The Recruitment & Employment Federation have released their findings from the October survey and the results are an interesting mix of optimism and trepidation.
Overall employer confidence in the economy remains low with 33% of employers believing the economic conditions in the country, as a whole, are getting worse. However, despite this, 31% have confidence in hiring and investment decisions getting better.
This is reflected by employer confidence in increasing their permanent headcount in the short-term (92%) and mid-term (89%). The bulk of this confidence appears to lie with medium sized businesses. Workforce planning statistics also back this up with 40% of respondents stating that they would not have the resources to cope with an upturn in demand and another 40% stating they only have a little spare resource to cope, both groups most likely needing to hire additional staff to cope with the demand.
For workers, this is arguably good news as this should help increase the number of opportunities available to them. In further good news, 58% of respondents also stated that they have increased pay/earnings for staff in the last 3 months. This is spread evenly across both the private & public sectors.
What does this mean for Recruiters?
With 44% of respondents stating they would use recruiters for permanent roles and 38% for temporary roles, recruiters will still play an important part in ensuring employers have the right levels of staffing during peak times.
40% of employers also anticipate a temp shortage for the roles they are trying to fill with 21% saying that over half of their temps will be offered permanent contracts in the future.
The criteria being used by employers to decide which agencies to source temporary workers from include Quality of Service (89%), Agency Expertise (78%) and Price (73%). With many employers expecting to hold or possibly increase the number of temps they require, now is the time for recruiters to be at the top of their game in sourcing workers for employers.
Overall, 53% of respondents were fairly satisfied (17% were very satisfied) with agencies and 10% providing a dissatisfactory service. This was very similar to the satisfaction they found in the candidates provided by agencies (16% very satisfied, 53% satisfied and 9% dissatisfied). Whilst the statistics show a generally positive attitude towards agencies, there is still room for improvement.
How Can Ambipro Help?
With years of experience in recruiting for the legal sector, Ambipro’s expertise in hiring highly skilled workers will ensure that if your company does require experienced professionals for any of your legal roles, we can fulfil your requirements to the highest quality and at a reasonable price.
If you do require staff, or would like to speak to us about your potential needs in 2018 then don’t wait until the new year, call us now on 0161 850 0846 to speak to a member of our recruitment team.
