As a top 100 staffing leader to watch in 2023, what are your goals for the upcoming year and what do you hope to achieve?
My goal is to continue our work in creating career pathways for all underserved and underrepresented communities in our STEM North America communities through our organization, the STEM Council for Good. Simultaneously, we want to “become the verb” in the specialist markets we operate under our Impellam house of brands, which include Lorien (Tech), SRG (Life Sciences) and Bartech (Energy and Engineering).
In light of the rapidly changing staffing industry, what opportunities do you see that others may not agree on?
Hybrid work is staying, remote work is preferred, and companies need to be constantly thinking about the future of work and how to drive the highest level of engagement from their teams. Secondly, the skills that were valued today may or may not be obsolete in the future. Are we going to see Robot Therapists or Metaverse Experts versus Web and Software Developers? We will need to be agile to respond to the ever-changing opportunities before us.
As discussed at the World Staffing Summit, client experience is becoming increasingly important. What are the biggest shifts in client expectations that you anticipate in the near future?
The irony is that hybrid work is preferred for candidates, but nothing beats meeting people in person. Instead of just delivering transactional staffing, truly understanding a client’s needs, even before they even know what they are, and offering diverse, niche talent is the game-changer for the market.in my view.
Based on recent research, it appears that acquiring new clients is becoming increasingly difficult. Do you believe this will be the biggest challenge for the staffing industry in 2023?
Yes and no. It’s always a challenge to acquire the highest caliber clients, but given the market changes and the drop in overall job vacancies, there will be far more competition, more candidates and less need for generalist recruiters. Being niche and “famous” in your market has never been more crucial.