we identified complimentary skills from a broad range of sectors and built a string team, which has taken the client forward to a level they have not seen before, this is something we are particularly proud of.

In both of these examples, the single most important factor to making the assignment work was to get the clients to open their minds to taking non-sector people on board.

It’s not always the answer but it certainly goes a long way to opening the market up further.  I confidently predict that the future of recruitment in technical skills will demand clients take from other sectors, those clients that stick to their own sector will fall behind their competition and lose out on the best skills, which can add real value to their own business.

Lee Narraway

Managing Director

UK leads the way in Global job growth survey

By: David Hunt, business development & operations director- EMEA at Antal

There has been much positive news this week with regard to jobs and growth. Firstly the IMF raised their economic growth forecast for the UK in 2014 to 2.7%, an increase of almost .5%.  This was swiftly followed by the news that unemployment has fallen by a record level to 7.1%, down 167,000 on the previous quarter.

We have been seeing for some time an increase in recruitment particularly in manufacturing, chemical engineering and other technical markets. Whilst Jaguar has made all the headlines, their growth is of course dependant on the companies in their supply chain being able to cope with demand. As a result we’ve done a considerable amount of recruiting not just for the automotive OEMS, but for their Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers.

Whilst anecdotal feedback of growth has been consistent in the last six months, it is great to receive some hard data to support it.  Antal conduct a global recruitment survey (AGS) of over 10,500 international businesses, and the latest data shows confidence and employment growth among many sectors is strong. The great news is that the UK is leading the way with over 56% of HR and Hiring Managers currently recruiting. This is expected to remain stable with 49% expecting to hire at senior and management level in the coming months.
  

Positive news comes too with the number of companies looking at letting staff go stabilised at 41% but with that forecast to drop to 28%.

Whilst there is of course still cause for caution, one negative from the drop in unemployment could mean that the Bank of England could now raise interest rates. Banks despite their protestations are still exceptionally cautious with lending, particularly to the SME market. On the upside though, with a budget on the horizon, and on the back of good growth and unemployment, we could see the government look to capitalise with further business incentives.

Full details of the Antal Global Snaphot can be found here 

http://ags.antal.com/download/ags_15/AGS15_English.pdf

Now it’s important that businesses, large and small, make plans to attract the talent they need to fuel their growth plans. An improvement in demand means the supply of required talent and skills is decreased. In some areas such as engineering and manufacturing the supply of suitable candidates is already slim.

It may not sound as heroic as the SAS motto, but in the recruitment market, he/she who plans wins!

If you’d like to discuss the survey, your market sector, or your recruitment plans please get in touch: dhunt@antal.com

Where an international reach pays dividends

Written by: David Hunt, business development & operations director EMEA, Antal International Network

There has been a lot of talk in press and on TV lately about economic migration and access to the UK job market by EU nationals, and those from further afield.  Without getting political it’s usually those it has no direct impact on that are most vociferous in their objections. But seldom if ever is it from UK employers. The reality is we live in a global market, our consumer goods, clothes, cars and food come from around the world, so by definition all of these products are grown or manufactured in all four corners of the globe. Manufacturing, engineering, production and supply-chain skills are therefore spread around the world. The very skills that are in short supply in the UK for a variety of reasons. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the UK economy is being held back by this lack of skills, so bringing them in from overseas solves a very real problem for companies here.

As Neil Carberry, CBI Director of Employment and Skills put it.  “It’s vital for Britain to be seen as open for business. Employers need a system which doesn’t just control migration but attracts the skilled workers the economy needs, who would otherwise go to our competitors.”  Talent is a global market as much as any commodity or consumer good.

Let’s not forget that this works both ways too, countries in the developing economies are lacking some core skills too, they need to search the globe for the talent and experience they need to make the leaps required in their own economies. This is where a recruiter with a global reach pays real dividends, helping the flow of talent in all directions, often for the same global clients. With over 130 offices across 5 continents Antal International Network have the reach to do just this for our clients.

Here are a couple of examples; a UK client whose problems were solved by an EU national, and an EU client that needed a UK presence.

We have a business we now work closely with, based in the Northwest of England, an Automotive Tier 1 supplier and manufacturer. They needed a maintenance supervisor with experience with a very specialist piece of machinery. There are less than a handful of manufacturing sites in the UK that use this equipment, so finding someone with that experience, and willing to relocate, was proving impossible in the UK market. They had been searching the best part of two years, through a variety of agencies and adverts. Having overcome the ‘preferred supplier’ objections we were given the go-ahead to search through our extended networks. We spoke with our international partners in countries with a strong automotive sector and soon candidate profiles were coming into the office. To cut a long story short, we found the right person, with the right skillset and experience from Hungary. Relocation to the UK was straight forward, now both the client and UK economy are benefitted from his presence.

And in the other direction….

One of our offices in Poland had been asked by one of their clients to assist in the opening of a UK facility. They had already helped with their expansion into other territories, as well as Poland, and the UK was a market they felt their specialist engineering and consultancy services would suit well. The first step was to recruit a UK Managing Director, someone with a detailed knowledge of their vertical markets and a proven track record of both business development and balancing a budget. We set about researching the market and producing a suitable shortlist. Initial interviews were conducted via Skype, and then a shortlist of two candidates was flown to Poland for a second interview and a tour of facilities.  One candidate was chosen and has been successfully placed into the role. Next we’ll be helping him add to the UK team.

Both examples show the benefit of having an international reach. Without specific market knowledge, and importantly local presence neither client would have had such a speedy resolution of their needs.

Our weekly sector specific international conference calls are a significant advantage to us in helping our clients, wherever they are based, to find the talent they need. We live in a global world.