His vision of recruitment last year
How would you qualify the year 2022?
Julien Rozet : 2002 was a good year for us in terms of turnover. We do not disclose our results but we have experienced “double digit” growth. A return to the pre-covid years in terms of the number of missions and the growth of our average fees.
What were the major changes in recruitment in 2022?
JR: For me, 3 trends marked our year at the global level.
- The first is the scarcity of many skills. There is a lack of candidates in commercial, managerial, technical and industrial functions.
- The second trend is the result of the first. We are witnessing a significant increase, not uncontrolled but solid, of remuneration requested and obtained by candidate managers and experts.
- Finally, the latter are more demandingmore carefully select the positions that interest them, thereby lengthening and complicating the recruitment process on the candidate side.
Our candidates ask themselves and ask us many more questions than before. They change their minds, go see their managements to be “redeemed” and increase their salary. The bargaining power is on the side of the candidates.
Julien Rozet, Chairman of the Executive Board of Alexandre Hughes International
His vision of recruitment in 2023
What are the foreseeable developments for 2023?
JR: It’s hard to predict the future. But, despite the clouds gathering over our economies, the increase in credit rates, the wars, the disruption of supply chains or the inflation of raw materials…, I do not feel any decrease in the desire of our employer clients. in the first quarter of 2023.
For me, the scarcity of skills is sufficient to maintain a high level of hiring.
And this for demographic reasons. There is such a structural scarcity of skills that, even with an economic downturn, our clients will have to continue to meet their needs and, therefore, to use our services.
Even more demanding candidates
How will candidate expectations evolve in 2023?
JR: The managers and experts we are looking for — those who earn more than 80,000 euros gross per year — are in high demand. They have a choice. They want our consultants to explain to them what they will become in the requesting company, what their development prospects will be, what is the meaning of their function, their working conditions, what telework and at what pace… C These were desires that existed before the Covid but they can now express these requirements out loud. They have the luxury of asking questions and being demanding.
Processes are accelerating
What notable changes in recruitment processes in 2023?
JR: Our clients, it seems to me, have understood and integrated the new asymmetry of negotiations with candidates. They then tend to simplify and speed up the recruitment process so as not to tire the candidate. Our clients are more receptive to the idea of providing a “good candidate experience”. They deliver more information on the positions, on the meaning of the work offered, on the prospects for development. In short, they adapt to the new situation, to the level of requirement demanded by the candidates.
Timid openness to seniors and atypicals
To what extent does this imply easier recruitment for seniors, the atypical, those who want to change sector, region?
JR: The scarcity of skills pushes our clients to be a little more “open” to unexpected candidates with more senior, more diversified profiles. However, this practice is far from being the majority. This rarity will have to last even longer for our customers to make more concessions…
The firm in a few figures
- 250 recruitments in 2022 in France and 1300 outside France.
- 22 consultants in 2022 in France and 110 outside France.
- CA 2022: NC.
- Locations in France: Paris and Lyon.
- Other locations in 43 countries and 54 offices.
Find the whole series “Pro words”
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