My last blog looked at the 4 stages of recovery and what we have seen so far over the past year or so. We are now experiencing stage three of the recovery cycle with no real indication how soon we may move into stage four, so my new post is looking at what other things employers and talent should look out for and take into consideration to help prepare for the months ahead.

1. As the market shifts to stage three of recovery, when we see a slow steady increase in the demand of freelance bookings, we will see a large spate of temp-to-perm hiring as clients look “close to home” first when it comes to planning their permanent hiring strategy. It is crucial that the market hires permanent candidates for such positions, not freelancers looking for a little more stability. Because once the temporary market returns to the levels of demand we saw around 2005 – 2007, many of these hires will leave their permanent job and return to freelance as it is their first choice.

As long as structured interviews take place for temp-to-perms and this potential issue is addressed with the talent, such cases can be limited or avoided all together.

On the talent side, it is really important you evaluate your motivations for taking a permanent position or going temp-to-perm. I have found the main driving forces are one of two things –

1. Career progression and the desire to learn new skills and receive new responsibility, something often not available in the freelance world from clients.

2. Personal life changes that require more of a stable income i.e. children and/or a mortgage.

If you’re not sure and find yourself not falling into one of these two categories and you’re more of a “I just need some stability for my mental state of mind” freelancer then I would suggest you simply ask yourself this question. Ok, if I took a permanent job now and the freelance market returns to its familiar buoyancy, would I want to be a freelancer again? If your instinctive answer is yes, I would advise you to ride out the storm as you will be consistently busy again, as long as you follow the basic rules of being a good freelancer – make sure you know what you’re best at, keep it at its best, sell yourself on it and leave every placement with the client wanting to re-book you. Also bear in mind that the design industry is small and if you jump ship too many times in permanent jobs, you will get a reputation for it.

1. Employers must keep a very close eye on the current staff situation; addressing salary cuts issues, training needs and identifying current employees buying their time for their next move. Recent surveys show that there is a high percentage of passive job seekers. Translated, this means a large portion of our industry are still riding out the storm in their current jobs and if approached will leave. Now, they are not actively looking on Seek, working with a recruiter etc. but it is a concern that there are so many people that are not really happy in their jobs and are hanging on to them because of the residual fear left from last years ‘blip’. It is critical employers spend time with their employees to address any issues they may have and to potentially identify those who are still motivated and those who aren’t, find out why. A good example is salary cuts. A large portion of employees took a salary cut to keep their job last year, those who are still on reduced salaries are in danger of leaving to take a new job for the right money for their position.
2. Paying the market rate, keeping salaries realistic – pay peanuts and get monkeys – drilling down on skills to confirm value for money within each hire. This is applicable to freelance and permanent hiring. Being a recruiter makes you the middleman and you can see the pressures from the client to keep budgets to a minimum and you can see the pressures of being a freelancer and needing to earn the money for your skill level –and to put food on the table. It’s a tough place to be at times, but I think it’s important to communicate as much as possible and make sure that everyone is being paid/charging for the jobs they are doing. For example, do you need a senior gun finished artist with Photoshop skills or good mid-weight to senior creative artworker to do some layout work? That’s a saving of a few dollars per hour for starters.

Be smarter with your freelance job briefs and pick specific people for specific jobs and make sure your recruitment consultant matches price and role correctly. From a freelancer’s perspective, it’s finding that happy medium between not prostituting your services and not pricing yourself out of the market. Being honest with a client about what costs what, i.e. working from a base mac operator/finished artist rate and add-ons for extras such as managing the studio, heavy Photoshop work, some creative design etc. If you do cut a “special deal” for clients, set a time frame on it – either by offering a project fee or an hourly rate for a set period of time, so that it can be reviewed and potentially go up to your normal rate.

1. Training and development is critical to avoid/limit the impact of a second skills shortage. Employers must continue to recognise a skill shortage. This is something we are already starting to see during some of the freelance peaks in recent weeks. Prior to the GFC, we were desperately seeking senior finished artists, anyone with oodles of FMCG packaging exposure, annual report typesetters, pharmaceutical copywriters and don’t even get us started on digital Flash designers. Once the market hits stages 3-4, when we see the steady increase in talent demand really ramp up to answer the booming job market, these shortages will rear their ugly heads again. Employers must put things in place to combat these shortages. i.e., when ready to hire permanent staff, do it and don’t rely on freelance wherever possible, to allow freelancers to move around more and be shared between clients. Train and develop current employees to keep them happy and retained in the business and to help reduce skill shortage.

As a freelancer, make sure you are upskilled to the hilt and always looking at courses in your field that can keep you at the top of your game. And if money is tight, the Adobe website has lots of free tutorials that can help you keep your finger on the pulse. Be willing to learn new things on the job and go in at a reduced rate for a set period to help build your skills and increase your booking potential.

1. Partnering with a specialist recruitment company that is not only well connected with talent and clients, but also has the respect and an equal partnership with them. This will help prepare you for the times when you do not have time to line up more work after a busy contract or when you don’t have time to find a good freelancer yourself. So far it has been pretty easy for employers to find talent for freelance bookings. This is because demands are not high and the nature of the current market in many cases is last minute, shorter bookings. So if you need to book someone tomorrow, you can often get them or at least for the day after.

If we cast our minds back to August through to October/November of previous years, this was simply not possible as demand was high and to get the best talent (and that’s what everyone wants) you needed to forward book the people you knew, or call someone who could instantly give you someone tried and tested.

On the talent side, sadly there are still many freelancers out there that don’t naturally warm to the idea of joining forces with a recruiter. James, my colleague put it quite nicely that prior to joining Aquent he saw recruiters as the “little troll under the bridge”. The good news is a lot of the trolls were washed away with the GFC last year, leaving respectful responsible talent agents who care about finding you work that you enjoy and work with you, not against you in the recruitment process. I would apply the ‘what you put in is what you get out’ philosophy to the relationship you forge, that way it will remove any nasty taste of previously bad experiences with recruiters and should ensure a flow of work for the last six months of the year. Many of our freelancers work with us as part of their overall client base and some we fill the gaps for and some rely on us 100% all of the time and are very happy doing so.

Make sure you know what you want from a recruiter and don’t be afraid to tell them. They should be proactive in identifying what you are good at, what you need to up skill in and how they can help you. And most importantly, if they cannot help you, they should tell you why and give you the information you need to assist in finding more work via other channels.

Catherine Wiggett joined Aquent in November 2005, after over two years experience recruiting creatives in London. She has a total of eight years recruitment experience, six of which have been spent in the creative industry. Catherine prides herself on focusing on the importance of relationship building to be successful rather than forcing unhappy people into unsuitable jobs. She now manages a busy freelance desk, working to consistently keep her clients and the Aquent talent happily working together…ahh Zen. She can be contacted via www.aquent.com.au/go/CatherineWiggett