The ‘highest hiring optimism in Europe’; the UK’s Labour Market in July 2014

The height of summer is always tricky for business and subsequently, the labour market; lots of people are on annual leave and profitability inevitably slows, but in the recruitment industry huge rises in permanent recruitment and in temporary placements in Social Work and Finance & Accounting totally defy this.

According to SparkHire’s 2014 Staffing Industry Trend Report, ‘the staffing industry is expected to grow at least 6% in 2014’. A significant amount of this could logically be attributed to the new temporary labour force and each sector’s increasing need for contract workers. Temporary hiring more than doubled in 2013 and has been trending steadily upwards ever since. As more and more vacancies for highly skilled and specialised skill sets appear, employers are looking for quick fixes for their workforce gap, making the most of the nature of temporary labour, which ‘can often jump right in and hit the ground running’.

READ MORE: 5 reasons people are choosing temporary work

As predicted, salaries are rising. In particular, salaries for Admin & Secretarial, Education & Training and Transport were trending upwards in July. Based on a three month rolling average, the highest salaries were found in Consultancy & Senior Appointments, Banking, IT, Defence & Military, and Accountancy. This rise in salaries continues a precedent which in particular makes it difficult for management, who often feel they have no other tools of retention than raising salaries. We address this issue in our Sustainable Solutions Series and offer alternative solutions to raising salaries in order to attract and retain top talent.

The UK has seen the ‘highest hiring optimism in Europe’; according to Markit’s Business Outlook Survey. A high demand for new housing will result in a significant increase in construction opportunities throughout the UK, which will consequently offer many recruiting opportunities. Indeed, manufacturers have predicted that employment in their sector will increase at an astonishing rate over the next year.

The labour market itself is buoyant at present with ‘new export opportunities, an improving economic environment, increased consumer confidence and new product developments as key drivers for potential growth’ (Markit). This, however, is not all; the same report warns of ‘increased staff and raw material costs, rising house prices and fragile political and economic conditions in export markets’ which could in itself be an obstacle to future economic growth.

Of course, the result of the Scottish referendum may also result in uncertain shifts in the labour market. There will certainly be some big changes should Scotland vote ‘Yes’ for independence, forcing many companies to relocate below the border.

Keep an eye on our blog for our next article, ‘Scottish Independence; what will it mean for the job market?’

Fish Where The Fish Are (Part 2) – 3 principles for managing your company LinkedIn page

In Part 1 of this blog series we established the importance of a company LinkedIn page; now, we can create implementation guidelines to ensure it is being optimised. As a general rule, your profile should produce relevant and interesting content that rewards followers for connecting with you. Adhering to the following 3 principles will hopefully aid you in maximising the effectiveness of your LinkedIn activity:

• Blogging 

Blogging is one of the most effective forms of content that your page can generate. A connection is made between companies and people, creating a dialogue that engages followers and invites their input. Around 77% of internet users read blogs and it is a great way to generate a reputation as a ‘thought leader’, connoting credibility. The aim is to produce relevant material containing original content taking the form of expert advice. It is also important to blog regularly as research shows that after 21-54 posts, blog traffic increases by up to 30%.

For the sceptics, blogging has quantifiable benefits too. 57% of companies have acquired at least one customer from a blog; primarily due to generating an increase in site visits and SEO, ultimately resulting in leads. It is important that employees understand the strategic benefits of blogging, as afeature will soon be available that allows all LinkedIn users to post their own blogs.

• Advertising 

A company LinkedIn page is effectively an advert for your business; it is therefore paramount that it is visually engaging, up to date and content rich. It can be argued that promotion is most effective when the source appears to have no relation to the company, so if interesting content is shared or commented upon by a user this is perceived as a hugely authentic form of advertising.

Whilst the profile’s main picture will simply be your company logo, it is important to make the most of the banner at the top with content such as powerful imagery or a striking piece of promotional material. LinkedIn has unique means of advertise your page and business. These often include placing an individuals LinkedIn profile photo within the advert to draw peoples attention (as pictured). One of the most effective forms of this is a prompt to follow a company after you have visited their page.

Informative adverts, particularly job postings, are great for driving traffic to your page and obtaining new followers. This is even more effective when LinkedIn’s ‘target advertising’ features are utilised,enabling adverts to be tailored to specific audiences based on criteria including industry, seniority, job function and location. If a job posting or advert is relevant, or in some cases leads to a transaction (or job), a person is much more likely to follow your page.

