How to miss out on the best IT talent

The last 12 months has seen a shift in the dynamic of the IT skills market in Ireland.It is a job rich environment where talented candidates have a choice of companies and they are getting snapped up very quickly. However, I am observing the same hiring approach by companies as if it were a candidate rich market. This is resulting in disappointed companies, annoyed candidates and frustrated recruiters.

Some of the key challenges companies and candidates face include:
•Arduous recruitment processes that are either too long or have too many stages.
•Companies having unrealistic expectations about skill availability.
•Companies fishing for CVs without actually having approval to hire or being involved in internal or external bid processes.


I have discussed each of these in more detail with my observations and advice, in the hope that this will inform companies and lead to a more fruitful and satisfying process for everyone.


Recruitment that takes too long or too many stages
Whilst I understand it is crucial for a company to choose the right person for the job, it can be very frustrating for both the candidate and the company if the process takes too long or the candidate has to go through many stages. The consequence can include potential employers missing out on their desired candidate as a competitor moves more quickly or the candidate feeling like the company is not engaged as they are taking too long to “turnaround” the vacancy.


I would make the following recommendations to any company that faces the above challenges. Review your current process - are all the steps necessary? If they are, is there a way of condensing down the steps so that they can take place over a one or two day period? The reality is if you’re hiring a Java Developer for example, you may be one of five potential employers. The most successful organisations in hiring IT talent are asking candidates to clear a half day to complete all stages of the interview process and meeting all shortlisted candidates at the same time. This works for the candidate as it doesn’t arouse suspicion with their current employer by taking lots of time off. Also, it’s easier for you to make an informed decision having benchmarked several candidates in one go.


Finally, if the whole recruitment process is out of your control, make sure that you inform your recruiter that the candidate will have to be committed to a lengthy process. Otherwise you’ll find it very frustrating when you call a candidate you are excited about for a second interview and find out they have already accepted another job!


Unrealistic expectations
For the person appointed to carry out the recruitment sourcing, it can be a real challenge to hear the appointing manager ask for a combination of skills that are not compatible or don’t make business sense. A SharePoint Developer may be able to do some Oracle DBA work by the accident of a previous job’s experience, but this does mean there will be anyone else in Ireland with this skill set. Listen to your internal recruitment department and your external recruitment consultants. Investigate what they have done to find a certain skill. If they have taken exhaustive steps and can’t find someone then the likelihood is that the combination doesn’t exist. Ask the recruiter what they can find and make sure the hiring manager knows what options are available.


I have met with numerous internal recruiters and HR Managers over the last 3 months whose hiring managers don’t understand why they can’t find a specific skill set considering we have an unemployment rate of 14.3%. The reality is that very few of these are IT professionals. In fact, many of the unemployed are looking to retrain in IT, but it takes time to convert these skills.


Companies not having approval to hire
As a candidate there is nothing more despairing than going through a recruitment process, only to be told at the end that the hiring manager doesn’t have approval to hire. Of course this can happen due to a globally mandated recruitment freeze. However, if the request for new recruits is purely speculative, it will be beneficial for all parties if the recruiting personnel and candidate are made aware.


It’s becoming increasingly common for multinational companies to compete internally against other countries when bidding for business. Subsequently, it is normal for those companies to put out exploratory resource requests, especially for contractors. This is understandable as the workforce is required to deliver the project if the bid is successful. Nonetheless, you will get more value out of your recruitment agency relationship if you are open about your ambitions.


Believe it or not, any good recruitment consultant will have a multitude of vacancies and clients to service. A full understanding of your needs will allow them to deliver the best candidates that will stay the course. Then should your unfortunately lose the contract bid, those talented candidates will continue their interest and faith in your company.


The company, the candidate and the recruiter are all after the same outcome – a job that can transform someone’s life and a person that can transform a company. In the IT industry you’ll continually miss out on the best candidates if there isn’t a trust between all parties and open and honest dialogue. Considering the amount of energy and effort the hiring manager has to put into the process, it would be a real shame for it all to be for nothing.


James is Regional IT Director with Hays Recruitment, based in Dublin, Ireland. He is responsible for 2 business units - Corporate Accounts and IT. Corporate Accounts is responsible for delivering managed recruitment solutions to blue chip customers. These solutions include managed PSL, Master Vendor, Neutral Vendor and full Outsource Solutions. 

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Banking in Ireland - a new horizon

UlsterBank confirmed yesterday that it will be cutting its workforce by 950 staff bythe end of the year. 600 employees in the Republicof Ireland are to be made redundant,while 350 jobs are proposed to go in Northern Ireland.

LarryBroderick, general secretary of the IBOA which represents the majority ofUlster Bank staff was extremely shocked by the sheer scale of the job cutsbeing proposed by management

Howeverjob losses have been widely forecast in retail banking and Ulster Bank, who hasbeen seen as one of the best employers in the sector will not have taken thisdecision lightly. The cost pressures onall banks have been well documented, as is the need for them to return toprofitability.

Thequestion that springs to mind now is - is the banking sector doomed?

Ibelieve the answer is no; although numbers may initially dip, in the long runthere will still be considerable job opportunities in this sector over thecoming years. What will change, almostcertainly, is the actual banks and financial services providers that willprovide jobs here. As internet bankingbecomes more and more popular, there is less requirement for the physicalretail presence.

