With the majority of the recruitment industry experiencing a turbulent time, recruiters in the healthcare arena are bucking the trend by thriving during the economic crisis. There's still a high demand for new employees and if anything the demand is still growing, with lots of companies turning to specialist recruitment agencies for assistance in sourcing sufficient volumes of suitable candidates.
The last four months of 2008 saw the healthcare industry grow, and the last year on the whole saw seen the sector swell by around 23%.
However, the difficulty for recruiting companies in the healthcare sector is finding sufficient numbers of qualified nurses. The Nurses and Midwifery Council (NMC), which registers every nurse working in the UK released reports showing an increase in the number of practising nurses has increased by just 0.3% over the last year, from 642,751 to 645,034.
Unfortunately for the UK industry, there has also been a rise in the number of UK nurses leaving to work abroad in search of more money, better conditions and warmer climates. The NMC recorded a steady increase in the number of UK nurses taking positions in other countries, from 10,087 in 2006 to 11,171 in 2007.
This shortage of suitable candidates means recruiters are having to be a bit more crafty in their recruitment methods, in order to source suitable candidates. Carrot Pharma, which recruits medical communications, market research, advertising, public relations and marketing staff for the pharmaceutical industry, has increased its networking activity, both online and at industry events.
Generally the types of specialist roles Carrot Pharma recruit for are still in demand, on the whole the pharmaceutical industry is suffering from foreign competition in drug development. Dianne Ward, head of scientific recruitment at Pulse Staffing, told Recruiter:"The pharmaceutical market is taking a hammering. The length of time it takes to bring a drug to market, coupled with fewer products and rising costs, have resulted in some organisations off-shoring business to places like India, while others have moved part of their operations back to the US."
Specialist recruitment consultancies like Carrot Pharma continue to do well because they focus their activity on highly-skilled job roles with small candidate pools, who are attracted to working on a freelance basis.
The poor economic conditions may provide further respite for the sector. Smith told Recruiter that BBT has experienced an increase in the number of qualified candidates looking for part-time work as some candidates attempt to supplement their income with additional hours.
In general salaries in the healthcare sector have stayed stable. According to Reed.co.uk the average salary in this sector, advertised online, has only increased slightly from £35k to £37k in England over the past year.
Smith believes this salary stability is due to managed services providers, which have control over the prices that agencies can charge. "Salaries have stayed fairly stable because of the influence of managed service providers. Some are better than others — it's a mixed bag," he said, adding that the biggest problem is the number of debtor days.
Portuguese
Spanish
French