• Integration

As well as advertising your company, your page has to advertise your brand’s various other formats and promote these. Firstly, ‘calls to action’ should be included to all of your social media outlets,usually in the form of logo banners, as this allows one-click access increasing the likelihood of a connection. Emails can also be used in this way and should utilise the business’ CRM database to target relevant recipients.

In addition, blogs and similar content posted from your LinkedIn should always be published on your website, as sites containing 401-1000 web pages get six times more leads than those with 51-100 pages. Connecting your blog to multiple social media outlets will also greatly increase traffic to your various platforms.

References:

• Webcast. Building Your Follower Ecosystem and What This Means for You. LinkedIn. July 22nd, 2014.
• Siofra Pratt, 7 Steps to LinkedIn Publishing Success. Social Talent. July 15th, 2014.
• Siofra Pratt, Jonathan Campbell. 12 Things to do after you publish a blog on LinkedIn. Social Talent. July 18th, 2014.
• Samantha Durant. 55 Reasons Blogging Creates 55% More Traffic. IMPACT. July 20th, 2012.

High Risk, High Reward (Part 1): 5 reasons people are choosing temporary work

The landscape of the employment market is changing. As more people become freelancers, contractors and agency workers, job security becomes less of a priority. According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s (REC) 2014 report, 36% of people have been temporarily employed at some point and 1.7 million currently work this way. So what is attracting people to this dynamic lifestyle?

1. "Could not find permanent work"

For many, temporary work is a necessity, not a choice. Amongst other demographics, the over 45s, inexperienced graduates and those with long periods of unemployment are most likely to experience this.

However, a growing number refuse to settle permanently for anything less than their ideal role. For these people, temporary work offers the opportunity to get a ‘foot in the door’ with companies they wish to work for permanently. It is a chance to prove themselves and enhance their CV with directly relevant experience.

2. The desire to find work and to earn money quickly

Being placed swiftly and paid weekly is a common motivator. Businesses are far more likely to employ temporary workers where they can, as the cost of hire is significantly less than for permanent workers. Whilst permanent roles require extensive checks and referrals, temporary employees can often be placed within a week, appealing particularly to young job-seekers and graduates. 

3. Higher earning potential and supplementation of income 

According to the REC report, the general consensus amongst temporary workers is that in temporary employment, you are paid for your value as opposed to a flat rate. Many skilled specialists opt for temporary employment due to higher earning potential, dependant on their skill. This trend is common amongst nurses and IT professionals; one IT specialist stated, “I can ‘temp’ for three months and earn what I do in a permanent role in four to five”.

13% of contractors work temporarily to supplement their income following insufficient hours in another job. On the contrary, some are keen to maximise an already sufficient income.

4. Flexibility 

Flexible working hours empower people to take control of their lifestyle and enable a customisable work-life balance. 25% of temporary workers do so for flexibility based benefits:

• 11% of people utilise flexible working to look after children or dependant adults. For many, flexible working allows them to prioritise care on the understanding that occasionally they may have to miss or rearrange shifts on short notice.
• For some, a more gradual shift to retirement is a serious benefit. Elderly temporary workers can enjoy an incremental reduction of work and the freedom to refuse more physically challenging projects if they choose.
• 14% of people seek flexibility in order to pursue interests or hobbies (i.e. studying).

However, permanent work is likely to also become more flexible in the near future, thanks to the new flexible working laws.

5. Independent working

For many reasons, 14% of workers simply don’t want to work for someone else. For example, organisational politics can adversely affect learning and development, progression and motivation. The brief nature of temporary arrangements can nullify this effect. Many individuals work better independently, and others simply aren’t ‘corporate people’, seeing loyalty to a business as a disadvantage.

So with all these benefits and opportunities, why do temporary workers still only contribute around 5% of the workforce? The risks and pitfalls are explored in High Risk, High Reward: Part 2. 

References

• REC Report. Flex Appeal: Why freelancers, contractors and agency workers choose to work this way. Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

Evolution or Revolution? The acceleration of the ‘service economy’.

Following the longest economic depression in British history, the UK economy is now recovering with a growth of 0.2% since the crisis began in 2008. But who do we have to thank for this long awaited rescue? Research suggests a marked post-war swing in economic power from manufacturing to services, but have the depression years accelerated the shift?

Despite manufacturing’s ongoing hype as the ‘future saviour of the economic system’, official figures released last week from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) tell a different story, with the industry shrinking by 7.4% since 2008. The spotlight now falls well and truly on the evolution of the ‘service economy’.

