Recruitment Market Research & Insight Report

Transcription

1 Recruitment Market Research & Insight Report 2014 saw us celebrate our 30 th year in business and also the 10 th year anniversary of the Market Research division. It has been an optimistic year with a notable increase in jobs registered and much more confident candidate market. Key trends Q1 started well with the highest rise in the number of jobs taken and being filled for clients across all sectors. This continued throughout the year although the rate at which jobs were taken started to slow down by the end of Q3. The majority of placements were on the agency side. The volume of client side roles continued to rise particularly in the media sector. In addition the number of applicants registered who were looking to move client side from agency and consultancy background rose. There were some key structural changes that took place in many London based medium and large agencies with research roles being divided into Project Management and Research/ Insight. This received a mixed response from job seekers, as a large proportion felt the changes made the roles less appealing. Over 70% of candidates, whom we briefed about these roles, chose not to submit an application to these companies. The structural changes, as predicted, also had an impact on staff turnover.

2 As in 2013, the number of Innovation / NPD focused opportunities registered with us continued to rise (60% increase 2014 vs. 2013) and we anticipate this will continue into Unfortunately the demand for Innovation talent far outweighs the availability of researchers with experience in this area. This has created some interesting recruiting challenges. The number of qualitative roles taken also increased steadily throughout the year, with a 30% increase in jobs taken in this area already in Q4 in comparison to the same period in A few companies decided to adopt a new strategy for their business and merge qualitative and quantitative research skills offering their clients a more holistic service with one key resource. The most in demand level of position in 2014 was Manager & Associate Director on the Research/ Insight side and Senior Project manager, Business Development Executive on the Operations / Panel side. Operations recruitment saw a notable increase, particularly in Q3 and Q4, for qualitative project management skills. Demand for candidates with industry experience was strong Demand for candidates with experience in all industry sectors has been strong, although the slowest growth area this year was in financial services. The Operations team saw an increase in requests for healthcare research skills in particular. As anticipated at the beginning of 2014, skills in media, digital, innovation and customer experience research were the most demand for the year. The Scottish elections may have had a part to play in the fact that we also saw, in Q2, an increase in demand for social research skills in Scotland and North of England and particularly on the qualitative side. Junior researchers (6 months plus experience) were also in high demand and had substantially more choice in comparison to 2013 and Many companies had to review and increase their salary, bonus and long term career offerings to attract some of the best talent at this level. International roles continued to grow, with a notable number of projects being undertaken mainly in China, Latin America and European markets (in particular Poland, Russia, Turkey and Germany). As such the demand for language skills played a part in the hunt for talented researchers. Q3 and Q4 also saw a rapid increase in the demand for temp / freelancers with the majority of those being recruited to cover long term absence or to test whether there would be enough work to hire on a permanent basis. Furthermore we were pleased to see many companies being willing to discuss the option of remote working for some of the more senior positions.

3 Boyce Recruitment has a database of over 1000 applicants. We always ensure we are up to date on salary offerings & skills trend. Here is the list of salary ranges for jobs taken in Job title Min Max Fieldwork/Operations Head of Operations Project Manager Senior Project Manager Fieldwork Manager Data Processing Exec Senior Data Processing Executive Programmer/Scripter Panel Manager Community Manager Agency Research roles Research Executive Senior Research/ Insight Executive Project Manager Research Manager / Account Manager Senior Project Manager Associate Director / Account Director Director VP Global head Marketing Consultancies / Intelligence Research Analysts Consultants Senior Consultants Unit head / Directors/ VPs Client side Research / Insight Media/ Research Analyst Insight Executive Insight / Research Manager Senior Insight manager Director / Division head VP / Global head Sales/ Business Development Business Development (o-12 months)* Account Manager * Business Development manager * Business Development Director* * Commission on sales & business development roles varied between discretionary or up to 100% of base OTE

4 Moving Forward 2015 will be an exceptional year for specialist and generalist digital professionals within the industry. As businesses attempt to drive more consumer purchasing online and improve the experience those customers encounter, we are likely to see a rise in demand for Social Media and Digital research specialists as well as opportunities exploring the customer journey, behavior & experience. Organizations that are still keen to fully establish their digital strategy and operations offering will seek to hire mobile and online specialists. Companies who already have established teams will continue to innovate and develop new research tools and eventually they will experience a merge of skills across divisions. The demand for Online Community Management skills will continue to rise. We ve seen some research businesses partner with telecoms operators to get data from afar wider reach, giving them the ability to get attitudinal and demographic information and combine this with smaller panel research. This will continue at a faster pace. As communication will focus around a broad mix of channels and the ever increasing use of video animation, we will also see the need to develop new and innovative ways of relating and understanding the consumer. The shortage of talent in these areas will mean organizations will have to invest heavily in developing their people. Recruitment processes will become more innovative as organizations battle to secure the best talent in the market. We will also see more flexibility working as the request for remote working or flexible working practices will increase.

5 If there is any other information or market data that you would find helpful then please contact anyone in the research team on or for any recruitment help. Sophie Jones Lead Consultant Market Research & Insight Jamie Wall Consultant Market Research & Insight Jodie Evans Consultant: Market Research, Digital & Media Manuela Boyce Director