2016 – A Year That Will Change Everything

2016 for many, has been a year of conflicting fortunes, a year of dramatic political change and in many respects a year of global transition and certainly a glimpse as to what the new world order will look like in the years to come. As the owner of a regional recruitment business what we have been seeing appears to be conflicting however with the political landscape, particularly within the demands and expectations of both candidates and clients in the Asia region as well as the people we are looking to recruit for our own business.

Young People will Change the World

The two largest global events of 2016 – Brexit and the US elections, were in part a backlash from the older generation, perhaps feeling marginalised in a rapidly changing world and the realities of globalisation in conflict with their values and beliefs. Yet from an employment perspective the market has changed irrevocably and the pace at which technology is changing the world is staggering and typically it’s the younger generations who are more at ease with the new technological advances. As The Edge also moves into our fourth year of business, the nature of the people we will hire has also changed significantly – 3 years ago I’d still have been impressed by a sharp suited recruiter with a solid client base – yet if I look across the room at our latest hire in Singapore, he’s in jeans and a hoodie and using weird and wonderful technologies to unearth hard to find candidates across the region. I’ve noticed a sharp difference in successful younger recruiters in the market this year – many are increasingly client agnostic and spend their days identifying and engaging with candidate populations in their specific area of specialisation. Certainly an eye open for a dinosaur client orientated recruiter like me !

There are No Borders

When we started our business in 2013, our aim was to build country specific teams of industry specialists, maybe working on regional work if and when it came our way. This model has been turned on it’s head and we now employ a fully regional model – one of our most successful revenue generators in Singapore this year has made zero placements in Singapore itself and we have teams in India working on retained mandates in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Whilst populism is on the rise, client demand would appear to be in direct conflict with this. Clients are keen to develop their businesses in higher potential, lower cost environments and the candidate workforce is becoming increasingly transient.

With technology / cloud based businesses, location becomes increasingly less important. I met with a newly established tech based research aggregator the other day and their workforce are truly global, without an office in any location. Everyone works from and contributes from home and they are paid in line with their contributions to the business. Whilst probably too early to tell if this is the future from a workplace perspective, the ability to sit at home and work on a freelance basis, globally, has been never been higher and certainly something we may look at as our business continues to expand.

The World is Opening Up, But Nothing is For Free

Cool and hip tech companies advocate relaxed and open working styles – beards and beanbags are the order of the day. However these firms are money-making machines and nothing is for free – if you cancel your Uber, you pay. If you suddenly can’t make your Air BnB or Agoda booking, you pay. Apps now allow you to split bills automatically, killing the concept of going Dutch. The other day I booked a table at a restaurant and they took my credit card details – if I cancelled last minute, I would have to pay. And fair enough. As a business we try to strike a balance between above and beyond service to our key accounts, whilst ensuring we protect our margins and time spent in servicing business. We have been quickly and successfully moving into more of a retained model this year, with around 30% of our revenue coming from retained work as compared to 0% the previous year. We will be pushing this further next year, developing a strong regional research function across our key locations and further enhancing our search capabilities as well as our ability to provide detailed and relevant market intel to our key clients.

Coming Together

Whilst the political landscape has been fractured in 2016 ( as well as an unusually high obituary count for global celebrities ) – the corporate and social landscape seems to be pulling in a different direction. Many new ventures these days view themselves more as movements or partnerships and increasingly with philanthropic as well as financial objectives and this seems to be a pull factor for candidates looking to move. A good friend of mine has moved from a high flying banking role into more socially responsible investing and for the first time ever I was asked by a potential recruit for The Edge what our CSR and charitable policies are. Workforces are becoming increasingly diverse – out of our 24 employees we have 7 different nationalities and over 10 different languages spoken ( if you include my GCSE level French ) – and despite the increase demand for local candidates I am noticing a much greater mix of nationalities in the clients that we work with in Singapore. One of our founding partners has also recently relocated to Bangalore to open our office there to find a thriving mix of nationalities and multi-national businesses.

Summary

2016 could well be the year where the world is seen to change on it’s axis – the Trump effect in particular and shifting balances of power in the world. However we have also seen an incredible amount to be positive about from our clients as well as from within our own business – it’s been a tough but ultimately rewarding year and one that has also seen our business change significantly, in ways that we feel will equip us better as we head into 2017.

If you would like to discuss your own career planning for 2017 or are looking to staff up your teams please feel free to get in touch with me and I can put you in contact with the relevant consultant.