Thenumber of players on the high street has reduced and is unlikely to return towhat we saw five years ago. However, we have seen tremendous growth in the‘funds’ and wholesale banking operations in the IFSC. The IFSC Clearing House Group’s plan for thesector targets 10,000 new jobs in the next 5 years.

Even themain retail banks retain an appetite for collections expertise, risk and creditanalysts, corporate relationship managers and restructuring experts. Some salaries are showing signs of increasingfor the first time in 3 years, driven by a lack of supply.

Withouta doubt our Financial Services and Banking Sectors will remain a keyemployer. There will continue to beradical change and restructuring but that should just mean re-orientation andtraining for some ‘traditional’ bankers. The sector is set to remain vibrantfor years to come.

As aclosing observation – we at Hays have certainly seen significant levels ofactivity in our Banking team which has grown steadily during 2011 and shows nosign of abating during 2012.

Allan Daly is Business Director of HaysBanking in Ireland

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Jobs Initiative: Costing more than the job’s worth

After well over 100 days in office, the Government needs to get stuck into fixing policies that are impeding job creation instead of creating new ones, writes Paul O'Donnell for Business & Finance.

Paul O’Donnell is business director with Hays Ireland

There is no greater issue facing the country than the jobs crisis. The Government is clearly aware of this but the content of the Jobs Initiative highlighted some ambiguity over its  role is in handling the problem. The question of governments directly creating employment has historically been an ideological position, with the right arguing they should have nothing to do with it and left advocating a more hands-on approach.

Given the depth of Ireland’s jobs crisis, we do not have the luxury of adopting ideological standpoints but instead need to be entirely pragmatic.

Government-created jobs or “make-work” schemes tend to be unsustainable and only serve to paper over the problem that is the alarming Live Register figures, while work created through private enterprise is sustainable and generally leads to more job creation. The Government could significantly help by creating a set of conditions that give private enterprises –  both new and existing – the best chance of surviving and generating profit and growth. This is what will put a dent in the 440,000 Live Register figure, not proposals put forward by the Jobs Initiative.

The proposed €30 million investment into a schools project illustrates this point. Building schools only makes sense within the context of an overall educational infrastructure development strategy. It should never be used as an initiative to help create work for unemployed builders. If that’s the case, the money would be better spent elsewhere. We would all agree that the construction industry needs all the help it can get, but a more productive proposal would be to tidy up the policy and legislation which concern this decimated sector.
An example is the procurement process for public construction jobs – just like the proposed schools projects. Departments currently operate on a ‘lowest bid wins’ policy. This has created a situation where building contractors are in such fierce competition to win the work they are submitting tenders at 30% below the cost of delivery. This invariably leaves the contractor, all their sub-contractors and their suppliers in an extremely precarious position. And as recent evidence has shown, the financial burden of under-cutting becomes too much and the contractor goes out of business. So everyone in the supply chain loses their job and their income.

This problem has been well publicised by the CIF and other bodies, since the start of the recession. So why does the issue still exist? Cordil Construction went bust as recently as May 2011 while in the process of delivering more than €20 million worth of State projects – most of them schools. Is it wise to release a further €30 million worth of school projects for the purpose of increasing employment if the procurement issue remains unresolved? Construction companies that get these “created” jobs will just continue to go out of business and take many others from the business with them.

Another interesting part of the Jobs Initiative is to ensure that jobseekers have access to relevant training programmes to produce the requisite skills to fill the current jobs on offer. The Government’s pledge is to create more than 20,000 internship placements. The goal of keeping people’s skills fresh is very valid and internships are a useful way of achieving this. The problem is that FÁS will be charged with delivering this. ESRI research has recently noted that jobseekers going through the National Employment Action Plan are 17% less likely to secure onward employment than those who complete their job-hunting on their own. So it seems that using the FÁS service actually harms your chances of securing employment.

We have had internship programmes for some time now. Much was made of the last one that commenced in 2009. This was also managed by FÁS and appears not to have achieved much – the Live Register still looks much the same. There is nothing wrong with internships – they make sense, especially in this economic context, but until FÁS is completely overhauled there is no point in creating another internship programme.
However, it seems that meaningful transformation continues to evade FÁS. A gruelling change programme is certainly what is needed. Minister Burton has vowed to complete it but we haven’t seen any details or timeframes. Announcing training and internship initiatives is fine but is it not a case of putting the cart before the horse?

After well over 100 days in office, the Government needs to get stuck into fixing policies that are impeding job creation instead of creating new ones. Is it a case that pouring over processes and legislation doesn’t grab the positive headlines the way a ‘Jobs Initiative’ does? But this is why we have a government, is it not? Research by Vision Net in May shows that a drop of 42% in first-time business directors from the same month last year. An interpretation could be that the morale of entrepreneurs seems to be breaking. There is a growing frustration that the wheels of change and reform move too slowly in Ireland. A worrying thought – as it is innovative entrepreneurs that are going to lift us out of the economic crisis, not government make-work schemes.

Instead of trying to create jobs, the Government should have a series of projects aimed at fixing the broken systems and processes in the country. Engaging and consulting with affected businesses and representative bodies is crucial. Once the strategy is formulated then communicate the details to the public. Our own research in Hays highlighted that almost two in three Irish professionals don’t know what the Jobs Initiative is. This would suggest a growing cynicism towards initiatives that seem to focus on sound-bites.
The electorate is sophisticated and well-informed and the appetite is there for a really detailed plan, so give them the minutiae.

Knowing that the people charged with running our country have a real handle on the details would provide comfort and encouragement no end.