A “candidate market” is one where there are lots of companies recruiting in a given market and not enough good quality candidates available.

The resulting effect is a significant increase in competition amongst employers looking to recruit.

2014 saw the beginnings of a candidate market across a number of different recruitment sectors in London and further afield. 2015 is seeing these market conditions gather pace and employers looking to recruit are reacting accordingly.

If you outsource the recruitment function, then please take note of any advice from your recruitment agency.

In any case, the following tips should help you:

1.       Have a clear job specification at the outset of any recruitment campaign

2.       Do your research on salary, benefits and bonuses being offered by your competitors at the level you are recruiting.

3.       Make sure you are competitive on salary and bear in mind candidates are being offered better benefits than ever before and in the London secretarial recruitment market, job seekers are moving between a 5-20% increase on current salary levels.

4.       Speed. Once you have advertised your post, either directly or through an agency, then begin the interview process as quickly as possible, with a view to organising second rounds equally as quick. Even better, have deadlines for each stage of the process before you start recruiting.

5.       Collect references before final interview stages. Clearly you will not be able to collect a reference from the candidate’s current work place at this stage, but you should be able to collect this from previous employers. This should mean that you can send offer letter and contract out as soon as an offer is made.

6.       Be prepared to negotiate on salary and benefits. Yes, you might not like it, but if you want to hire the best person for the job, you may need to have to pay more than you expected to. Remember, if you have chosen the right candidate then he/she should be worth their weight in gold and the extra money paid at this stage should be worth it in the long run.

7.       Finally, the deal is not done until the contract is signed and in some cases until the successful candidate has started. Make sure you get signed paperwork back promptly and that you have the candidate starting with you at the earliest given opportunity.

For further information you can also visit  http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk and http://hr.blr.com.