Now accounting for four fifths of the total UK GDP, the service sector grew by 2.9% in the same period with Retail & Wholesale (a subcategory of the service sector) accounting for a whopping 11% of national income alone. But with the price elasticity of demand significantly less for services than for manufactured goods, it’s surely no surprise that the office workers, recruitment consultants and health and social workers of the UK would receive the credit for pulling the UK out of the economic depression.

With 2007 employment data showing a decrease of 339,000 people in manufacturing, there is no doubt that many industries came out of the recession in worse shape. Most significantly the postal, mining, construction and production sectors suffered heavily. The financial sector was also hit hard with a reduction in economic output of 19.2%. On the contrary, 438,000 more employees have been recruited into office administrator roles in just the last 7 years; domestic workers increased by 22% and repair services by 44.9%. With these figures in mind, it seems fair to assume that the fallout of the economic crisis has provided a catalyst for growth in the service industry and decline in manufacturing.

Coining the term ‘The David Brent Recovery’, journalist Ed Conway discussed in an article for The Times the natural evolution of the economy, highlighting that the down- or up-turn of industry sectors were already being shaped long before the recession hit. With manufacturing accounting for 41% of the British economy in 1948 and 14% in 2013, and the service industry increasing from 46% to 79% in the same period, this seems an accurate depiction.

As Conway concluded, as long as there is:

• Demand for such services
• The sustainable running of these services and
• Reduced reliance on the financial and property sectors,

the evolution (or revolution) of the ‘service economy’ is no bad thing and, having generated significant amounts of income, has pulled the UK out of its depression.

It is important, however,  to remember that despite the fact that manufacturing accounts for just 11% of the UK economy, and contrary to common belief, UK manufacturing is currently the 11th largest manufacturing nation in the world. The ‘service economy’ is evolving on a global platform and a developing product-service continuum, whereby many products are transformed into services, out of which is emerging many grey areas.

You can find more on the latest labour market statistics in our latest blog here.

IT skills gap set to soar; handling June 2014’s Labour Market Stats

With UK output finally back above its pre-crisis levels, the market place is decidedly more confident. This will hopefully set the tone for a productive few months for UK jobseekers and recruiters.

For the meantime however, we must continue to endure the current ‘vacancy vacuum’, which represents a mammoth hurdle. The plummet of permanent candidate availability has been a prominent theme over the last quarter, prompting our latest blog series addressing sustainable solutions to attract and retain talent without increasing salaries.

In a more recent development, the latest ‘Recruitment Trends’ from APSCo unveil spectacular growth rates for both permanent and contract jobs across a range of sectors and, for the first time in over a year, the start of a steady and long awaited rebound in the IT sector.

Similarly, the latest KPMG/Market Technology Survey revealed that it sustained a quarter of robust growth from April to June 2014, with the expansion of business activity rising at its fastest pace since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007. Tudor Aw, Head of Technology at KPMG, stated that ‘the UK technology sector is firing on all cylinders with sustained growth outstripping the wider economy’.

In their latest report, Spring Technologies depicted a significant increase in senior IT vacancies over the last quarter, a sure sign that businesses are beginning to invest heavily in IT projects again. The second quarter saw the permanent market grow by 8% more vacancies than prior year, and the contract market saw a 30% increase in vacancies than prior year.

However, these statistics are a tell-tale sign of a potential skills gap pitfall. Research reveals that technology companies are not only expecting an upturn in year-ahead expectations for business activity, but they are also planning to ‘loosen the purse strings’ with more than 4 in 10 (43%) also declaring an intention to hire more staff. Our telling contract/permanent market statistics show the industry attempting to ‘plug gaps’ with contract placements whilst continuing its search for appropriate permanent candidates.

Over 30% of employers are not expecting to get the ‘suitably qualified’ applicants they need for their technical or IT projects (IET survey, April 2014), and so the ‘IT skills gap is set to soar’. As the demand for IT continues to increase, it is imperative that employers develop an innovative attraction and retention strategy to source the best candidates.

Sustainable Solutions Series Edition #1: Talent Pipelining

How do you prepare for candidate winter?

In response to the recent Labour Market Statistics, this series will offer examples of the ways recruiters and employers can thrive during periods of low candidate availability. Here we will explore the long-term value of talent pipelining.

Talent pipelining is the gathering of candidates to grow one’s talent pool in abundant times in order to prepare for future scarcity. By sourcing talent leads and maintaining relationships with them, they can be quickly and efficiently aligned with the right role when it arises. Rather than waiting for a vacancy to appear, recruiters can proactively search for appropriate talent to draw from when roles present themselves.

