Recruitment responds to new PM

November 14th, 2022 | Industry News

It’s starting to feel like a revolving door, but once again, the recruitment sector has responded to the arrival of a new Prime Minister. It’s a puzzling scenario at present – all we know at present is what Jeremy Hunt, who replaced Kwasi Kwarteng, stated – in essence a reversal of almost everything his predecessor had proposed in his ‘Growth Plan”. However, while Hunt has been reappointed by Rishi Sunak, his new budget may change the changes again. The term ‘austerity’ has been used again, in relation to the upcoming budget on 17 October, and that’s never good news for recruitment.

Whether or not Rishi Sunak chooses to implement policies that will boost economic growth, the recruitment sector is facing unprecedented challenges. IR35 reforms are still likely to impact the self employed. Following years of COVID disruption, the recent political turmoil isn’t helping UK businesses to look attractive to potential employees. Web based recruitment software has seen a trend of candidates cooling fast on jobs if employers aren’t able to respond quickly to CVs or are over-prescriptive in terms of candidate specifications, skills or experience.This, allied to the Great Resignation, has led to smaller candidate pools, lower candidate enthusiasm and jobs sitting on systems for months on end, which can have a domino effect on further vacancies, making them look less attractive.

While there’s not much that individual recruitment agencies can do to change policy, there are actions that can be taken to improve their overall position. Recruitment website design has a profound impact on whether candidates register with an agency and recruitment agency software can continue to impress candidates by offering responsive automated communications throughout the recruitment process. Of course, recruitment software can’t take the place of clear communications, rapid responses and appealing job descriptions – all of which are in part the responsibility of companies, not recruiters. However, companies that are willing to engage with their recruiting partners and to learn how to work with the shrinking pool of candidates will benefit from this approach, regardless of what the new PM decides to do.