Recruitment and Government – a match made in heaven?

May 14th, 2024 | Industry News

In the UK the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has opened a consultation on something called ‘tailored support’ – an approach to making the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) system work better. You might be asking yourself what this has to do with recruitment? Welfare is inextricably tied to the labour market in two ways: first it’s the taxpayers who fund benefits and second, there has always been a requirement for people claiming benefits to either demonstrate their inability to work or demonstrate their willingness to do so.  In the first case, growth is necessary if the UK is to meet the 110% increase in demand for PIP and in the second case, enhanced employment opportunities will help people receiving benefits to find ways back into work. And the government is keen to create new public-private partnerships to help individuals with employment.

Click here to read more…

Ups and downs in the employment market

April 18th, 2024 | Industry News

In a recent global survey, three quarters of employers reported difficulties filling vacancies. This is still better than in 2023, when 77% of employers declared recruitment challenges.

Recruitment management software reveals a number of reasons for such problems – as an example, while 65% of employers say they’re offering more work flexibility, it comes on the back of a series of ‘return to office’ initiatives that have caused difficulties in the workplace and led to some companies finding it harder to recruit. Only 30% of firms worldwide are considering wage increases, while 28% are trying to find new talent pools, using recruitment website design, social media and recruitment agency software to drive innovation and find candidates. Given the gap between cost of living and wage rises, there are several paradoxes in this approach to recruitment that might be inhibiting initiatives.

Click here to read more…

Websites, candidate contacts and AI – a roundup of key issues in recruitment

April 5th, 2024 | Company News

Protecting candidates from recruitment website fraud

The world of recruitment is as prone to risk and fraud as any other, but recruitment website design is the latest area in which recruitment agencies are finding themselves on the back foot. Fraudsters are using recruitment platforms, and even designing their own websites, to create online vacancies to obtain personal information from candidates. While the best recruitment websites are hard to fake, there’s no doubt that the scammers are skilled in creating fake sites. Action Fraud is reporting a rise in recruitment scams, with people being exploited either through false adverts on reputable job websites or through follow up messages sent on Whatsapp to persuade people to hand over personal details such as passport information and bank details. While the Recruitment and Employment Confederation has reiterated that its members would never ask candidates for payment to obtain work, it’s up to recruiters to ensure that their website for recruitment is secure and contains clear information about what they will, and won’t ask candidates in their search for employment.

Click here to read more…

Using a recruiter – why and when?

March 1st, 2024 | Industry News

For any business, there comes a point when the decision has to be made about outsourcing recruitment – and in today’s more volatile times, the decision sometimes has to be made and remade as circumstances change. So what’s the point of using a recruitment consultancy and how does an organisation know when the time is right to make the move?

Click here to read more…

Difficult to fill vacancies in 2024

February 19th, 2024 | Industry News

As the American manufacturing sector reports a substantial worker shortage, the UK is experiencing a completely different phenomenon. Online recruitment software aggregates and national statistics both reveal that while America increased manufacturing vacancies by 23,000 in January 2024 (and already had over 600,000 vacant positions in December 2023) in the UK vacancy rates in manufacturing were down 30% over the 12 months from December 2022 to December 2023. This divergence in experience is partly economic; there is a difference in the way that older workers retire and young people have to choose between college and work in the two countries and also partly around recruitment itself. In the UK the best recruitment CRM is being used to help manufacturers and building companies, transfer, relocate or recruit staff to local need, this isn’t as possible in the USA where state boundaries can make it difficult for all but the very biggest corporations to relocate staff across state lines.

Click here to read more…

Make 2024 the year you move from recruitment to recruitment marketing

February 12th, 2024 | Industry News

In an environment where work is becoming more complex and more unpredictable truly mastering recruitment marketing may make the difference between success and failure for many agencies. It requires the implementation of marketing principles and techniques strategically to attract and engage the best candidates and it means using a range of channels and tactics – and measuring the results of those activities – to constantly update your strategy to stay at the top of the recruitment ladder.

Click here to read more…

How to recruit (and how not to) in 2024

February 2nd, 2024 | Industry News

This year is likely to be a period of retrenchment. The big tech platforms and Silicon Valley companies have been forced to restructure (a nice word for reduce) and streamlining is the buzzword right now and where tech leads, most sectors follow. 2023 was also a year of conflict, with employers trying to force people to return to the workplace, and having varying degrees of success. What does this mean for the year ahead?

Click here to read more…

Recruitment priorities for 2024

January 11th, 2024 | Industry News

To start the year right, Recruit So Simple has decided to look at one of the key priorities for employers and recruitment agencies in the next 12 months and to choose one sector to illustrate how things could be done differently. Sustainability is something that is often seen as more of a employer concern than an agency or HR issue, but at the base level, sustainability is in large part about creating a workforce that meets current need and can adapt and change – in other words, something that everybody working in recruitment should be focusing on. Here are some of the areas where change might help employers and recruiters demonstrate sustainability and here’s how one industry – travel – might do it.

Click here to read more…

Recruitment 2024 – what to expect

January 4th, 2024 | Industry News

Quotas

When James Cleverly announced new migration measures, the impact on recruitment was immediately evident: 300,000 migrants will not be able to travel to the UK in 2024, substantially impacting the Health and Care sectors.  In addition the earning threshold for overseas workers will leap next spring from £26,200 to £38,700, around a 50% increase. The consequences are more difficult to predict. Online recruitment software will need to adjust its parameters to reflect the changes in threshold earnings, while applicant tracking system UK based, will have to master the as-yet-unclear changes to the Graduate visa programme which are being overseen by the Migration Advisory Committee and may well have a powerful impact on STEM and Finance recruitment.

Click here to read more…

Ways to grow your recruitment agency

December 5th, 2023 | Industry News

As we approach the end of the year, we thought it was time to get some perspective, and see what our recruitment agency partners might be reflecting on in 2023 and carrying forward into 2024.

Running a recruitment agency requires hard work, but much more too: strategy, awareness of new markets and new technology and a willingness to take risks. Here’s a round-up of top tips to help you take your agency into 2024 in the best possible shape.

Click here to read more…