Book 1

MRINetwork.com/RecruiterSentiment

2015 2ND HALF

Conducted by MRINetwork

RECRUITER

SENTIMENT STUDY

SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS 3

JOB OPENINGS TODAY

Question One What is Causing Job Openings? 4

THE MARKET

Question Two Is it a Candidate or Employer-Driven Market? 5

HIRING PRACTICES

Question Three What Areas Will Employers Make a Top Priority In 2016? 6

Question Four What is Holding Managers Back From Hiring? 7

OFFERS

Question Five 8

Question Six 8

Question Seven 9

Question Eight 9

Question Nine 10

Question Ten

How Many Interviews to Get an Offer?

How Long Does it Take to Get an Offer?

What Percentage of Job Offers Were Rejected?

Why Are Job Offers Rejected?

How Many Interviews Before Job Offers Were Rejected?

How Much Time Between 1st Interview and Rejected Offer?

CONCLUSION 12

ABOUT THE STUDY

CONTENTS Click page number to link

Click here to view the

video summary of the

Recruiter Sentiment

Study.

•

Ninety percent of our recruiters continue

to feel the labor market is candidate-

driven, a percentage point that has

remained steady since the rst half

of 2015. This environment provides

candidates with the condence to reject

undesirable job offers, with 47 percent

of recruiters listing “accepted another

offer” as the primary reason for offer

objections. A long-standing reason for

offer rejections, this sentiment is up from

37 percent in the rst half of 2015.

• Despite plans for expansion, the

recruitment efforts of many companies

appear to be competing with retention

of top performers. Career-pathing by

mapping out a long-term plan for each

employee’s incremental progression

to new roles in the company, can be an

important strategy to engage and retain

key employees.

• As candidates make job moves in 2016,

their rst priority will be roles that

provide advancement opportunities.

Compensation is important, but the

possibility to immediately land a more

senior role that has higher earnings

potential, is what top performers feel is

most important.

• Vacancies from retirement are edging

up, indicated that Baby Boomers are

beginning to feel more condent about

retiring. Succession planning should be

prioritized now to ready key staff who can

become future company leaders.

SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

As global experts and leaders in the search and recruitment industry, MRINetwork recruiters conduct

searches every day in virtually every industry at the executive, managerial and professional level. They

have a keen awareness of the overall job market and the factors that affect it. In November we once again

conducted the MRINetwork Recruiter Sentiment Survey, across our approximately 600 worldwide ofces, to

evaluate the current employment landscape and to project its direction in the months ahead.

Key Findings

Is it a Candidate or Employer-Driven Market?

54%

56%

67%

68%

79%

81%

46%

44%

33%

32%

21%

20%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

2nd Half

2011

1st Half

2012

2nd Half

2012

1st Half

2013

2nd Half

2013

1st Half

2014

A candidate-driven market. An employer-driven market.

What is Causing Job Openings?

Survey Insight

• Based on year-over-year survey data, newly created positions and resignations continue to be the

primary reasons for job openings, signifying a stronger labor market in which employers are focused on

businesses expansion and candidates feel more condent about changing roles.

• We continue to see an uptick in retirements which shows the expected departure of older professionals

is gradually picking up steam, but also points to these individuals choosing to remain in the workforce

longer.

Recruiter Comments

• Many companies are growing and opening new locations, or executing on new strategies which involve

hiring new employees.

• There’s a combination of both newly created roles, those from resignation, and top grading. Skill sets

are changing and companies are looking for more strategic-driven candidates.

• The economy seems to be bouncing back and growing, making it important to have additional resources

available to keep up with demand.

• The introduction of new technologies means that newly skilled workers are required to implement and

operate these tools.

Q1. Of the job orders you are seeing today, what is the primary reason for the opening?

JOB OPENINGS TODAY

Newly created positions

continue to be the primary

reason for job openings,

followed by vacancies from

resignations. Since the ﬁrst

half of 2015, vacancies from

retirement have increased four

percentage points, indicating

that Baby Boomers are slowly

beginning to feel more

conﬁdent about retiring.

Is it a Candidate or Employer-Driven Market?

Q2. If you had to choose one, how would you describe today’s labor market?

Recruiter Comments

• Despite being in a heavily candidate-driven market for several years, most companies still follow

antiquated hiring practices, even for critical positions. They refuse to acknowledge that the market is

candidate-driven.

• Good candidates have multiple offers and are in the driver’s seat. A lot of less-qualied candidates are

on the market that could get up to speed quickly, but employers are reluctant to train.

• Companies that interview a good candidate should be ready to make an offer otherwise the candidate

will have multiple offers that they will have to compete with.

• The number one reason why deals fail is TIME. The average timeframe for new hires is 3-4 weeks.

Clients who take more than a month to interview, offer, and hire will have a much harder time

attracting top talent ... simply put, their competitors are doing it faster!

• It’s candidate driven, but employers are more selective in their hiring process. They need technical

skills and industry expertise, but also change agents.

• Candidates want quicker and simplied ways to apply for openings, yet employers and HR

departments make applying for one of their openings more complicated.

THE MARKET

What Areas Will Employers Make a Top Priority in 2016?

Q3. In 2016, what areas do you feel employers will make a top priority?

