At the end of last year we conducted a recruitment survey amongst our clients with some interesting results. All the clients who participated have recruited though us and range from Group Heads all the way up to Business Owners.
Believe it or not, recruitment was still happening in the last 6 months of last year. Over a QUARTER said they or their company have recruited staff.
Out of those, 50% needed to replace staff who were leaving. Good news for colleagues not getting the extra work load which so often happens.
Encouragingly, 25% said it was because business was going well. We have certainly seen growth in areas such as digital and in particular Podcast.
Looking forward to this year, we asked if they would be recruiting. It was good to hear over 50% said they would and we think the percentage could even be higher once we see the green shoots starting to appear later in the spring.
Finally, we asked if you would be using recruitment agencies. A whopping 80% said yes. Whilst we would love that to be 100%, we appreciate the tough times we have all had. It is great to see that clients value the service we offer and how we can help them find them the best staff.
Finally we asked them for their thoughts and views on a number of questions.
Firstly, we asked how they have found the year.
From a professional point of view how have you found this year?
| 80% | Hard but I got by |
| 16.7% | Very difficult |
| 3.3% | Seemed ok to me |
| 0% | Easy, loved it |
Unsurprisingl, the vast majority found it hard going. However, tough people that they are, they cracked on.
We then asked how many people were going into the office on a weekly basis
It seemed like everyone was on zoom/team calls but did people, especially more senior ones, feel the need to go to their office?
Over a third said they were not going in. We know that some companies were allowing staff to go back on a restricted basis, but it looks like many did not do this. Maybe the person who found this year ok was the one who was going into the office every day!
Could there be any benefits from these very tough times?
In a word yes! So many people enjoyed the fact they did not have to commute into work. The time it saved going to and from work each day really did make a difference. This allowed many of them to enjoy more family time. One quote summed it up nicely ‘Work life balance, and opportunity to make work fit around my own personal needs’.
Surprising or maybe not was that quite a few people found it easier to get hold of clients. In the office how often are you pulled into a quick 10 minute meeting which goes on for over an hour?!? WFM means these don’t happen so clients have more time to speak to media owners.
*30 responses. Conducted 21st -31st December 2020. All answers were completely anonymous