Anyone picking up a newspaper or switching on the television news would be forgiven for thinking that we were right back in the depths of the recession - such is the despondent sentiment around jobs and hiring in the media currently.

However, hiring trends within our core markets of media, entertainment and lifestyle brands tell a different - and far more positive story.

We are seeing ongoing need for internal resourcing specialists as organisations continue to seek ways of driving down external recruitment costs - particularly for lower level volume requirements. These specialists need to not only demonstrate their traditional resourcing abilities but also show that they have embraced new sourcing techniques such as those afforded by social media channels.

Internal recruitment is no longer just about filling the roles of today – but also about building the talent communities of tomorrow for future pipelining purposes. However, they also need to be able to manage supplier relationships with those external partners if they are to identify the more senior passive candidates for mid to senior level roles.

HR professionals with change management experience remain in demand – however the emphasis of those change management projects has shifted. While during the recession, issues around downsizing, redundancy and budget cutting were the order of the day, today’s projects are far more associated with positive change such as expansion, reskilling and team build out.

This is particularly true within the music and film industries where new models of distribution and ongoing innovative new product developments are leading to a need for an on-going review of relevant skills sets within the business. Additionally, we are seeing organisations expanding into new international territories which call for a knowledge of international remuneration/relocation packages and employment law.

There has been a real surge in the number of contract opportunities available – many of these have been driven by the need for maternity cover and while it may be a coincidence, a significant proportion of the future maternity cover requirements can be traced back to around the time of the royal wedding.

Couple that with a UK baby boom generally at the moment, and we can foresee temporary and contract roles continuing to rise. This in turn is likely to have the knock on effect of more part time roles and we are already seeing quite a few requirements for part time HR specialists coming through.

There has been a positive and continuing focus on learning and development. We are seeing organisations putting robust training functions into place to ensure the up skilling and re-skilling of resources.

However, it's important to appreciate that return on investment is key and L&D professionals need to be able to show positive outcomes as well as recommending the inputs. Commercial acumen and aligning L&D strategy to overall business objectives is key.

As we reported in our last update, there is a continuing trend for SME businesses to rely less on outsourcing and to focus on developing their own in house strategic HR expertise. This has led to some really good opportunities for HR generalists to perhaps move out of a big corporate team into a smaller business where they can have a bigger impact.

We remain very positive that the encouraging hiring picture we have seen in 2011 will continue in this first quarter.