Indeed recently conducted a survey focusing on employers outlook for 2018.
One of the most interesting results is that the majority of employers continue to expect to hire more people than last year despite our current unemployment rate which is the lowest it’s been in over a decade. For staffing & recruiting agencies that means our jobs are about to get even harder. As demand continues to grow and supply continues to decrease the need for exceptional marketing & growth hacking increases exponentially. Strategic use of lead generating tools like Indeed will be key moving forward. Additionally, new platforms must be explored if you want to keep up with your competition.
This trend appears to be pretty consistent across the board including just about every industry surveyed. Several industries reported higher than average numbers including architecture & engineering (82% expected to hire more employees in 2018), Information Technology (75%) and professional services (71%). Retail companies came in below average at about 55% and educational organizations we’re one of the lowest at 41%. There are many speculations as to why the retail sector has such a bleak outlook including the continued increase in online retail popularity.
That being said, major reports and big data from all over the world show increased earnings of retail companies. And with turnover being as high as it is in retail experts like those at Indeed expect to a lot of hiring in 2018.
Regional differences factored into the Indeed survey as well with 75% of employers surveyed in the Soutwest expecting to hire more employees in 2018. These numbers are significantly affected by urban areas in this region.
Among companies surveyed by Indeed about 40% cited financial restrictions as the highest concern for hiring in 2018. Rather than being concerned about having enough qualified candidates or having adequate demand, they are worried that they won’t be able to afford the cost of recruiting candidates. This is true in many industries including healthcare where demand for disciplines such as Registered Nurses is already extremely high and shortages of qualified candidates continue to grow. 34% of the healthcare companies surveyed believed that they wouldn’t be able to afford to recruit in 2018. This can be good news for RN’s who will most likely see increases in pay in 2018, but bad news for healthcare staffing companies.
Healthcare staffing agencies have notoriously low advertising spends and we expect to see this increase in the coming years. The traditional rule is that you should reinvest approximately 5%-10% of your yearly gross revenue on marketing in order to avoid shrinking. 10%-20% reinvested in marketing is typically where you would want to be to grow your company. In our experience, the healthcare staffing industry has fallen far short of these numbers.
What this means for you?
From a marketing perspective, this means that there will continue to be an increased level of competition. Platforms such as Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook & Instagram, Indeed and other major job boards are going to become more costly to get the same performance. Knowing this will allow you to budget accordingly. In order to keep up, you’ll need to spend more than you did last year. In order to grow and beat your competition, you’ll need to spend more than them. That being said you can’t just spend your way to the top. Search engine optimization is going to be tough and you’ll need to be creative in your approach. Link building has never been harder than it is now, but there are ways you can excel without investing too much money. Growth marketing and filling in all the gaps in your strategy is going to be important in 2018. If you’re not doing any remarketing you’ll want to start. If you’re not looking at new and innovative ways to reach your candidates you’ll want to start. And if you need help, you’ll want to talk to us. We expect to see increased use of marketing automation tools and more focus on content production of the social/viral and SEO variety.