Jobs, skills, growth? Not likely this year, say Unions
Union research indicating that the rate of pay freezes will accelerate this year has been published just as an influential employment advisory body hosted an international conference to focus on the UK’s future strategy for skills, jobs and growth. The new study undertaken by the Labour Research Department found that pay freezes were now more […]
Graduates could cause HR headache
Desperate university graduates are likely to cause HR professionals headaches over the year ahead by applying for as many jobs as possible, formally accepting multiple formal offers and making their final decision at the last minute. These are the findings of an online poll undertaken among more than 300 recent graduates and current undergraduates by […]
Happy 100th Birthday, Jobcentre
An employment expert has praised the UK’s Jobcentre network as being one of the most “sophisticated” in Europe as the public employment service begins celebrating its centenary this month. The Public Employment Service was created under the Labour Exchange Act of 1909 when unemployment rates of eight per cent were similar to today. By 1912, […]
Recruiting? Get the job spec write!
Rob Ashton explains how to write your way to the ideal candidate. It’s the start of the new year and the UK is sitting on a glut of unwanted Christmas presents. Matching present to person is seldom an easy task. It takes time and effort. But in the run up to Christmas, many people will […]
Talented graduates seek work in call centres
Talent war? What talent war? Call centres appear to be winning a better quality candidiate since the downturn. While contact centre agents have traditionally been considered undereducated with few other options, a huge 25 per cent are now graduates, with 14 per cent having a post-graduate degree under their belt. Moreover, according to a report […]
What HR can learn from sales to optimise recruitment
Over the last 10 years there have been a lot of changes in the way recruitment has been carried out by HR departments. But now, according to Mitch Sullivan, more radical change is needed by HR to get the best results from their recruitment campaigns. In most companies there is little or no interaction between […]
The new world of outplacement
Richard Alberg, CEO of mynewjob.me, explains how he’s experienced the world of recruitment and outplacement changing. Outplacement is changing. What was once predominantly a service designed for a relatively small number of senior executives is now a mass market offering. The problem is that although the name has remained the same the available budget has […]
Tips on keeping agency worker costs low
Matthew Sanders, Chief Executive of de Poel – the number one purchaser of temporary agency labour in the UK – outlines his top tips on how to keep hire costs down. With Christmas upon us, and the demand for temporary agency workers in the UK soaring, the cost a company faces in order to supplement […]
Finding and filling senior roles
It might seem like a recruiter’s market, but actually it can be as tough recruiting as applying, says Nick Stevens. In many ways, the current outlook for senior people looking for a career move and employers with roles to fill is not exactly what most people would expect. Issues which you wouldn’t instinctively associate with […]
Employing disabled people
The subject of employing disabled people is one that is likely to raise a number of concerns amongst employers. Unfortunately, most of these concerns are based on misinformation and prejudice. Jane Hatton, Managing Director of specialist training company The Diversity People (and who has herself become disabled) helps to put the record straight. Recruiting and […]
Unscrupulous employers take advantage of work experience ‘slaves’ to the tune of £214m
The desperation to gain work experience to become more employable in the midst of the worst youth unemployment since 1993 has led to many employers illegally taking advantage of students and young people. A study of nearly 2000 students has found that 16% have worked unpaid hours for an employer in the last year in […]
Jobcentre Plus gets a plus with improved services
With the help of HR and behavioural change specialists, Jobcentre Plus has begun work to offer business a better recruitment option. The pilot programme, which took place in Greenwich, focused on addressing the additonal pressure on the nationwide service because of the recession. No longer is the jobcentre dealing with typical jobseekers alone: the recently […]
Home grown leaders preferred, say UK employees
When hiring your next CEO or director, bear this in mind: research has revealed that ‘growing your own’ creates better perceived, more highly regarded leaders than hiring externally. A majority of UK employees have more respect for leaders who have worked their way up through an organisation. Two thirds of the employees surveyed considered ‘home-grown’ […]
SEO magic: Make your vacancy stand out
Nigel Muir, managing director of search engine marketing specialist DBD Media, has provided five top tips for recruitment search success to get your position noticed. 1. Take the time to understand and evaluate whether pay-per-click advertising or search engine optimisation (SEO) is right for you. High-ranking SEO results are often more trusted by users, but […]
Autumn fall in recruitment
A small dip in recruitment opportunities occurred in September following a small fall in August, according to the Monster Online Employment Index. Year-on-year hirings are down by a third: the highest fall last month was seen in the public sector, which fell by 10%. Technology continues to suffer with less opportunities available in IT and […]
Maintaining the talent pipeline through a downturn
Nick Griffin, Head of Graduate Services at GRADdirect, part of Reed Specialist Recruitment, discusses how recruiters can meet the increased demands for higher quality recruits from the business with fewer resources, less time and a reduced budget. Close to half (42.3%) of graduate recruiters who responded to a GRADdirect survey said they were going to […]
HR tip: Limiting recruitment – discrimination?
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: Ordinarily we visit four schools each year to give talks about engineering and what we do in the hope that they will produce some good apprentice recruits for us. The school just […]
Why HR should upgrade their recruitment systems
Alan Whitford outlines the benefits of implementing a recruitment management system that can help your recruitment process run smoothly and be more effective. The evolution of technologies which support HR and, more specifically, recruitment has now reached the point where it should be more difficult to justify not having a purpose-built, professionally-developed and supported system […]
Unemployment leaps to 2.43 million
Unemployment soared by 220,000 over the three months to June, official figures have revealed. This takes the total number of people unemployed to 2.43 million, the highest level since 1995, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This means the jobless rate is now 7.8%, higher than the expected 7.7%, and […]
Planet of the apps: Touching the void
Technology correspondent Jon Wilcox examines the touch screen technology of the BlackBerry Storm and highlights some of its best apps. Research in Motion’s (RIM) attempts to take on the iPhone in the touch market emerged at the end of 2008 with the BlackBerry Storm. A year on, and with details of a ‘Storm 2’ already […]
