ā¢ Demand for temporary staffing is on the rise. We look at new figures, and ask why advanced recruitment planning among enterprises might be informed by uncertainty, rather than preference.
ā¢ Teachers are abandoning Britain's classrooms. We look at some of the ‘push' factors helping them out of the door. We also see why the revolving door in educational recruitment is not necessarily a bad thing for consultants or their agencies.
UK Employers fall back on temporary hires
With lingering doubts over the future of Brexit, employers are turning to temping firms to resolve staffing shortages.
A lack of certainty over the future jobs market is giving temping firms a boost, according to one new study.
The most recent Jobs Outlook survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) finds a rise in planned temporary placements.
New data for April 2019 finds agency worker acquisitions at a +3 net rating in the short term. The figure represents a ten point move on the previous month. Medium term expectations were also up by nine points to +1.
However, employers were less than enthusiastic about the availability of skills within the temporary staffing sector. More than one third (34 per cent) of those hiring temporary staff said that available skills were insufficient.
In addition, permanent hires remained the favoured option ā for the long- and medium-term. A net score of +19 of all employers stated that they were set to expand their permanent workforce.
So if the appetite is there, why the sudden shift towards short-term staffing?
The most obvious cause is that old chestnut: a shortage of permanent applicants.
Nearly half of UK employers told the REC that there was a concerning unavailability of permanent-hire candidates. The industries most impacted by the staffing shortage were health and social care, and engineering.
Is brexit behind spike in temporary hires?
The marked change in employer outlook may also be tied directly to the ongoing brexit debate.
March was the expected end date for negotiations. It is safe to say that most business leaders probably expected to have seen a lasting resolution by this point. Many will have planned accordingly, with a March 31st exit date built into their schedules. The last minute extension of the exit process may therefore have caught many enterprises off-guard.
This sudden shift towards temporary staffing solutions may therefore indicate a stop-gap solution rather than a longer-term trend. The fact that many business leaders are acknowledging the shortage of requisite skills in the temping sector would lend credibility to the theory that it is not their first choice solution.
We should not neglect factors beyond brexit, though. As Britain re-evaluates its place in the global market, it is looking at its employment rights laws. Many key points of legislation are set to undergo revisions in the next twelve months. IR35 tax statuses will change the way clients appoint contractors in the private sector, from next April. And, as we reported last week, an end to Swedish derogation rules may likely to find favour among temporary staffing providers. As we raised at the time, there are concerns that permanent placement specialists may lose out if temporary employment rules are relaxed in 2020.
ā¢ Read more: What is the Swedish derogation and how will it impact permanent placements?
Ongoing doubts over Britain's future in the EU may therefore have simply compounded existing issues among employers.
Permanent recruitment in a hold pattern
While figures for April might appear to imply that employers are abandoning permanent hires, then, there is another story below the surface.
The demand for long-term skills acquisition is evidently still strong. But enterprises are using more diverse channels to secure these skills.
Four in five employers stated that they would expand upskilling and training for existing staff in 2019. As the recruitment market remains lean, internal skills sourcing is becoming increasingly valuable to decision-makers.
A similar number (approximately 80 per cent) of businesses believed that their existing workforce was already at full output capacity. This would imply that ā within these companies ā there is little room to upskill or re-train. In these instances, recruitment must naturally be the next option.
In other areas, more than half of businesses aimed to improve inclusivity and diversity throughout 2019. 70 per cent of businesses aimed to implement an equality programme this year. 58 per cent intended to improve flexible working conditions. Workplace flexibility is seen as one of the most important factors in improving equality and gender balance.
