Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Recruiter asked a number of professionals from a wide spectrum of positions in the recruitment industry what they think will happen in the sector during 2013.

Gordon Adam, chief executive, Head Resourcing

Because of the shortage of talent, opportunities still definitely exist for good niche permanent recruiters, but they will need to be more exclusive assignment driven or more candidate focused — not so good news for clients who should expect an increase in canvas calls. For example, “Hello, I’ve got a great .Net developer just on the market…”

Greg Allen, global head of resourcing, Lloyds Register

NEETs [youths who are Not in Employment, Education or Training] are the ‘next now’. He who dares will win the decade. NEETs are the untapped resource talent for the next management generation of 2020. Designing potential measured assessment centres and training frameworks to deliver productive and motivated young talent will equip companies to deliver their strategies in the near futures.

Alastair Blair, thePotentMix

Economically, 2013 will continue to be tough. Recruiters will continue to take rec-marketing in-house, increasingly using a variety of specialist companies rather than hitching their wagon to a sole rec-ad supplier. The influence of rec ad agencies with the media will continue slowly to wane. More rationalisation/centralisation of rec-ad agencies is inevitable, albeit at a slower pace as there is little left to cut now. Will we see the first national paper go totally online?

Jon Dweck, managing director, Pod Talent

A talent gap will appear between different firms — those that focus on potential when making hiring decisions will hire better people faster than those that focus on experience alone. International recruitment success will require agility from recruiters to switch from regular hot spots such as Asia-Pacific to less common zones (eg Africa). Agencies focusing on perm between £20-50k will bounce back strongly.  

Sean Fahey, CEO, Vidcruiter

I think that video recruitment in 2013 is going to continue to grow. It’s still in its infancy stages, and a lot of companies don’t really understand it properly. It’s just a smarter way of doing business.

Mark Kelly, associate business manager, Computer Futures, Ireland and Recruiter Awards for Excellence 2012 ‘Recruiter of the Year’

Strategic trends will include the battle of the mobile devices, personal cloud, strategic Big Data and mobile payments leading the way in the coming year. The demand in mobile devices and Big Data has resulted in a skills gap in these areas, making it a fantastic time to be a software developer. The market in Ireland outside of IT and pharma is difficult but inside these industries there is a skill shortage, which is putting candidates in a very strong position to pick and choose the right role for them. 

Spencer Mehlman, MD & founder of notgoingtouni.co.uk, former MD & founder of specialist recruitment agency Special Agent

More and more national brands and SMEs will launch apprenticeship schemes or school leaver programmes. Many larger brands will start to shrink their graduate programs in favour of the current alternatives. 

Dave Nerz, president, NPA Worldwide 

In 2013 and beyond I believe we will see a continued stratification of the recruitment process. Candidate sourcing, recruiting, background checking, onboarding will be sold separately by different providers. Specialists and price leaders will emerge in each layer. The bundled or end-to-end recruiting model will become less frequently applied because of the strength of performance and cost saving available from the best of category providers.

Denis Pennel, MD, Eurociett

More than ever, labour market intermediaries will be needed to ensure a better and faster match between supply and demand in the workforce: while 26m EU citizens are looking for a job, 2m job vacancies remain unfilled at European level! To adapt to the new reality of work with increasingly individualised working conditions, proactive labour market policies as well as co-operation between public and private employment services must be successfully implemented. Here, the recruitment industry will have a central role.

Ann Pickering, HR director, O2

In 2013, I’d expect more businesses to take action to realise the full potential of the value of young people’s digital skills as well as the benefit that they can bring to the workforce, whether this is through offering young people new jobs, training, work experience or mentoring.

Dona Roche-Tarry, managing partner, European Board Services, CTPartners

To attract top talent, companies are offering long-term incentives and bonuses paid out over a two- to three-year period. This type of ‘revolving’ payout has become the norm, which both ensures the executive is paid on performance but also helps to lock in top talent. It is also expected that the majority of senior level remuneration will be performance driven both against individual, divisional and corporate targets. 

Catherine Rush, head of talent, A&N Media

Many organisations, like A&N Media, will want to fill a vast majority of vacancies with graduates. Not just any graduates though! Employers will be pickier as to the calibre of people they employ. Graduates will be assessed by what differentiates them from the masses; how social media and networking savvy they are; how do they demonstrate high energy and drive; and, most importantly, evidence of their innovative and creative potential ability.

Oliver Watson, UK managing director, PageGroup

Market conditions will remain unpredictable in 2013, so we will continue to see many organisations operating with very lean teams, replacing key people, but with little incremental hiring. Within our PageGroup UK business, 2012 was another strong year for career progression with more than 22% of our fee-earning workforce being promoted. I am confident that 2013 will provide equally rewarding promotion opportunities.

Bridget Wood, partner and head of recruitment sector group, Blake Lapthorn

2013 will be another eventful year for recruitment industry specific legal developments. The UK will consult on amending the Conduct Regulations. More recruiters and umbrellas will hit their staging dates for pensions auto-enrolment, potentially creating a fees imbalance in the industry. Tax avoidance will remain a priority for the government, including personal service companies having to pay employment income tax and NICs on payments received for services performed by deemed office-holders as well as deemed employees of clients under the IR35 legislation.