Job vacancies have hit a record high right across the UK. We can’t believe how vastly different the UK economy looks when we think back to starting the year in another lockdown. Vacancies are now booming as the post-pandemic labour market continues to recover.
High levels of employment can only be positive?
When you hear about employment at its highest level this year – we couldn’t blame you for wondering why the economy hasn’t bounced back.
True be told – Employers are struggling to fill vacancies across most industries.
There is no doubt that the imbalance between demand and supply will balance out again – economic cycles come and go, but that can be bitter-sweet when you need the talent to drive your business.
What does this mean for businesses?
Earlier this year TurnerFox Recruitment Directors Michelle and Connie experienced a reluctance from candidates to switch roles even though there was a desire to make a move. Add to that, the fewer European Union workers and skill shortages – created a staffing squeeze preventing companies from bouncing back post-lockdown and being frustrated by a shortage of staff.
In last month’s blog, we spoke about the furlough scheme ending and reached out to candidates who may have unexpectedly found themselves looking for work. However, the scheme ending doesn’t mean the staffing ‘crisis’ has gone away as more people become available for work.
REC recently commented – “Many businesses will have changed their business model during the pandemic, and so significant numbers of staff returning from furlough may need re-skilling to re-join the workforce in the same or another sector,” she said.
How can you beat the candidate shortage?
If you are a business owner, HR manager or another in charge of recruitment regardless of the sector you may find the following tips helpful to drive your recruitment:
Offer flexible working:
A recruiter recently got some interesting feedback on a Linkedin post where he described his frustration about candidates rejecting job offers due to the lack of flexibility and working from home options. He told people to ‘suck it up and get back to work’. As you can imagine, it recreates quite the debate. The pandemic has made it possible to work from home and gain a balanced life that candidates don’t want to lose.
What do you offer differently?
Company bonus incentives, birthday’s as an additional holiday or a good pension scheme? Outline them all and make it clear.
Don’t make the job criteria too narrow
After decades in the recruitment industry, one trend never changes – the candidate that fits the culture will be the candidate that sticks more so than a candidate with all the right qualifications. If it’s a role that you can put candidates through training schemes then it maybe worth being more flexible with the job criteria. It will save you time and costs in the long run.
Too many interviews and not speeding up the recruitment process
Candidates are now ready to move and some have several interviews lined up in one week. If you delay responding or make the process too long, you could risk losing the ideal candidate to a competitor. We discuss this further in a previous blog here.
Here at TurnerFox, our experience has seen us come out the other side of a recession and now a pandemic. We are here to offer our experience and expertise to help local companies to come out the other side of the recruitment obstacles COVID 19 has faced you with.
With a candidate database that stems decades, we’ve supported experienced candidates throughout their careers and know how to meet their expectations and fulfil their requirements. If you are looking for recruitment support during this unusual economic climate, please do not hesitate to reach out.
We’d love to have a virtual cuppa and talk about all things recruitment. Contact us