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Adept Recruitment Announce Revenue Figures are up and so is Demand!

Posted: 09 June 2009 | Provided by: Adept Recruitment | Browse more news

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As the UK leader in Costs Recruitment it is that time of the year for us to publish our UK Legal Costs Salary Survey and Market Information.

Overall in recruitment terms the year has been a great success for the Adept Costs Team. Revenue figures are up 51% on the previous year and we still see no sign of a slowdown in the demand for good quality Costs Draftsmen. Since 2003 have supplied all levels of staff from Trainees to Senior Costs Managers and work with a variety of Cost Agencies, In-House and Insurance companies of varying sizes throughout the UK. Therefore the information we accumulate is across a wide spectrum of the Costs Market.

Increase in demand
Much of the recruitment can be explained by 'newly created' roles due to demand on Cost Services generally. Along with our normal recruitment, Adept was commissioned to recruit for 3 NEW Costs Departments in London into which we recruited 28 staff which was made up of 10 Trainees & 18 professional Draftsmen of all levels. We also saw many Companies expanding their departments throughout the UK and at present we have over 100 vacancies which are growing daily as further companies are contacting us to help with their recruitment needs.

Increase in Candidate flow - lucky for some!
Early 2008 saw a dramatic increase in candidate flow for Adept, as 2007 had been hampered due to the long wait for the Carter Report and Candidates not knowing what effect it would have on their jobs. The increase that did follow worked very well for those Clients that set up their departments in the mid part of 2008, as the jobs were filled quickly and efficiently and supply actually met demand (rare in the Costs market in general!).

Self Employed
We have also seen a number of self employed candidates approach us. Some seeking permanent work as they want the security of working within an established firm and not having to worry about the day to day of running their own business. We have also seen a demand in other Self Employed staff seeking Temporary work as some have seen a fall in some of their work but this enables them to still maintain the their freedom.

Severe skills shortages - Temporary solutions
As we progressed into 2009 however demand has started to exceed supply again. The newly created roles of 2008 has created severe skill shortages across the market.

As demand in Costs Services has continued to increase many departments are finding themselves under immense pressure due to increases in work load. This pressure in turn can lead to unhappy employees and a drop in Client Service. Many candidates that have registered are generally unhappy about their workload and move to other companies getting a good pay rise in the deal!

Some Clients have realised this and turned to us to supply Temporary Costs Draftsmen to help ease the load of overworked departments as their search for qualified staff continues.

Salaries
Although we have seen an increase in demand we have not actually seen a dramatic increase in basic salaries at this stage, although in some of the larger agencies we have seen better commission and bonus structures put into place. We think this is due to the market having been slower in the previous years and as mentioned earlier supply actually met demand last year.

What next?
Due to the skills shortage created by the creation of many new roles throughout the UK and the fact that the demand is still increasing, we are moving into a market where companies will have to rethink its strategy to attract quality staff to fill their roles.

The Companies that think and act quickly will be the winners; continued pressure on departments puts too much pressure on existing staff leading to discontent and mistakes - which ultimately can lead to poor Client service and in many cases staff leaving - which can compound the problem further.

Trainees or higher basics?
We believe investment in Trainees is essential for the Costs Market and is a far more positive way forward for the industry as we think all companies will agree Basic Salaries cannot keep escalating to unmanageable levels.

If you have any questions relating to any area please do not hesitate to contact Ben Pitts on 0161 618 1802.