2021 was the year we have seen the usual market trends shift, adjust and evolve. There was no going back to the pre-pandemic patterns; instead, a chance to become more resilient, adapt and grow. Shaun McKenzie, RED10’s Managing Director, talks about the trends we have seen shifting during this year, how RED10 is adapting to reflect this new era of work, and what to expect over the next year.
What were the hiring trends you have seen during 2021 in terms of demand and skills?
2021 saw a slow start for hiring; there was still hesitancy in companies looking to start new programmes outside of what was necessary. As the year progressed, we’ve seen this change where new hire requests aren’t that far from pre-COVID levels.
Now companies are eager to hire, especially in areas of digital and innovation. We have seen higher than usual demand for Business Analysts across both business and IT.
A big part of the workforce is looking for flexible working conditions, which helps companies attract the best talent.
Clients are now willing to offer outside IR35 contract roles. We have worked closely with our clients to better understand IR35, with the help of our partner Kingsbridge award-winning IR35 assessment Status Tool. This has resulted in clients offering outside IR35 contract roles and attracting some of the best talent in the market.
What changed for RED10 during this year?
RED10 have re-evaluated our ways of working to address better the needs of our clients and candidates. We have been in constant contact with our clients to ensure they’re aware of market trends on hiring, including the best way of ensuring they can attract the best possible candidates and working models, such as hybrid or fully remote.
Working in collaboration with our strategic partners, RED10 have been hugely successful in ensuring our clients’ needs and requirements, from short-term contracts, FTC, perm or consultancy, have been met with great success.
After seeing excellent growth within our new sector offering, Technology, we have added new staff members to meet current demand and increase our client portfolio across EMEA, APAC, and the US regions. To date, the return on investment in this sector has seen significant growth. We foresee Technology continuing to flourish as we continue to gain new clients across multiple industries, including Commerce, AI, Digital, Payments & Fintech.
We also wanted to create a smoother journey for candidates to apply on the website, and necessary changes needed to happen. We have recently launched a new and user-friendly website which is seeing higher traffic and candidate applications.
What is the most common return to work path you see from companies?
Now that all the measures are lifted, I can see a hybrid model continuing to be the norm. Candidates like the flexibility to mix home and office working, especially with those who have young families.
The pandemic has shown that being in an office environment isn’t necessary to deliver outcomes. Some clients have shown a significant improvement in delivery times and budget costs.
At RED10, we empower our employees to make their own decisions on where they feel more comfortable and productive, and use the offices for face-to-face meetings and collaboration. With some of our recruiters covering regions whose working hours differ from the UK, working from home and planning their day to accommodate early or evening client/candidate calls have helped them fulfil requirements more efficiently.
In my case, being able to see more and help my wife with our 2 young boys, has been a welcome bonus of splitting my time between home and the office.
What would be the recruitment trends over the next year?
Candidates who have skills and experience in new ways of delivering programmes or projects will be in high demand. Working within Agile, DevOps etc. have increasingly become the norm across the insurance industry. As clients move away from On-Prem to cloud-based applications, candidates who have experience working on digital projects, either in or outside insurance, will continue to be in high demand.