Tech Professionals Say if a Job Vacancy is Open for 67 Days, There Must be Something Wrong With It

LONDON, October 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ –

Employers need to fill job vacancies within 67 working days (14 working weeks) before
tech professionals assume it’s a job no one wants, according to research carried out by
Randstad Technologies [http://www.randstadtechnologies.com ], the IT and technology
recruiter.

Randstad asked 2,001 members of the public, “How many working days does a vacancy for
a permanent job have to be open before it starts to look like a bad job that no one
wants?”

The UK’s working population said they thought a post has to be vacant 74 days before
it looks like a bad job that no one wants, 1 working week more than tech professionals.

In a similar survey, Randstad found that, on average, professionals in tech or IT jobs
[http://www.randstadtechnologies.com/jobs/solution-provider-jobs/it-project-management-jobs.html ]
feel they currently have to perform the job of 1.5 people meaning they are
covering 50% more work than one person should be; the equivalent of fitting an additional
two and a half days worth of work into the ordinary working week.

Mike Beresford, managing director of Randstad Technologies, said, “Tech professionals
are far more concerned about the length of time a vacancy’s been advertised than the rest
of the UK’s workforce. They work in a fast paced world which rapidly evolves every day. A
stagnant recruitment process signals alarm bells.Recruiting for a techpost is like trying
to sell your house. Leave it on the market too longand, for whatever reason,peoplestart to
think there is something wrong with it.That leads to fewer applicationsand increased
pressures on the rest of the staff left trying to cover the empty position. We know tech
professionalsalready feel they are performing the job of one and a half people. If they’re
cramming an extra two and a half days worth of work into a working week, they are going to
find it extremely difficult to cover for vacant job posts, too.”

IDEAL PERMANENT RECRUITMENT PROCESS OVER 50% FASTER THAN VACANCY SHELF LIFE

As part of the research, recruitment consultants working at Randstad Technologies were
asked what the ideal length of time was to fill a vacancy, balancing the need to secure
the best candidate for the job and the need for organisations to fill a skills gap. The
poll found that given those criteria Randstad’s consultants thought 29 days (just under 6
working weeks) was the ideal.

Mike Beresford said, “While IT and Tech workers won’t start judging a job negatively
until the vacancy has been on the market for 67 days, the ideal recruitment window is
actually under half this time. A positive and efficient interview experience creates a
fantastic first impression and is the first step in winning the battle for premium talent
signing on your dotted line. It may seem obvious but having a clear plan before embarking
on any recruitment activity is vital. The availability of all the stakeholders required to
interview candidates, run assessments and finally authorise the hire is the most common
cause for delay so something as simple as a co-ordinated diary management approach can
make a huge difference.”

Notes to editors

The Randstad group is one of the leading recruitment & HR services providers in the
world with a top five position in the UK and a top three position in fifteen countries
including the US, France and Germany.

In the UK, Randstad’s business lines serve the public and private sectors across
Accounting and Financial services; Business Support; Construction, Property and
Engineering; Education; Health and Social Care; Interim Management and Search; Human
Resources; IT; Legal; Retail; Sales, Marketing and Creative; Student and Worker Support
and In-House and Managed Services.

At the end of 2011, Randstad had 1,930 corporate employees in the UK, working in 255
locations. UK revenue in 2011 was EUR789 million. Randstad was founded in 1960 and is
headquartered in Diemen, the Netherlands. Randstad Holding nv is listed on the NYSE
Euronext Amsterdam. For more information see http://www.randstad.co.uk and

http://www.randstad.com.

Research

The results of this research were gained from data from 2,001 people surveyed by
Canadean between 23rd and 30th July 2012 (Including 113 from the Technologies Market
sector) and a survey on ideal time to hire of 35 Randstad Technologies consultants
conducted on Weds 19th September.

SOURCE Randstad