European Recruitment Q1 Market Update

European Recruitment serves the global, niche technology industry across a broad range of sectors from semiconductor, AI, consumer, security, cloud technologies automotive and gaming. In the first of a new quarterly series, the team shares their insights into the latest market trends while reflecting on their growth over the last twelve months.

A Record Quarter In Q1 2022

European Recruitment has experienced a record quarter in Q1, 2022. Simon Troupe, Business Director, attributes much of this business growth to a strategy unlike their competitors. “We barely furloughed any staff and instead doubled our team from 35 to 70 consultants over a period of twelve months,” he says. He admits the strategy was considered a bit of a gamble at the time, when the majority of their competitors were heavily furloughing or laying off consultants. They saw an opportunity to snap up seasoned tech consultants who were passionate and highly knowledgeable about the industry. Many of the new hires were on-boarded and continue to work remotely in locations across Europe, the US and LATAM.

“We’ve really matured as a business and trust in our people to be able to offer them the flexibility of remote or hybrid working,” Troupe says. He has seen this shift in mentality extend to clients, with even the most traditional technology companies starting to adopt hybrid and remote workers in order to expand their talent pool in a highly competitive market.

“Remote work has thrown open the hiring process,” he says, “because now a manager who could only find five candidates from a local market, can now find fifty candidates in global one.”

David Wicks, CEO and Founder, says the business has found incredible talent in locations like Serbia and the Ukraine, who would have previously been overlooked. They can now benefit from an international salary while based in their home countries with a lower cost of living.

“Instead of having to convince them to move globally to a more expensive city, they’re now more willing to accept remote roles,” Wicks says. This has created some challenges in navigating compliance, an area which European Recruitment have honed their expertise.

“We understand compliance across so many different countries,” he says.

The War On Tech Talent

Wicks has seen the technology industry remain buoyant throughout the pandemic and beyond.

“Everyone went crazy for tech over the last two years and there’s been so much investment funnelled into exciting tech start-ups.” The knock-on effect is a war for tech talent with top candidates receiving up to five offers at a time. Ed Jackson, Director, has seen how companies have pressed the accelerator on hiring in this first quarter.

“Every person who has gotten an offer has gotten an offer elsewhere, which means clients are moving quickly through the hiring process for fear of being left behind.” The business has seen growth in cutting-edge technology companies in AI and renewable energy, as the demand for products like electric vehicles increases.

“The world is obsessed with machine learning, and every technology business wants to hire the next great PHD maths genius,” Troupe says. Chris Canneaux, Manager, has seen how investment in the semi-conductor market globally has increased demand for hires.

“There’s an element of playing a bit of catch up over the last two years where companies have lost growth opportunities and now have budget to spend,” he says. One client who is a leader in the semi-conductor sector has placed more roles in Q1 2022 than in the last decade. With the role semi-conductors play in almost every consumer device from cars, watches and fridges, this trend looks to continue.

And as European Recruitment has grown, so have the sectors which they cover, with Fintech and Crypto currency seeing an upward trend.

“We see much more in-bound clients popping up from disruptive tech companies,” Canneaux says. They even have employees who choose to be paid in bitcoin.

Candidates Want It All When It Comes To Compensation And Benefits

Salaries, unsurprisingly, have gone up dramatically.

“Salaries are being blown out of the water,” says Jackson. “Clients that haven’t pivoted to the new mindset are losing staff.” Jenna Thompson, Manager, has seen graduate PHDs offered over $180K in the US with no experience.

“Especially in the renewable market, companies know if they don’t offer right, there is another start-up down the road who will,” she says. She sees smaller start-ups getting creative on compensation with attractive equity packages to get candidates over the line, and benefits like flexible working remaining a top priority. One Belgian company is offering their employees unlimited paid leave, while some American companies offer car allowances to booster their already competitive salaries.

“If you want to be competitive for top talent you need to pay well, offer flexibility and hope and pray that they’re not in another process,” Jackson says. Even that might not be enough, Thompson says, as companies with slightly older technologies wont attract the talent they need out of university.

“Young candidates want excellent working conditions and exciting technology too. They want it all,” she says.

European Recruitment have managed to develop an established global network of top talent that know the business is at the forefront of the most exciting tech opportunities in the market.

“Candidates are impressed with our clients and our understanding of the niche technology sectors we cover,” says Wicks. His management team have worked together in their specialisations for over a decade, and that in-depth knowledge pays off.

“We really get tech,” Troupe says, “particularly those super niche roles, we can find the candidates, we know which universities they hire from, and we know what they’re looking for.”

If you would like to learn more, please contact us here or reach out to our Head of Marketing, Iryna Bilenko at [email protected]