Where is today’s resource planning talent?

Where is today’s resource planning talent? This is a simple case of supply & demand…

In resource planning we look at demand and supply resource to deliver on that demand within agreed parameters.

In recruitment the premise is the same – a client has demand for a member of their team and we supply candidates to satisfy that demand

Over the past 12 months or so there has been an imbalance in supply and demand within the Resource Planning world as there is a greater level of demand for candidates than there is supply. In recruitment terms we refer to this as a candidate lead market and this is unusual in the contact centre industry.

So where is today’s Resource Planning talent?

Well to put it simply the imbalance is there as there are more clients wanting experienced candidates than there is “active” candidates on the market. I’ll come back to active candidates later…

So what is causing this?

1. Internal competition for talent – 10 years ago contact centre advisors – particularly those with a head for numbers would see opportunities in resource planning as the stepping stone to bigger and better things. These days however as the reputation of the contact centre as a breeding ground for talent grows other areas of the business are offering opportunities to these talented individuals. Marketing, Customer Insight, Customer Experience and other departments are all competing for talent that previously the resource planning teams wouldn’t need to worry about.
2. The recession – with the crash in 2007 and the effects that were and are still being felt today large contact centre businesses reduced the investment that they made in recruiting graduates and their management development programmes. It is those that were leaving university in the years that followed the crash that have suffered from a lack of investment and whilst this is a generalisation there is a talent challenge for those first and second management positions.
3. Automation & Outsourcing – this is delivering great benefits to businesses in delivering cost savings however the tasks that are now automated or outsourced would have previously been entry level roles within the resource planning teams. With these roles less prevalent it has stifled the number of individuals progressing through these teams resulting in a further talent challenge.

So to answer the initial question where is today’s resource planning talent?

Well there is a still talent around – we are representing some fantastic candidates. However there is a really strong demand for that talent so if you are looking to hire talent here are my recommendations:

• Work with specialists who are immersed in the candidate market place – active candidates, those who are looking for their next opportunity will possibly reply to job adverts however passive candidates those who aren’t actively looking and make up over 70% of the candidate marketplace won’t reply to those adverts. Specialist recruiters spend their time building their networks with these passive candidates.
• Make sure you WOW your candidates. With the imbalance in supply and demand it is likely that they could have more than one offer on the table at any time. Offers will be similar and it is the impact that you and the business have on the candidate that will make the difference.
• Make sure you map out your recruitment process and have defined timelines to the hire. Managing expectations is a sure fire way of setting a great experience.

The so called war for resource planning talent is on – make sure you take the steps you need to be successful.

Barrie Brown

CCA Recruitment – Planning & Analytics is the longest established specialist resource planning recruitment consultancy in the UK established 16 years ago. With specialist consultants in our offices in London, Manchester & Glasgow we immerse ourselves in the candidate networks to add previously unavailable candidate to our client’s recruitment processes. For any further information please contact info@ccarecruitment.com or call 0208 514 7400. Alternatively if you wish to learn more about CCA please visit our website www.ccarecruitment.com 

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