The UK has high levels of employment and continued skills shortfalls. Some employers are reporting that recruitment is slow and that they would like to recruit faster. We investigated some recent UK employment figures to find out what was going on.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS)* publish UK labour market statistics. They show that the employment rate reached 75.3 percent during the three months to July 2017.

This is the highest employment rate since comparable records began in 1971 and evidences an appetite to recruit despite any economic uncertainty due to Brexit.

Employment Market Facts

  • 14 million People are in work (181,000 more than for February to April 2017 and 379,000 more than for a year earlier)
  • With an unemployment rate of only 4.3 percent, it is harder for employers to secure the employment of suitably qualified new staff.
  • Statistics show there are only 1.9 unemployed people for every current vacancy. This is exacerbated by a fall in net migration from the EU.

Still 8.74 million available people to choose from

There are 8.74 million economically inactive people in the UK, aged from 16 to 64. They are described as not working, not seeking and not being available to work.  Even if they could or would work, they may not have the skills or experience required by employers.

So how can you improve recruitment?

Employers are competing for new employees in a smaller pool of available talent. Here are some options if you wish to recruit faster and outperform your competitors.

Offer bigger salaries?

This may help to secure a specific individual, but may lead to wage disparity and unrest within your existing workforce.

Improve Benefits?

Granting flexi time, increasing holiday entitlement and offering free fruit and an environment that people enjoy working in are all great ideas. Whilst they may be costly, some studies show an increase in productivity that more than makes up for this.

Speed up your internal recruitment process.

Make every applicant feel wanted in your recruitment process. Make it fast, efficient and communicative.

In today’s market, faster communication with candidates and a slicker process is vital. If great candidates are getting jobs before you can get to the offer stage, you may need to adjust your approach. Use an Applicant Tracking System with a focus on ease of use, simple collaboration and rapid communications.

Change your agents to recruit faster

Faster processing and rapid communication is difficult if you are facing the following challenges:

  • Large numbers of poorly matched CVs
  • A high frequency of candidates who do not attend interview
  • High levels of agent competition for the same candidate
  • Significant differences between the person and the original presentation

Agents can become the fundamental cause of many delays. This happens when they overload your recruitment process with poorly skilled and poorly qualified candidates.

Carefully selecting the right recruitment partners should ensure that you only receive applications from properly matched and fully qualified candidates who really want to work for you. Less clutter and more focus can speed up your recruitment process and help you to stay ahead of your competitors.

Xperian Recruitment

Xperian Recruitment offers the best Search and Selection services for Software IT companies throughout the UK.

If you want to recruit faster and more accurately, find out more by contacting Nancy Pomfret, our senior recruiter, on 01634 202 101.

 

*Source

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/september2017

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