Guy Moreton blames the BBC’s Robert Peston for the recession. It sounds like a joke, but Moreton, founder of specialist recruitment and training agency MorePeople, is deadly serious.
Moreton recounts how a fresh produce executive phoned him up last year to talk through some vacancies, then at the last minute changed his mind about advertising for a new accounts manager. Business editor Peston had predicted “economic Armageddon” on the BBC 10pm news the night before, the executive said, and so he wanted to hold off on taking on as many new staff until the situation became clearer.
It is this kind of story that illustrates how a lack of confidence in the economy is stalling the jobs market in the fresh produce industry. Despite the fact the food industry has been far more resilient than sectors such as engineering, caution is the watchword in recruitment.
When it comes to top-level appointments in the industry, this means executives are staying put in secure jobs. “Effectively we are in a very candidate-poor environment,” says Moreton. “Logic says in times of difficulty people keep their heads down. It’s not just in produce. The exceptions are where people have regrettably been made redundant and are looking for a new position. Also, the state of the housing market means it is less easy to sell a house so people are not moving around the country for jobs so much any more.”
This is a situation David Macaulay of Eden Search & Select recognises too. He says candidates are not relocating to other parts of the country as readily as they once were, or those who are willing to move are doing so for personal reasons such as moving closer to family. “Given people’s general lack of confidence in the economy and the current situation in the housing market, the active job seeker is becoming defined by location,” he says. “This is creating a regional recruitment market within the fresh produce industry. That has always been prevalent in different times but I think it has become even more obvious over the last 12 months.”
The pressure on fresh produce companies to continually give supermarkets a better deal is making candidates wary of moving to another firm, unless they know the company has stable relationships and contracts with its customers, says Macaulay. “There are concerns generally about the economic picture, but that is now distilling down into the fact that most senior level people know that retailers are applying significant pressure on their supply base and that is creating uncertainty.
“Candidates are very aware of the risk of moving, and if they are moving they want to make sure the business is in an economically strong situation and have established key relationships with their customers.
“Companies that have not necessarily had that strength or who have had changing relationships with customers sometimes find it harder to recruit the best candidates at middle to senior level.”
James Trett, founder of JP Trett recruitment agency, agrees security is the most important factor for candidates. “I think people are frightened of moving away from a stable position. If jobs become available in larger companies then people will look to move but some of the smaller, riskier businesses are short of staff because people tend to stick with what they know.”
This means companies are increasingly advertising the stability of their business alongside the job on offer, he says. “When people are advertising positions, they concentrate on the position of the company, how long it has been established, what their workforce is, and the products.”
Macaulay says the slow market means recruiters are now looking outside of the immediate produce industry for candidates. “We recently appointed a new commercial director for Kettle Produce from the dairy industry,” he says. “In the last 12 months the talent pool has become quite mature and there is an active push to look to other sectors such as dairy, cheese, fresh food - it is still very much about food.”
MorePeople offers training courses and according to Moreton, the big push on training is currently at the middle- management level. There has been a lot of consolidation in the fresh produce industry in recent years, partly related to the recession, which means businesses are getting bigger.
“Bosses have to delegate more to middle-management, so there is a huge opportunity at that level. So our big push on training for the next 12 months is here, courses like how to manage a team and finance for non-financial managers,” he says.
Another problem facing the industry is the lack of quality candidates for entry-level positions in commercial and production roles. Max MacGillivray of Redfox says there is a “lost generation” of recruits stemming from the migration of graduates towards careers in marketing, PR, tourism and sport in the early 2000s. This led to the closure of a number of agricultural colleges and a dip in demand for courses for universities such as Newcastle, Cirencester and Reading, where courses stayed open.
“What that means is now there is a huge gap in talent for first and second jobbers,” says MacGillivray. “It is so frustrating when you look at the unemployment figures because these are graduates that could have been roaring through the industry.”
However, he says, there is a glimmer of hope in that the recession means students now are looking at food as a stable sector and the universities that remain are starting to see numbers pick up again. -
THE VALUE OF NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS IN TOUGH TIMES
Guy Moreton believes that while the market remains tough, businesses should focus on recruiting high quality non-executive directors.
“They bring immediate value, they’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt,” he says. “While a lot of chief execs are in their 30s, non-execs in their 50s who lived through the recessions of the 70s and early 90s have invaluable experience.”
While executives may be reluctant to move posts, companies can often appoint non-execs with more ease, providing immediate experience and contacts. “The economic climate is the toughest it has been for a generation,” says Moreton. “Non-execs tend to have contacts at a much higher level than a supermarket buyer. Obviously there’s no guarantee of anything, but having those contacts might lead to a returned phone call or a meeting.” -.
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