Top Trend Predictions for Recruiting in 2008
Polachi, a provider of Access Executive Search services to technology, life sciences, clean tech, venture capital and private equity clients, has released its top trend predictions for executive recruiting in 2008.
Finance Experience at the Board Level: Boards will continue to need outsiders, particularly qualified financial types.
Diversity at Larger Companies: Larger companies are especially putting on a big push for diversity. They recognize that having a more multicultural representation leads to improved products and services for the ever-expanding minority and international markets.
Rise of the "Outside" Chief Technology Officer: The demand for VPs of Engineering and CTOs continues to be strong and looks likely to continue. In particular, companies in the $100 million to $300 million range with aspirations of growing to $500 million and beyond will be looking to bring in fresh ideas with CTOs from outside their company.
Sales & Marketing of Enterprise Software: With more enterprise software companies targeting businesses as well as consumers, there is a growing need for sales and marketing executives who have experience selling into both B2B and B2C markets.
Favoring of Strategic Leadership Skills: Strategic leadership skills will increasingly be favored over specific domain expertise amongst CEOs and other senior functional executives. There’s a swing back toward the recruiting environment of the late 90's and away from the excessively stringent selection criteria imposed by investors and boards that was common in the early years of this decade.
More Companies Need to Focus Recruiting Efforts on Retention
Turnover, regardless of industry, is costly and some reports show that the estimated cost of a single vacancy for some jobs has been calculated to cost anywhere from $7000-$12,000 per day. The estimated 2007 annual voluntary turnover rate based on statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor is about 24 percent.
A new study by Bernard Hodes Group, a provider of integrated talent solutions, finds that workers seek employers who have a cohesive workplace culture and offer benefit packages that include options such as work/life balance and flexible scheduling options. Survey findings include:
The top two reasons employees are looking or are open to new employment are: limited career path (51%) and compensation (benefits and pay) not in line with skillset (50%).
Of those surveyed, 21 percent reported that at some point in their career they had returned to work for an employer from whom they had previously resigned.
Sixty percent responded that they would reapply for the same job at the current employer.
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