Candidates need to be more flexible when job hunting, advises the managing director of Randstad UK Professional Services.

Fred van der Tang told Recruiter that with unemployment rising, and more candidates entering the market, “some candidates need to be more flexible in terms of how much they want to travel [to find work]”. They also need to be more flexible when it comes to considering a pay cut, he suggested.

Van der Tang said that with headcount reductions likely to increase in the coming months, the need for candidates to be more flexible would increase. Van der Tang added that it was part of Randstad’s role to help candidates come to terms with this. “We try to help them face reality and to try to make the most of it,” he said.

Van der Tang said that while Randstad was seeing more candidates, finding the best candidates was still proving difficult. “The really good candidates are still in jobs,” he said.

He said Randstad planned to focus on those areas where, despite the overall economic downturn, skills shortages still exist.

According to a recent survey commissioned by the company, areas of skill shortages included managers, operations and IT.

Van der Tang said that Randstad’s “trump card” was its “very well diversified portfolio of companies”, covering engineering, health, education and retail. Each of these companies also benefited from having a strong brand, he said.

Van der Tang said the key to success for Randstad was staying close to its clients and candidates. “Once we know what the company is
planning we can tap into the local labour market,” he said.

One potential source of flexible labour for organisations was women, he suggested, with unemployment among women rising faster than among men partly because of job losses in retail