It does seem that within the recruitment industry at least, we can all breathe a collective (small) sigh of relief. The sun's out, we have a new government and organisations are starting to recruit again. 

There is no doubt that the last 15 months have proved to be a challenging time for everyone involved in recruitment. The way that recruitment businesses have responded to these tough times has varied greatly and while the whole industry has been affected negatively it is clear that some have faired better than others.

So how have these businesses dealt with the market from a client and candidate perspective? The story is a mixed one.

The relationship between client and recruiter had to change radically when the market deteriorated. For a start, clients were recruiting a lot less (and sometimes not at all) so the primary reason for which many relationships had existed (resourcing) in the past suddenly disappeared. 

However, even if clients were no longer needing recruiters to recruit, they still needed advice and help. This included information on salaries and Benefits, advice on the market and what other firms were doing and also advice to give to their employees who they were making redundant. 

This is where good recruiters, who had always had a relationship over and above a solely transactional recruitment one, were really able to add value and help their clients out. Some recruiters used this time to diversify their businesses to include offerings of outplacement support (often free) and value added research such as salary surveys and market updates. Plenty of reasons still existed to be in touch with the client.

On many occasions where clients were recruiting, they needed more support than ever.  The roles that came up during this period often tended to be key priority opportunities that needed senior, high calibre candidates. There was no problem with quantity of candidates – the problem was with quality, and picking the right people out. Often the good candidates were not actively on the market because quite rightly they were nervous about moving in such an unstable market. 

It was in this period that good recruiters could really demonstrate their worth by identifying the few people that were right for these roles. In a time where money and budgets were tight, and advertising budgets had been cut, the successful recruiters were those who didn’t give up and were able to think outside the box and use innovative methods of speaking to and developing relationships with these candidates. This period coincided with a new medium in social networking sites like LinkedIn and Twitter.

And in all of the above, the client felt that that their good recruitment partners had stuck by them in the tough times and hadn’t just deserted them as they had little or no recruitment activity. Many of these value added initiatives were not charged to the client, rather they were seen as a way of maintaining and enhancing relationships.

While it's been a tough time for clients, it has almost certainly been a lot tougher for candidates. Many found themselves facing redundancy and being out of a job for the first time in years, coupled with being launched into a market where there were lots of people in the same position fighting over an ever decreasing number of roles. Almost overnight, candidates who had had the upper hand for many years were facing a very bleak time and the client was king again.

Those that were saved from redundancy were often left in environments where morale was low and where resources were stretched. On top of this, salaries were often frozen and bonuses were non existent.

Candidates in both situations needed a lot of support and advice: CV advice, interview techniques and general market advice. In a time where some candidates became more desperate, it was imperative that communication channels were kept open and expectations were properly managed.

It seems that the recruiters who have made the best out of this market, or at least suffered less, are those who have been able to adapt quickly to the changing market and be creative and innovative. 

In general terms, it seems to have been the small/medium sized recruitment businesses that have faired better during these times. While they may have smaller capital reserves to fall back on, they tend to be less structured and process orientated which means they have the ability to reduce costs quickly and efficiently and, crucially, to adapt swiftly to the changing market.

Many of these businesses were also able to adopt innovative resourcing strategies by offering flexible working, thereby reducing the number of redundancies.

So all has not been lost - while many recruiters got it wrong during this time, plenty gained market share through adopting new approaches.

In many recruitment businesses, employees were being put under more and more pressure to bill fees and reach unobtainable targets and were, in some respects, forced to adopt a 'send as many CVs as you can, because one of them will stick' approach to recruitment. This seems to have been a very short term view to relationship building but an approach that many businesses have adopted which, sadly, made a sector already regarded with some sceptisism be regarded even worse.

Some recruiters have also tried to diversify and increase the number of sectors that they operate in which on the face of it seemed a good idea but in practice meant that employees were being spread thinly and were having to operate in sectors that they are not familiar with, therefore reducing the level of service that they could offer due to a lack of knowledge.

In order to win business, many recruiters also made the decision to slash their recruitment rates by as much as 15-20% perhaps suggesting that they were overcharging their clients in the good times.

Sadly, many candidates faired badly at the hands of some recruiters during the last 15 months. In acts of desperation and requirement to reach targets, there have been many stories of candidate CVs being sent to clients without any knowledge/authorisation from them. This was upsetting at a time when candidates were trying to put their best foot forward in a tough market. 

It was also incredibly frustrating for the recruiters who continued to act in the candidates’ best interests. Unreturned calls/emails from applicants became the norm and candidate care generally fell by the wayside in many instances.

It appears that the larger recruitment consultancies have gone through the most drastic change. They are typically highly resourced, structured businesses which have distinct hierarchies and an array of processes and procedures. In the good times, these make for well oiled machines - in the tougher times they can restrict change and innovation.

Sadly many of their employees have faced redundancy. The first to go were the large number of junior/inexperienced recruiters who, in a challenging market where there are less jobs to fill, become an expendable cost. As the market took a long time to recover many of these businesses also had to lose some of their more experienced recruiters.  This in turn affects clients as existing relationships and knowledge are lost.

Many businesses that held their nerve and remained true to their core values during the tough times have become smarter, better, and more commercial and there is a hope that as the market gets busier, clients will remember those that treated them well during the tough times. 

The last 15 months have served to reinforce the importance of building and developing long term relationships, and the businesses that realise this are those who will be the most successful. The good firms will think that they have some better relationships now then they did 15 months ago and think that the recession actually did them some good among the bad.

As Ronald Reagan said:

“A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets tough.”