The benefits of talent pipelining include:

• Quick responses to vacancies and reduced time-to-fill. Wait until you have a role to fill, and you’re already too late
• When an appropriate role arrives, you the recruiter are already top-of-mind for the candidate, reducing the risk of a salary battle against the competition
• Reduced stress during lean times
• Extra time to build a rapport with candidates, which earns you the right to escalate your consultant/candidate relationship to the next level when necessary
• Over time, the candidate gets a chance to see what options are available to them, meaning their expectations are more realistic
• As candidates become more scarce, the speed with which the interview process is carried out becomes very important; the sooner a shortlist can be given to a client the sooner the best candidates can be offered a role
• Regular candidate conversations in the pipeline provide consultants and clients with valuable market knowledge

Thanks to the current ‘vacancy vacuum’, recruiters are having to draw from a fast-dwindling talent pool in order to stay afloat. Of course, this cannot continue. By, for instance, keeping a running dialogue with previously interested candidates, sharing leads with colleagues and intelligently organising your candidates into applicable prospective roles, hiring managers and their teams can make it very easy to identify candidates and respond with swift professionalism.

Many recruiters currently use very ad-hoc, manual means of pipelining, keeping physical folders, endless Excel spreadsheets or keeping separate files on their hard drive. This pedestrian approach has obvious limitations, as it cannot effectively keep talent leads and candidate information fresh.

As a hiring manager, you need to be on-board with the value of this process. Take a little time to measure how long it takes to identify, analyse and engage a new candidate and to establish and maintain a relationship with them. The benefits of saving yourself and your recruitment team that time will become blindingly apparent. Nurture your talent pipeline, and save your time and your tempers.

In the next edition of Sustainable Solutions, we explore the lasting value of candidate experience, demonstrating how to nurture the journey candidates go on from looking for work to settling in at their new job.

Fish Where The Fish Are (Part 1): understanding your LinkedIn audience

Is your business maximising the full potential of its LinkedIn account or, has a lack of collective belief in the benefits resulted in it being under-utilised? If the latter applies, it’s time to reconstruct your perception and begin to understand LinkedIn as the pivotal business tool that it has become.

Nobody wants to be the first person at a party; in the same way, nobody wants to follow a company with few connections, little activity and minimal content. The average LinkedIn user only follows 6 businesses, so it is vital that you ensure one of them is yours and not a competitor’s. Adobe and Kellogg’s, with around 300k and 130k followers respectively, are two great examples of company profiles. Both pages share regular and engaging content and view LinkedIn as a central component of their marketing strategy.

Why do people follow a company?

People want to follow companies on social media and LinkedIn is no different. In fact, LinkedIn research concluded that 88% either currently follow a business or have the desire to. The motivation for this however, varies across different social media platforms. Whereas Facebook and Twitter users follow companies primarily for brand association, to show support and to receive new product and promotional information; LinkedIn users have a different agenda. Their study concluded that 71% of members are interested in jobs, 68% in news and insights and 61% in company projects and initiatives. Users wish to maintain their professional identity and seek out new opportunities, whilst also networking through their contact database. It is therefore vital to understand your followers and that different social media audience’s desire different interactions.

What do your followers want from your profile?

Tom Peters, an American Business Management expert, once said, “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders”. If a user follows you, shares something from your profile or comments on your activity, their entire network is notified raising awareness of your page. Creating interesting content is therefore paramount. Research has found that followers of recruitment profiles can be grouped as 80% ‘passive’ and 20% ‘active’ users. These active users are seeking employment, so require industry news, job posts, interview help and key market information – summarised as career opportunities and personal development. Passive users instead wish to be informed and entertained, with industry news, projects and general career advice amongst their requirements. If your followers are an 80/20 split, then your content should be too.

Three key principles can be used to guide the management of your LinkedIn page: Blogging, Integration and Advertising. We will be exploring these in further depth in our follow-up blog: ‘Fish Where the Fish Are (Part 2): 3 principles for managing your LinkedIn page’.

“Building Your Follower Ecosystem and What This Means for You” – Webcast - Tuesday, July 22, 2014 11.00am - 11.30am - LinkedIn

“7 Steps to LinkedIn Publishing Success” – Blog - Siofra Pratt, July 15, 2014 – Social Talent  

“12 Things to do after youpublish a blog on LinkedIn” – Blog & Infographic - Siofra Pratt & Jonathan Campbell, July 18, 2014 – Social Talent