Did you miss our webinar on how to attract candidates in 2019? Here’s a re-cap…

This webinar was presented by Jemma Redden from Access Generation and Jason Staniforth from Vacancy Filler. The recruitment software company based in Loughborough have been supporting Access Generation’s work over the last year and have delivered several joint workshops and webinars.

Current recruitment challenges

During the webinar, we asked participants to tell us on a scale of 1 to 10, how much has recruitment become a challenge in the last 6-12 months. All the answers were 6 and above, which indicated that recruitment had become a challenge for employers across different industry sectors.

Before we revealed our top tips to attract candidates in 2019, we wanted to highlight the recruitment challenges we kept hearing about when speaking to employers.

Brexit

Despite not being out the other side of Brexit and still in the dark as to what it will all mean for business, there are statistics that suggest the notion of Brexit is having an impact on recruitment.

Up to 35% of process or entry level roles are being fulfilled by EU workers.

Some industry sectors will be affected by this more than others such as the cleaning industry, hospitality and some public sector services too.

The latest labour market statistics suggest that in the first quarter of the year only 7,000 EU workers came to the UK, compared to 148,000 in the same quarter in the previous year.

So, it’s easy to see why Brexit is being blamed as a recruitment issue for some industries.

See our previous blog with all these statistics from CIPD and the labour market outlook report.

Full employment

The second recruitment challenge we hear about is that there’s a shortage of candidates because the unemployment rate is so low and so we must be near full employment.

However, not all of those in work have meaningful employment. It is made up of zero hour contracts, the gig economy and self-employment.

Despite the noise about full employment and low unemployment rates, there are still 794,000 young people aged 16-24 not in education, employment or training.

This offers a real opportunity for businesses who make themselves attractive to millennials, generation z and the next wave of digital natives.

Lack of skills

The third recruitment challenge is the perception of a lack of skilled labour. Employers who entered the latest East Midlands Chambers of Commerce survey blamed a lack of skills as the main reason they struggle to recruit.

This is something we challenge. To some degree there is a skills shortage but not to the extent being expressed. There are some industries creating jobs where the skills don’t match but this is a small number.

Our research found that two out of three businesses did not offer entry level roles that were accessible for inexperienced young people.

For example, an admin role would be out of reach for an inexperienced young person because the job description asked for industry-specific experience.

So, my question to business is, are you lacking skills or are you asking for experience? Because the two are very different.

Re-cap my interview on BBC Radio Leicester on this topic.

Lack of brand awareness

Our fourth and final recruitment challenge is a lack of brand awareness. Here are examples of what businesses have told us…

“Nobody knows who we are”

“Our industry is boring”

“Young people don’t want to work in our industry sector”

“Our brand is known nationally but not locally”

Top tips to attract candidates in 2019

Watch the recording of the webinar to get our top tips to attract candidates in 2019.

Do you want support in attraction and recruitment strategies for your business? Get in touch today.