Kate Ross: What have recruitment agencies learned from 2009?

That life can change in an instant, literally.

I remember walking into the office of over 70 staff in October 2008 having just had one of the best quarters the company has ever experienced. I was met by the silence of the phones and clients saying, "All recruitment is on hold until further notice".

Well, how long will that last, we wondered? Now we know, a bloody long time!

Fourteen months later we, as an industry, like so many other businesses are well and truly over this year and at times have felt burnt out by all the battles we have had to face. I choose to look on it as a learning experience.

As an industry, each recruitment agency has a slice of the employment pie and we have worked our piece of that pie and any other crumbs we can get hold of to death in the past twelve months. We have looked at the services we provide and broken them down again and again to generate income to keep us going and to help our clients in any way that we could in their difficult times.

We have had to offer huge amounts of support to candidates for months who felt isolated, panicked, frustrated and desperate. As consultants we became counsellors, trying to keep candidates as positive (but realistic) as we could within a market when we had no idea how bad it was really going to get. Could it get worse? Yes it turns out it could and it did for a while.

Clients, I have to say, have, for the majority of this year been very understanding and supportive. They could not recruit and of course most were letting a number of staff go, but they maintained their relationships with their consultants, knowing that there would be a time when they would need help again.

How do you keep a group of normally positive and driven Recruitment Consultants going, when month after month you are getting the same negative feedback from the market? We all understood that we didn't have any option but to keep going really – business as usual.

But I personally feel that this past year has tightened the industry in a very understanding and supportive way. I have not seen the "dirty tactics" that some consultants/agencies use and a more ethical and above board practice has emerged. This has got to be good going forward.

It could be that the people who worked in that way were not able to survive during tougher times when customer service and relationships were the only things keeping agencies afloat and consultants in jobs.

The employment market has been predominately down for the majority of the year, but signs of improvement have been visible since July – undoubtedly a slow improvement.

The last couple of months in Auckland especially have shown healthy signs going forward into 2010 and as we speak to employers, over the last four weeks in particular, most are saying to us that things are getting better. Work levels are increasing; they are busy and have no extra resource. So recruitment is naturally the next requirement.

What do I see happening in the first few months of 2010?

Well, it will be better than the early stages of 2009 - that is for sure. Clients are listing jobs with us now for recruitment to start in January and they want to have the roles we are working on currently placed pre-Christmas. I feel the temporary or contract staff that have been gap fillers for a decent period of time within companies will be offered permanent roles as business levels are increasing and it's now justified.

We are seeing a reasonable amount of interest already from candidates in jobs who want change next year. Resumes are being sent and salary expectations are being set, this was bound to happen. Businesses will recruit again, but they will expect pencils to remain sharp as expenditure continues to be carefully monitored. Our fees will have to be justified. Some companies may try to recruit themselves until they see the huge volumes of candidates coming through.

An example of this - last week we advertised a middle management role. We had 9000 views, 750 applicants read the advertisement and over 300 applied (statistics from Seek). 300! We have numerous positions to fill and this is incredibly time consuming when 90 per cent of the applicants do not even meet the brief. When clients have a few roles to recruit they will approach an agency and ask for the "best price." Fair enough, we all need to be flexible.

I also feel the large volume based or transactional recruiter/agency is now of the past. The agencies who I have always termed as the "big boys" are now a lot smaller. In the past they have relied on volume coming in to insure profitability.

With businesses still maintaining lower staffing levels, the volume will not come back as quickly and they will possibly have to get to know their client base a lot better. Business is going to be based on relationships and service delivery. Perfect! That is as it should be.

Candidates going into 2010 will continue to experience frustrations as there are still large numbers of people out of work and clients that are recruiting will be doing so with a specific need and skill set in mind.

However I do feel temp/contract work will increase because companies are getting busier and will need the immediate resource while finding the right permanent person. Opportunities will present themselves to the flexible, skilled and reliable professionals committed to finding work.

So will 2010 be better? Yes. I am near positive it will be. This is not based on natural optimism but on what we are seeing and hearing, things are getting better. But what I am really basing it on is the current workload I am seeing within my business, the bottom line is improving. Also the client feedback my team and I are consistently getting when talking to people who look after company recruitment.

So until next year when I return, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I genuinely wish every person within the recruitment industry a well deserved break. I look forward to a far better 2010 with you all.

* Kate Ross is the managing director of recruitment agency Kinetic.