APAC Recruitment Agencies Scrambling for Skilled Workers
Skill Shortage in the APAC Recruitment Industry
Despite optimism after solid performances last year, recruitment agencies in the Asia-Pacific region are hard-pressed to find candidates with the skills employers need. In 2016, Bullhorn surveyed more than 170 recruitment businesses across the region and found the numbers confirm it: There’s a shortage of talent out there.
Wanted: Candidates with Specialised Skills
According to the data, 88 percent of agencies said they were experiencing a shortage of skilled candidates in the sectors for which they recruited. This holds steady for several individual industries as well: 86 percent of those in the tech sector said they faced a skill shortage, while 89 percent in finance said the same.
Relying on Technology
Technology solutions help recruitment agencies find the talent they need, but only if they use them. The survey found 65 percent of all recruitment agencies get at least half of their total placements from their own databases or ATS. This number rises to 70 percent for health care.
Tech-focused recruitment agencies get only 52 percent of their candidates from their internal systems. For tech recruiters, job boards are their most successful source for finding candidates, followed by social media and their ATS. These numbers suggest tech recruiters may benefit from revisiting their ATS to see if they’re overlooking skilled candidates.
Beyond ATS software, 63 percent of all agencies said they use a CRM system to manage sales leads and opportunities. The highest results came from tech-focused agencies, 68 percent of which said they use a CRM, followed closely by 67 percent of finance-focused agencies.
Opportunities and Challenges
Recruitment agencies generally still see social media as an opportunity to find skilled candidates. Across all industries, recruitment agencies said technology, social media, and construction were the biggest opportunities for growth. Tech recruiters naturally saw technology as a growth area, while also listing social media as having potential. Finance recruitment agencies listed LinkedIn specifically as a growth opportunity, along with social media in general. Health care agencies also said social media represented a growth possibility.
Finding skilled candidates ranked as a top challenge in the next year for agencies across all industries. Tech recruitment agencies see finding candidates and staying abreast of technology as their biggest challenge, while finance recruitment companies are concerned about competition from internal recruiters. Competition from other agencies was a big concern for health care recruiting agencies.
Learn more about how leading recruitment companies are using modern technology to grow their businesses.
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