What were the recruitment market trends over the past 6 months for the Specialist Care Division.

We have consistently witnessed skills shortages in a number of areas that plague the sector including nurses, support staff and therapy disciplines notably psychology speech and language therapy and psychiatry. The current market trends see businesses becoming increasingly creative to recruit staff of this nature using incentives such as welcome bonuses and increasing flexibility.

One other notable market trend is the sheer volume of movement with professionals and businesses within the specialist care industry overall – the market is booming. We are seeing a huge number of acquisitions, development of new services, within all parts of the market.

If so, what reasons were there for this?

There are activities within all parts of the market here that are having an impact. The implementation of the double Covid-19 vaccination policy – although later scrapped – caused a mass exodus within the specialist care industry.

The pandemic itself has also caused major implications for staff, businesses and investors. Brexit has also increased challenges within the sector.

What advice would you give to job seekers based on current market conditions?

A general piece of advice I would suggest is ensuring you have some face-to-face meetings during the interview process as this is incredibly important and beneficial for both the client and candidate.

While having an entirely online interview process can be easier and more efficient, still holding a face-to-face interview is still incredibly important. This enables both candidate and client to gain an improved understanding of how you can work together, including the visibility of the potential working environment. It also gives you a better idea of chemistry, and if ultimately, you can build a professional relationship there.

Have client expectations changed at all? Any demands for a certain skill set at present?

Expectations from clients haven’t dramatically changed as such but certain demands from them have increased. With inflation increasing and higher pay demands, this has resulted with clients expecting well-rounded, experienced, good-quality candidates.

Commercial and operations experience is essential as financial implications are currently incredibly high if anything goes wrong. Therefore, clients are being much more reluctant to take risks than perhaps they would have done previously.

What successes have the Specialist Care division seen as a result of the past six months?

Over the past six months, we have had various key successes both internally and externally. Examples of this include the delivery of several senior mandates which have been critical to growth plans, support to a leading and innovative charity to enable expansion within Manchester, and division wide support for a national business across a number of different sites and locations supporting in both a management, clinical and a therapy capacity. We have also won significant pitches for future projects with both complex care and digital therapy providers.

Internally, we have seen the team grow over the past six months based on our sustained success. The recent additions to the team have specifically been focusing on the lower-mid management markets so that we are able to provide a broad range of support for our clients’ demands and needs. Our headcount recently expanded once again due to our success within the Children’s and Adult Social Services – a division we have recently amalgamated internally to best support our clients offerings.

This change has enabled us to ensure that the same consultant is dealing with clients that work in both of these markets and not have them deal with multiple consultants within Compass Associates, therefore providing a better client journey. This change has proved to be a big success so far.

Currently, we are looking at branching out into the foster care markets and looking at future growth there.

For the latest news and insights from Compass Associates, click here.