Management


Summer recruitment offers the best choice of candidates


There is a lot of conventional wisdom that says that “nobody changes jobs in the holiday season”, or “senior management is all on holiday, so there’s no one to do the interviews. In its latest survey, recruitment specialists Randstad has found that this is far from the case, and that, in fact, recruiting in the summer can produce the best choice of candidates.


With senior staff on holiday and potential candidates out of the country, the conventional wisdom is that August is the worst time of year to try to hire new staff. But research from specialist IT recruiter, Rands- tad Technologies, suggests the opposite. The company’s anal- ysis of the ratio of job seekers to vacancies shows that, on av- erage, there are 3.1 candidates for every new job in August – compared to an average of 2.3 candidates over the course of the year.


The survey also revealed that, whereas August was the best month for employers to stand out and fill vacancies,


Jan-


uary is the best month for IT and digital professionals to try to land their dream job – the research showed that, on aver- age, there are only 1.2 new job seekers going after every new vacancy in January.


Mike Beresford, MD of Rand- stad Technologies said, “If you want the best odds on scoop- ing up high-flyers, August is the month to hire. These fig- ures show the competition for the best talent is less intense. With the ratio of candidates to potential vacancies so advan- tageous to the hiring organi- sation, the summer is an ideal time to recruit. You might not be able to count on the sun during a typical British August but if you are in the IT and technology industries, you can


count on having to fight that lit- tle bit less hard for every candi- date you want to hire.”


Applications


The survey analysed the times of the year that 5,950 IT, dig- ital and telecoms professionals started looking for new roles, and when almost 2,810 suit- able job vacancies became available. From an employer’s point of view, the best season to recruit is summer (June, July, and August) where there are 2.4 new job seekers, on average, for every new vacan- cy. Winter (December, Janu- ary, and February) is by far the worst time of year with just 1.3 new job seekers for every new role, giving the lie to another piece of conventional wisdom, ‘New year, new job’.


The research also highlighted the huge demand for IT and Technology professionals. Over the past three years, there have been just 2.3 new candidates for every fresh role advertised in these highly-skilled sectors – compared to an average of 2.7 new candidates for every fresh role across the UK. Beresford believes that


this


is still a hangover from the re- cession: “The UK lost a lot of skilled Technology and IT tal- ent over the dark days of 2009 and the worst of the economic downturn as overseas markets offered more work and better


pay. But the industry has redis- covered itself since the sharp decline in recruitment in 2008 and 2009. Increased demand has driven hiring across the UK although there are still signif- icant skills gaps in the work- force”. “That’s been reflected in sala-


ry growth. We’ve seen salaries for IT Systems experts grow by over 65% outside London over the course of the last


three


years. There’s a real shortage of skilled people – a shortage that the pitiful number of ap- propriately trained graduates and post-graduates cannot be expected to fill. But timing can help. If you want the tap up the top talent, the summer’s the time to do it.” “The research analysed a di-


verse range of sectors – from accountancy, social work, and construction to nursing, bank- ing and HR – to find when most people wanted to move jobs and when new vacancies became available. It highlight- ed significant differences be- tween sectors. While employ- ers looking to fill nursing, and engineering job vacancies are – like employers in the IT sec- tor – best off trying to hire new staff in the summer, by far the best time for investment banks to hire staff is in winter (De- cember, January, and February) when the jobs market floods with people looking to move job following the bonus season.


Peoplewatch Sponsored by Lavajobs


Front Porch Digital has an- nounced that Phil Jackson has been promoted from chief operations


officer to chief


strategy officer. In his new position, Jackson is respon- sible for driving innovation and strategy for Front Porch Digital. "Phil was the brains behind our LYNX cloud CSM service and our newest prod- uct, DISTILL, both of which were the first of their kind and approach long-standing industry challenges in inno- vative


ways. That inventive thinking is immeasurably valuable to Front Porch Digi- tal," said Mike Knaisch, pres- ident and CEO of Front Porch Digital. “This newly created role will provide Phil with the time and resources necessary to accelerate Front Porch Digital's exceptional growth trajectory in media and en- tertainment and beyond.” Jackson is assembling a core team from within Front Porch Digital, coupled with proj- ect-based virtual teams and a short list of key technology partners, to spur innovation on several


fronts —through


rapid prototyping, light-agile development methodology, and direct customer engage- ment in the innovation pro- cess. “This isn't just an R&D function that looks at the lat- est buzzwords or IT trends in an isolated manner. This is a serious attempt to collaborate with our customers to un- derstand their principal pain points, and, in solving those problems, bring new thinking and techniques


to market.


