Events industry recruitment agency, YOU Search and Select, has revealed the third in a quarterly series of recruitment trends. According to its founder Robert Kenward, referral programmes and DIY recruitment can have a negative impact on businesses.
What have we seen in July – September 2023?
1) The demise of fully remote work
The past two years have seen the industry shift towards remote work due to the pandemic. However, we are an industry which thrives on personal connections and in-person experiences, so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the fully remote work (never being in the office at all) approach is fading.
The events sector has always emphasised face-to-face interactions and this sentiment has now transferred to employers who are increasingly asking “where are our employees?” Agencies and companies are telling me that the impact of all remote working is evident in several ways including a loss of creativity, a lack of peer-to-peer learning and cultural erosion. Even the agencies who took pride in being ‘remote only’ are bringing their teams back to the office for one or two days a week.
2) DIY recruitment
Over the last quarter, there has been a growing trend for companies to manage recruitment in-house – with many believing that recruitment was as simple as posting a job ad on LinkedIn. I’m pro companies doing it themselves, if they do it properly, otherwise it’s yet more bad publicity for recruitment as a whole. This approach to recruitment has led to the sector facing two distinct challenges: a difficulty in finding candidates who fit mid/long term, and higher employee attrition because the wrong candidate was recruited in a hurry to fill a seat, not to align with the candidate/company aspirations.
3) The impact of referral programmes on diversity
Referral programmes have gained popularity in the events industry again as people attempt to reduce costs by not using professionals; these schemes are cheap and who wouldn’t want to ‘keep it in the family’ and employ friends of their amazing team?
Many companies offer cash incentives for employee referrals, leading to new hires joining the company without the any in-depth selection process. While this method can be beneficial, it does require due diligence. Referrals can lead to a lack of diversity, both in ethnicity and gender, as employees tend to refer those within their network, who may be similar in demographic characteristics. Referral programmes can also create salary disparities as employees have a tendency to talk to their friends.
Read the April – June 2023 trends, here.
