Mid-Level Consultancy Gap

As we move into Q2 of FY14, with the UK’s economy currently expanding, it’s becoming more obvious that there will be a greater requirement for Companies and Consultancies to hire more staff.
Many experts are of the opinion that for a sector that sells performance & productivity gains as their core business they are actually not very good at actually acquiring staff to run that core activity.
Large companies in many cases also demonstrate a lack of expertise as regards that side of their business – the recruitment of staff. Many don’t keep any records regarding the performance of their recruitment departments including the spend, time to hire and conversion rates, etc.
The need to plan ahead and to add some rigour, to the recruitment process will affect their ability to win and retain new business. They need to plan ahead of the demand.
Candidates are no longer selected purely on what degree they have but on a much wider level with many large companies now starting to run their own apprenticeship schemes. The fixed term contactors are also becoming a permanent fixture of the marketplace, both because it gives the company a measure of flexibility,  but also because staff on those contracts like the lifestyle these opportunities present.
These practices make worse the growing middle gap consultancy shortage. How do you address this shortage of middle gap consultants?  Firstly you can improve the talent management and development programmes but this is a long term process, or, you can proactively encourage lateral moves from other companies, but that comes at a cost.
The recruitment sector has gradually changed into one of talent acquisition and the staffing industry we knew and loved is well on its way out. The RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) model is here to stay. This is for the dual reason that direct talent sourcing has become a permanent feature plus companies want greater confidence with the process by using third parties, verses the one individual in many cases.