HIRING PRACTICES

Key strategic hires, followed by

employee engagement and retention

were identiﬁed as top priorities for

employers in 2016.

Other areas such as succession

planning and building a strong

company culture are becoming

increasingly important aspects of

talent management.

HIRING PRACTICES

engthy hiring practices

and an inability to

ﬁnd suitable talent

ranked very closely

among recruiters,

demonstrating the

relationship between

the time to hire and the

availability of skilled

candidates.

Q4. What single factor, if you had to pick one aside from a company’s revenue is keeping employers from adding to their headcounts?

her obstacles such as

offering low compensation

packages, and an inability

to get authorization to

ﬁll roles lengthen the

hiring process, causing

vacancies to remain open

longer.

What is Holding Managers Back from Hiring?

How Many Interviews to Get an Offer?

Q5. How many interviews were there before the rejected offers were made?

How Long Does it Take to Get an Offer?

Q6. On average, over the last six months, much time was there between when candidates were rst interviewed and when the offers were

made?

ost job offers continue to come after

three interviews. This is consistent with

year-over-year survey data.

ontrary to previous years of the survey,

which showed most offers being extended

within 1-4 weeks, MRINetwork recruiters

now report the majority of job offers are

being presented between 3-6 weeks.

This change is likely due to an expanded

look at offers over the last six months, as

opposed to the most recent placement,

which was the criteria in years prior.

However, this may point to a trend toward

employers not heeding recruiters’ advice

to expedite the interviewing and hiring

process, thereby increasing the chances

of top candidates moving on.

OFFERS

Why Were Job Offers Rejected?

Q8. What was the primary cause for offers being rejected?

eventy-three percent of

MRINetwork recruiters

report their offer rejections

are 10 percent or less,

indicating that top passive

candidates are being vetted

well, with regards to a

given job opportunity.

OFFERS

What Percentage of Job Offers Were Rejected?

Q7. Approximately what percentage of your candidates rejected offers over the last six months?

Accepting another job

offer continues to be the

leading reason that job

offers are turned down,

with a seven percentage

point increase from 1st

Half 2015 survey data.

Lower-than-expected

salary/beneﬁts remains

the second most

common reason jobs

offers are rejected.

How Many Interviews Before Job

Offers Were Rejected?

Q9. How many interviews were there before job offers were rejected?

ost job offers continue to be

rejected after 2-3 interviews,

based on our year-over-year data.

OFFERS

Recruiter Comments

• It’s a competitive environment where the candidate has both other opportunities and, likely, an employer

who doesn’t want him or her to leave. It’s almost gotten to the point where if no counteroffer is made,

you wonder about the quality of the candidate.

• When the hiring process takes too long, a candidate that wasn’t formerly looking at other opportunities

starts paying attention to other opportunities, and often takes another job before the original company

has nished the interview process.

• Employers need to tighten prolonged hiring processes. They have not fully grasped that it is a candidate-

driven market. The best candidates have competing interviews and offers. Progressive companies know

this and expedite processes and hiring decisions.

• Employers should stick to the budgets they’ve shared with the recruiters at the beginning of the search

process and avoid sudden changes. This could help both parties in managing the expectations as well as

ensuring a smooth negotiation during the offer stage.

OFFERS

How Much Time Between 1st Interview

and Rejected Offer?

Q10. On average, over the last six months, how much time was there between when the candidate was rst interviewed and when the rejected offer

was made?

hree to four weeks after the

ﬁrst interview continues to be the

point at which job offers are most

frequently rejected.

ear-over-year survey data

shows rejected offers after two

weeks are on the rise, advancing

six percentage points since the

2nd Half 2014.

Moving into the ﬁrst half of 2016, all indications are that hiring will continue to increase. As the study results

demonstrate that top performers are driving the hiring process in the executive, managerial and professional

Conclusion

space, employers in the overall labor market should also anticipate challenges with recruitment and

retention as the job market expands. Today’s best talent now seek an expedited, responsive, candidate-

facing interview process that clearly outlines how their career would beneﬁ

t from joining your ﬁrm.

Companies will have to get on board with this if they want to acquire and keep strong talent on their teams.

As you look at your hiring plans for the next year, use the survey ﬁndings to help you understand some

of the pressure your candidate searches will be under. Of course, as you come up against challenges,

MRINetwork’s team of approximately 3,500 recruiters around the world will be able to help your organization

ﬁnd specialized managerial and executive talent in almost every industry and function.

About the Study

The MRINetwork Recruiter Sentiment Study is created from a web-based survey conducted between

October 30 and November 13, 2015 with a total of 446 MRINetwork recruiters responding. All survey data

has been rounded to the nearest tenth. The survey has a 6.1 percent margin of error with a 90 percent

confidence.

The survey was conducted by MRINetwork and compiled by Nysha King, Media Relations Specialist for

MRINetwork (215.282.8821 | nysha.king@MRINetwork.com).

This was the 9th edition of the study, which is conducted on a biannual basis. Parties interested in viewing

the most recent report can download the study at MRINetwork.com/RecruiterSentiment.

MRINetwork

Recruiter Sentiment Study

2nd Half 2015

MRINetwork.com/RecruiterSentiment