Recruitment under pressure

August 16th, 2017 | Industry News

Brexit is causing pressure in all directions – Theresa May is under pressure from sectors of the recruitment industry because of the failure to outline a coherent post-Brexit immigration policy. Over 600 employers were surveyed and 87% said they were being forced to maintain or increase use of temporary staff in the next six months because of the uncertainty over Brexit.

A third of London’s construction industry employees come from the EU – and recruiting platforms are being scoured to find alternative skilled labour if these individuals are likely to be available. Concern is being expressed that at the time businesses are being most encouraged to deliver growth to ensure a ‘strong post-Brexit’ economy, the current UK workforce will not be able to meet demand. Sectors likely to experience such shortfalls, alongside construction, include education and engineering.

Permanent vacancies on the rise, uncertainty over IT

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies has interesting survey information for recruiters. Professional recruitment is showing much wider variations in sectors than in previous years and applicant tracking software is increasingly being used to differentiate ‘professional’ calibre permanent vacancies from ‘churn’. Churn features in contracting in particular, where vacancies have fallen by 13% across all sectors, showing that non-permanent staffing is less attractive to employers than sourcing and retaining high quality permanent candidates.

Proactive hiring in many sectors

For the first time in a decade, permanent vacancies in IT have slipped with a dramatic 5% decline, which again highlights the uncertainty over Brexit – infrastructure concerns in this area include whether the UK may need to ‘reboot’ its IT industry with new applications, structures and capacities to help manage the post-Brexit complexities of borders, visas, import and export facilities and even currency transactions.

Engineering may be the boom field of the future

A recent report by Engineering UK suggests that the UK will need nearly two million additional engineers/technically qualified personnel by 2025, which is causing changes in recruitment priorities both up and downstream. Many higher education colleges are actively encouraging students to move towards engineering or part-engineering degrees while SAAS recruitment software is being used to ‘mine’ CVs to find people who have practical applications in engineering that can be aggressively marketed to employers. This may explain the 2.5% year on year salary increase in the sector.

Recruitment trends reveal adaptable candidates are highly sought after

Recruitment trends are increasingly difficult to read at present and slow client decision-making underpins mixed trends which include a degree of proactive hiring of skilled overseas talent before access may be altered by Brexit, alongside deep uncertainty over future planning which makes employers unwilling to commit to long-term projects that may be subject to alteration or cancellation post-Brexit. Recruitment software solutions are increasingly being asked to identify candidates with a high degree of adaptability as employers seek candidates who can be redeployed in different directions or capacities as the Brexit negotiation process continues.