HR/HCM Job Market Observations
IHRIM Eye Guest Blogger: Paul L. Belliveau, HRIP, SPHR
I thought I’d share some of
my research and personal observations of the current HR/HCM job market, as a
consequence of my own career search campaign.
I've been closely
monitoring the job market for Human Resources/Human Capital Management for the
past several months as part of my own career migration plan. Now into the second
quarter of the year, the market is continuing on a healthy upward trajectory,
and appears it will be accelerating at a moderate pace for at least the next
year. Evidence of this trend can be seen in the 2013 Source of Hire Survey
recently released by Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads. Survey results show an
increase in 2013 US hiring by 17.5%, as compared with 2012. Crispin said “This
is the biggest upswing I’ve seen in 10 years”[i].
More than half of the
opportunities I’m seeing out there are coming from contingency placement for
short- to mid-term projects – most are for durations of 3-9 mos. A recent
report from The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) bears
this out, showing increases in job openings filled by the professional temporary
market of 4% and placement increases of 8%[ii].
However, I’m also uncovering quite a number of direct openings for fulltime
employee placement, most at the 5-10 year experience levels. In the 15-20+ year
category, I’m not seeing as much demand, but still a respectable amount. Even
though, according to the 2011 SHRM
Customized Benchmarking Service report, the
average time to fill job vacancies is 34 days[iii],
the time to fill these more senior openings is considerably longer than in the
past. Decisions are often delayed, put on hold or sometimes cancelled
altogether. Despite a 73% increase in virtual/telework/remote work environments
between 2005 and 2011[iv],
with many HR/HCM positions at this senior level, there is still a significant
requirement for onsite presence involving daily/frequent commuting to physical
work locations[v].
Within the Human
Resources/Human Capital Management and supportive technology solutions arena,
the current market uptick is triggered by pent-up demand and an increased focus
on Workforce Planning, Talent Management and Workforce Analytics to better
support the business[vi].
For a variety of reasons, it is also fueled by a rapidly growing interest in
migrating to Cloud-based HR and alternative service delivery solutions, such as
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)[vii].
As was found by Lexy Martin’s (et. al.)
most recent CedarCrestone Annual Survey, the benefits of a SaaS HRMS include:
1) Requires substantially less HR and
Information technology staff to implement, maintain and support;
2) Significantly faster time to
implement, and half the time to reap value from deployments;
3) More intuitive and much improved
user experience; and 4) Increased adoption rate and higher overall customer satisfaction[viii].
No wonder why SaaS is resonating with more strategic, agile, and less tethered organizations.
In my own career search campaign, I’ve become acutely aware of the drivers and dynamics involved in the HR/HCM labor market. Leveraging social media and various networking venues provide me with vehicles for promoting personal brand. While I‘m still very actively focused on pursuing direct practitioner-based HR/HCM advisory and/or leadership roles within a corporate setting, as an interim measure to accommodate current short term projects, I’ve temporarily pulled my consultancy, Avancé HCM (established in 1991), out of mothballs for the time being. Hopefully this will be short-lived, as my targeted direct job should be coming around shortly.
[v]
From a panel discussion by Pauline Holman during IHRIM Webinar: Out of
Site, but Not Out of Mind - 4-17-13
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