June24619788 No Comments

Half UK companies expect to recruit staff in 2018 amid skilled worker shortage

Half of firms expect to recruit staff next year, with smaller firms most confident, according to a new study.

A survey of almost 300 companies, employing one million workers, also found that most believed a diverse workforce was important to their future success.

The CBI said its research found that a shortage of skilled workers was the biggest worry for companies, with many worried about being able to attract overseas employees.

Half of the companies questioned said they were aiming to increase pay at least in line with inflation in the coming year, slightly fewer than this time a year ago.

Fewer than one in three said they would be able to absorb the costs of increases in the national living wage, with one in five planning to increase prices or restructure their business.

Neil Carberry, the CBI’s managing director for people policy, said: “Britain’s record on job creation is second to none, and this year’s survey shows that this is set to continue in 2018.

“But with softening economic growth matched with high employment, the survey again emphasises the vital need to make progress on the industrial strategy and secure a good Brexit deal to improve productivity, support job creation and boost pay growth.

“The survey also shows that firms are concerned about finding the right staff in the future and this is damaging the outlook for investment in the longer term.”

Tracy Evans of recruitment firm Pertemps, which helped with the survey, added: “Although there has been a lot of change in 2017, confidence is high among employers, with most expecting to expand on opportunities in the coming year.

“One of the big problems we face in recruitment at the moment is the skills gap and how to overcome it. Finding the right staff is obviously key in recruitment and we need to find a solution to this ever-growing problem.”

 

Read More – www.independent.co.uk

June24619788 No Comments

Barclays offer graduates £550 to tackle interview costs

According to new research from Barclays, UK graduates spend an average of £550 attending job interviews before securing a job

The research which polled 1,000 graduates found that 48% of graduate jobseekers have to borrow money, take out credit cards or go into their overdrafts to fund expensive commuting fares to interviews, which makes finding a job inaccessible for many.

Jobseekers frequently spend £80 on buying appropriate clothing, £90 on travel and accommodation, £205 on resources to boost employability and £175 on software to enable upskilling – so the costs quickly rack up.

And, the survey revealed that 61% of prospective employers wouldn’t even cover the basic costs of an interview, while 54% have had to turn down interviews or not even applied (51%) because they know that they can’t afford to attend the interview.

So, to tackle this problem following results from the survey, Barclays are launching their Graduate Fund scheme to help student jobseekers access their careers more easily.

Graduates can apply for grants from the £20,000 pool of ‘free money’ to make attending interviews more affordable. And, this money can be used for anything from interview clothing, travel and accommodation to training and development resources and upskilling.

This grant is a one-off cash injection that doesn’t need to be paid back.

 

Read More – www.recruitmentgrapevine.com

June24619788 No Comments

Employment and Wages Are Up Again But Progress Is Slowing

Wages are on the increase amid near record rates of employment, according to official figures.

Data released by the Office for National Statistics this morning reveals unemployment fell by 47,000 to 1.36m in the three months to August and pay rose by 3.1% over the quarter, compared with a year ago, while inflation for the same period was 2.5%.

There were 32.39m people in work over the quarter – down 5,000 on the previous quarter.

Commenting on the data, Pawel Adrjan, UK economist at the global job site Indeed, said Britain’s labour market is slowly pivoting from job growth to pay growth: “Average pay is now growing at its fastest rate since 2008, and the curtain could finally be starting to come down on the lost decade of stagnant wages.

“With the number of new jobs created flatlining as the economy hovers close to full employment, employers are having to fight harder and pay more to recruit staff.

“For the economy to deliver more sustained pay growth it needs an injection of the labour market ‘X factor’: better productivity.”

Also commenting Recruitment & Employment Confederation CEO Neil Carberry said the data reflected the strong performance of the UK’s flexible jobs market, with wages rising in real terms and near record rates of employment.

“But there is some evidence that progress has slowed as businesses enter a holding pattern ahead of any Brexit deal.

“What we need now is for the government to take a pragmatic approach that delivers a smooth Brexit for the economy – and for people’s jobs. A transition period and longer-term clarity and stability on terms of trade and mobility between the UK and the EU are essential to avoiding a bumpy landing.”

Read more – www.recruiter.co.uk

June24619788 No Comments

David Tully Joins Resource Solutions as Associate Director

Resource Solutions has appointed David Tully as Associate Director from Global RPO provider Cielo Talent, where he was a New Business Development Director for EMEA.

