Tokyo Talent Wars
There is war on talent in the Japan recruitment market and its not going away anytime soon.
Agencies for the most part are desperate to grow but are losing experienced recruiters faster than they can hire.
Junior no experience and new grad hiring is a way to grow fast with investment. However after 1 year of training and schooling those same hires are picked off by other agencies or by their clients for in-house TA roles. Its interesting to look at the average experience level of an agencies staff on LinkedIn and to see if those same juniors have stayed on and been retained over 3-5 years. This is usually a good indicator for the long term business outlook of an agency.
Retention strategies and initiatives are a given but to grow and take advantage of the booming market, then hiring experienced successful recruiters needs to be a key part of any plan.
Experienced and successful recruiters will not move for less base salary and more “potential upside” they understand and have pride in their value and that must be respected. Offering the same or less base salary is 9.9 times out of 10 not going to work.
Agencies need to sell throughout the process and structure that value proposition well for the targeted individual and not rely solely on perceived brand and reputation.
Internal career and compensation structures are very important, but what is the opportunity cost of not hiring that team manager or that market leading consultant. Each month that goes by is revenue lost.
The fast moving, agile and flexible agencies are that ones that will win out in the end.
Recruitment bull markets like we are in now wait for no company and whilst some agencies are negotiating for pennies, others have hired, are hiring and opening up new markets and strengthening existing ones.
Good luck and happy hiring!
