His vision for recruitment in 2022
How to qualify the year 2022 for your recruitment firm?
Damien Créquer: 2022 is both a divine surprise and a crazy year for recruitment. We had anticipated this increased activity but not to this extent with a stratospheric first half. In question: the significant economic development, coupled with the aspiration to mobility executives with turnover increasing from 6 to some 10%. Never seen. Our turnover has increased by 44% compared to 2021. We have never been so busy. 2022 surpassed the very good years 2004, 2007 or 2019.
What are the implications of this booming 2022 recruitment market?
DC: The first impact relates to the development of teleworking. This home office has become an asset for executives. A company that does not offer one is almost disqualified. Then we witness a significant increase in wages offered to new entrants. This poses problems of internal equity with new entrants with 3 to 5 years of experience paid like executives with 10 years… Salary increases, compared to 2021, could reach 20-25% in 2022. This is particularly the case for experts in financial management for investment funds, specialists in cybersecurity or artificial intelligence.
Its 2023 forecasts
What is the outlook for the executive recruitment market in 2023?
DC: I anticipate a decrease in the volume of executive recruitment by approximately 20%. There were approximately 300,000 executive hires in 2022. We will be close to 240,000 in 2023. It is therefore less but it will remain one of the best years for 15 years… Several causes will explain this phenomenon: a stagnation of our economies, a drop in technological investments, the end of the French recovery plan. However, this labor market will be boosted by strong retirements, by a high turnover and by the arrival of young graduates. On the other hand, in 2023, the number of job creations should drop from 100,000 in 2022 to 40,000 in 2023.
Aspirations for change
What are the new professional aspirations of executives at the end of Covid?
DC: Many managers want change company. This strong appetite for mobility is still not satisfied. They want to join more efficient employers, to supervise more employees. They will find jobs because many companies are still unable to fulfill their orders for lack of employees.
In 2023, the candidates will start to seriously study the proposed offers again.
How will candidate expectations evolve in 2023?
DC: Candidates will begin to seriously study the proposed offers again. In 2022, we had to deal with diva candidates. All this should calm down with the feeling, on the part of the executives, that receiving a job offer is good news…
The future of recruitment
What will be new in terms of the recruitment process in 2023?
DC: We are increasingly developing predictive recruitment tools that look for matches between the skills required in companies and those of employees, such as AssessFirst for example. It will grow even more. Just like recruitment management software (ATS).
What are the benefits for seniors?
To what extent could this tension on recruitment benefit senior managers?
DC: This difficulty in hiring that companies encounter benefits executives over 50 years of age. For example, we have just finalized a recruitment for a 62-year-old candidate. Our clients are more open to the potential of candidates through the analysis of their “soft skills” than at their age.
Adoption of Anglo-Saxon reflexes
Looking back, has the health crisis changed the skills required of executives?
DC: Agility, improvisation, the ability to adapt are the behavioral skills that are most sought after today. Our clients are not only looking for these atypical personality profiles, but for opening up gaps for “different” managers, pushing new ideas, developing new leadership, coming from other cultures. The health crisis has therefore further shaken French-style elitism where everything was decided upon leaving the preparatory classes. These don’t fill up as quickly. We are witnessing the culmination of an Anglo-Saxonisation of recruitment, favoring experience over qualifications. In summary: dropping out of Polytechnique will no longer be enough to “make” a marked career as a manager in France. This goes hand in hand with the aspiration of the new generations who do not want to find themselves locked into a corporatism made in France.
The Taste firm in a few figures
- 360 recruitments in 2022
- 40 recruitment consultants in 2022
- 2022 turnover: 7.5 million euros