David has a wealth of experience in business development within the recruitment industry, having also held senior roles at SJB Group (acquired by Experis’ Manpower) and Adecco UK, selling across all their 14 brands, including Spring Technology and Pontoon Solutions.

As Associate Director – Sales, based in the Robert Walters Group Head Office in London, David will be developing business development strategies to drive Resource Solutions’ client-focused ethos and tech-enabled outsourced recruitment solutions. David will spearhead telecommunications, technology and a number of emerging sectors.

Commenting on this recent senior appointment, Joanna Fagbadegun, Resource Solutions’ Sales Director said:

“David’s extensive experience within the RPO and MSP arena will be harnessed to focus on supporting our continuing diversification across a range of sectors. Our long-standing client relationships are at the heart of our business and David will play an instrumental role in generating new business whilst developing deep and lasting relationships with our clients. We are excited to welcome David to the Resource Solutions global family.”

Read More – www.recruitmentbuzz.co.uk

June24619788 No Comments

Why Companies Are Turning To Headhunting Firms

There was a time when business leaders resorted to working with headhunters only for the seemingly impossible job searches. Today, companies are changing their perception when it comes to executive search firms with the numbers indicating this trend strengthening over the next decade.

As business and hiring practices continue to evolve, the plight of the headhunter looks to be one of longevity, and business owners may find themselves increasingly reliant on them to fuel their company with fresh talent.

At the same time company leaders are turning an eye towards headhunting firms, they are finding it harder than ever to find good talent using traditional methods. While the value of personnel is better understood and appreciated than ever before, the availability of talent seems more scarce by the minute. Traditionally, internal recruitment teams have filled the vast majority of roles for a company, yet the increasing complexity of today’s job descriptions is proving to be more difficult for corporate recruiters to manage than in years past.

There are simply too many roles at most large companies for a handful of corporate recruiters to adequately recruit for. This is especially true for upper-level positions that may not need to be filled frequently. A corporate recruiter may not have experienced the job search before for these positions.

For a company to have the breadth and range an executive search firm possesses, they would need to employ an entire search firm themselves; fully equipped with the tools, licenses, and operational processes.

Simply put, recruitment firms with specialized teams of recruiters are far more likely to have the experience to find and, more importantly, qualify candidates for specialized roles than corporate recruiters.

Based on the survey responses of nearly 4,000 corporate talent acquisition leaders, 61 percent say their team will stay the same or decrease in size in 2017. One reason for this is companies are warming up to the idea of using search firms for positions that are not commonly filled. While an organization with a large sales team may have no trouble filling average sales roles, the internal recruitment team may struggle to find a director of compensation with the right experience. Not being exposed to the wide range of compensation talent like a headhunter, the internal team is likely to look for individuals with the same job title, and underestimate the importance of the type of experience, varied exposure to both specific and broad-based areas of compensation, and the importance of finding an individual who has worked with a similar company. In the medical field there are general practitioners, and then there are specialists — the headhunter is the specialist.

One clear advantages headhunting firms have over corporate recruiters is the ability to reach out to passive job seekers. Passive job seekers are professionals who are not actively looking for a new job but may be open to new opportunities. Eighty-five percent of professionals in 2017 are open to new opportunities and with recent developments like Linkedin’s “Open Candidate” tool that allows professionals to indicate they are open to conversations with recruiters, the ability to recruit from a company’s competitor is easier than ever for a recruiter. While headhunting firms excel at this, corporate recruiters have limited resources. It takes a much more proactive approach to attract this level of talent than the average active job seeker.

Companies also have a better understanding of the cost of a bad hire these days. Poor hiring decisions can cripple a company’s growth and the data points to bad hires being costlier to an organization than previously thought. Because hiring mistakes are costly, companies are extending their hiring process longer and taking more precautions to guard against making poor personnel choices. This, however, can be a double-edged sword as time-to-hire increases and jobs stay unfilled longer.

While companies are willing to put more effort into finding the right candidate, they still need to fill the jobs in a relatively similar time frame. This is where the speed and efficiency of an executive search firm is attractive to business leaders. The lack of bureaucracy and a focused approach, typically lead to faster time-to-fill and quality candidates.

