Instability and uncertainty in recruitment – and what to do about them

August 12th, 2022 | Industry News

Boris Johnson’s resignation and the subsequent leadership contest have lead to further upheaval in the UK. Recruitment trade organisations have pointed out that this instability at the top, alongside a cost of living crisis, is affecting both businesses and individuals. Significant skills shortage in sectors like healthcare is made worse by political uncertainty, and even reputedly ‘rational’ recruitment sectors like IT are seeing problems. Applicant tracking system UK software shows that the country is becoming less attractive, not just to non-nationals but to UK citizens who are increasingly looking for a more stable place in which to base themselves.

The changes also create uncertainty around the government’s slated legislation – especially for the employment sector this creates a question about repealing the ban on agency workers being hired as temporary cover for striking employees, a plan which temp agencies have been watching with interest as SaaS recruitment agencies have been hoping to benefit from the change in the law.

While the start of the summer showed high demand in all permanent employment sectors, online recruitment software shows that there’s little or no movement in the number of people returning to work after taking time off or resigning from previous positions. This imbalance creates greater uncertainty and linked to a slowing economy, may even herald a slowdown in economic growth. On the plus side, there are candidates out there for recruitment consultancies who are willing to work a little harder. The best recruitment websites are welcoming and appealing, but far too many are old fashioned and busy, causing a sense of overwhelm in the candidate and causing them to back off from employment for another period. This means that the online presence, along with the best recruitment software for agencies, is making a difference to which recruiters are able to attract candidates and satisfy clients and which are trying to force an ever smaller pool of candidates into potentially unsuitable, unsatisfying and therefore short-term positions.

One place this is particularly evident is in the hiring of technical personnel. Because organisations don’t necessarily know how to create constructive interview processes for highly specialised technical positions, they can lose good candidates, especially those from minority backgrounds, who find the long-winded and often stressful ‘technical’ interviews to be a turn off. The best recruitment crm helps recruiters to identify and convey key competencies, allowing employers to short-cut protracted interviews, by bringing in only the most qualified candidates and by helping to define interview questions that can reduce anxiety in candidates while allowing them to demonstrate their skills base easily.