We want to build on the ca- pabilities of the LYNX, DIVA, and SAMMA systems, which are the foundation of Front Porch Digital's success," said Jackson.


Summary


For technical jobs, the best time to hire is in the summer:


•3.1 new job seekers going for every new job in August compared to 1.2 in January


•2.4 new job seekers for ev- ery new vacancy over summer – just 1.3 over winter


•Long-term talent shortage – 3 year average suggests only 2.3 new candidates for every


•fresh role in technology sec- tor – compared to 2.7 new candidates across UK


•Shortage blamed on a lack of skilled graduates and post-graduates


The skills shortage has been reflected in salary growth. P14 AV News August 2014


Saville Audio Visual has an- nounced the appointment of Tracey Kershaw as Group HR manager, based at the com- pany's head office in Nether Poppleton. Saville finance director


Colin Nixey said:


"We are delighted to welcome Tracey to the business. Her impressive range of HR ex- perience and skills will be a significant resource as the company continues to grow and diversify." After obtaining a Masters degree in human resources management at the University of Lincoln, Tracey progressed from personnel officer at Atlas Ward Struc- tures to HR business partner at Shepherd Construction. For the past six years, she has held a key executive po- sition as Group HR Manag- er for Qdos Entertainment at Scarborough, one of the


largest and most successful


broad-based entertainment or- ganisations in Europe. Tracey takes up the appointment fol- lowing the retirement of Saville personnel manager Margaret Pittman after more than twenty three years service. Speaking about her new role, she said: "I am delighted to have been giv- en the opportunity to join the Saville team. It's a great com- pany with a strong reputation in the market and it employs fan- tastic people. I am very excited about moving forward and be- ing a part of its ongoing growth and development."


was named chief technology officer in 2010. His technol- ogy leadership and guidance shaped


the initial concept


and development of the Tri- Caster multi-camera live vid- eo production system, which has evolved into the global gold


standard for Other


ed live video production and streaming.


key


integrat- prod-


ucts among the more than 50 shipped under his direction include the NewTek Video Toaster and 3Play integrated sports productions systems. “Andrew’s contributions to the success of NewTek cannot be understated. Our company is a driving force behind the current global transformation taking place in today’s broad- cast video market, and we would not be in the leader- ship position we’re in without Andrew’s vision, engineering acumen, and passion for in- novating disruptive technol- ogies,”


said Plant. “These


Tracey Kershaw – the new Group HR manager at Saville Audio Visual.


NewTek has named Dr. Andrew Cross as the company’s new president with responsibility for the overall strategic direc- tion of the company’s video business. Dr. Cross will retain his current title and duties as chief technology officer and report to NewTek chief exec- utive officer, Jim Plant. Dr. Cross joined NewTek in 1998 as a senior software engineer and after several promotions


qualities, combined with his unique ability to understand the complexities of a dynam- ically evolving marketplace make him the ideal individu- al to lead our video business now and into the future.” Cross commented, “We’re in the midst of a massive shift in the way people and orga- nizations communicate using live video. NewTek is uniquely positioned to continue driving innovation and meaningful change in ways that redefine the world of broadcasting as we know it. We will be relent- less in our approach to make it easier and more affordable for corporations, schools, gov- ernments, houses of worship, entrepreneurs, sports entities and entertainers of all kinds to share network TV-style video


experiences world.” with the


Dr. Andrew Cross – NewTek’s new president with responsibility for the overall strategic direction of the company’s video business


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