Top 10 mistakes corporate recruiters make:

  1. Unrealistic job descriptions,
  2. Shotgun approach to marketing jobs,
  3. Recycled job descriptions,
  4. Reliance on dated techniques and processes,
  5. Take time away from hiring managers to explain the job,
  6. Recruit through employees friends,
  7. Too rigid on specs,
  8. Boring communication,
  9. Failure to evolve,
  10. Complacency.

Read More – www.bizjournals.com

June24619788 No Comments

Recruitment Body Looks To Improve Disability Hiring

New data has found that many companies are struggling to source disabled talent – with 70% not knowing where to look.

In response, The Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative (RIDI) has launched RIDI 100 – a directory of recruitment service providers which are committed to the inclusion of disabled jobseekers.

Hoggett Bowers, an executive search firm who recruit for seniuor hires, has been confirmed as the first partner.

Karen Wilson, CEO of Hoggett Bowers, RIDI’s commented on why the recruitment firm signed up to the RIDI scheme.

She said: “As Hoggett Bowers, we have been active supporters of the D&I initiative for many years, having worked with some major organisations to help them face challenges as early as the mid 1990’s. We are delighted to be the first RIDI 100 partner; we are also actively participating with The Clear Company as Clear Assured Foundation members.”

Kate Headley, spokesperson for RIDI and subject matter expert, added that recruitment can play a starring role in helping firms find the talent they need.

She added: “We have long known that businesses, while open to hiring disabled individuals, often feel that they ‘don’t know where to start’ when it comes to engaging with disabled candidates.

“However, our latest research underlines the fact that many hiring managers simply don’t know where to turn to even access this valuable talent pool.”

“By creating a dedicated directory of Disability Confident recruiters, we believe we can help businesses to overcome this crucial hurdle.”

Read More – www.recruitmentgrapevine.com

June24619788 No Comments

Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent Remains Biggest HR Challenge

In an environment plagued by skills shortages, finding and retaining talent remains the biggest HR challenge in 2018: half (51%) of HR managers say they struggle to find people with the right skills to do the job, according to a new survey by AXELOS, custodian of some of the world’s most sought-after certifications.

Adding to the pressure is an awareness that hiring the wrong external candidate now costs in the region of £17,000* (£16,843, to be precise), according to the 500 HR managers questioned by AXELOS. That sum covers recruitment fees, advertising, assessment of applications, interviews, induction and training (onboarding), and the first three months of salary (£7810); it also factors in such negatives as poor work outputs, loss of productivity, disruption to projects and then the cost of putting things right by recruiting someone new (£9033).

To address the skills gap and prepare their workforce for the digital economy, 41% of businesses now favour training and up-skilling existing employees for new roles, while a similar proportion (41%) say they will recruit entry-level candidates who will receive training once they are in place.

But one-fifth (21%) of businesses say they find it difficult to find the budget to train and up-skill existing employees to meet their needs, and 22% say that it is a struggle to get employees to participate in continued professional development (CPD). Bearing these challenges in mind, 42% of businesses say that promotions for existing employees with relevant skills will be conditional upon no need for further training, while just over a third (36%) of businesses will continue to recruit talent externally.

While these measures might seem expedient, AXELOS warns that organisations that fail to invest in training and CPD for their staff could be damaging their employee brands and even their human capital. This assertion is supported by a separate survey of 1,000 employees, also conducted by AXELOS: over half (55%) of respondents say they would prefer to remain with their current employer, but only if new career and training opportunities are on offer.

Fortunately, digital badges for qualifications and CPD provide some new hope when it comes to both recruitment and retention. In fact, their growing adoption is bringing multiple benefits on both sides of the employer/employee equation.

By engaging in CPD and adopting digital badging for new certifications, employees are demonstrating a commitment to growth and development that will favour their internal mobility. At the same time, digital badges can showcase an individual to existing and potential employers, emphasising the credibility and currency of their professional qualifications. 55% of employees will take a more favourable view of businesses offering CPD and digital badges, saying that they are more likely to remain loyal to an employer that invests in CPD; if it comes to finding a new job, they are likely to see an organisation offering CPD as more attractive.

For the employer, digital badges represent a proven and effective way for HR departments, hiring managers and recruiters to ensure that candidates have up-to-date skills which are relevant to the job in question. At the same time, digital badges enhance employee satisfaction, since they demonstrate the employer’s commitment to investing in improving the skills of its workforce and encouraging loyalty among its employees. 30% of HR managers agree that digital badges motivate employees to participate in CPD.

 

Read More – www.recruitmentbuzz.co.uk