The government believes that the cycle of no work experience and no work can be broken by government-led schemes, however opponents argue that forcing the unemployed to take up work experience opportunities with employers or lose their benefits is not the answer. The controversy over the schemes reignited after Sainsbury’s denied media reports that it has withdrawn its support for the government’s work experience programmes by telling its branch managers to stop taking on jobseekers under the work experience scheme.

A report in last Friday’s Guardian claimed that Sainsbury’s had withdrawn from a scheme under which some unemployed people must work for six months unpaid or face losing their benefits. However, a spokesperson for Sainsbury’s tells Recruiter: “We do not have any arrangements in place with the government in relation to their work programmes. We run a number of our own initiatives to help people into work and into permanent jobs at Sainsbury’s.

“All our programmes are for four weeks or less and are all linked to real jobs should the person do well and decide to work at Sainsbury’s. Last year over 4,300 colleagues gained a permanent position from us in this way.”

Last week Waterstones book chain announced it had pulled out of the scheme because it did not want to “encourage work for no pay”. However, the government received support from Tesco, who said that more than 300 young people have found employment as a result of the work experience schemes so far. A Tesco spokesperson tells Recruiter: “We take our responsibility as Britain’s biggest private sector employer seriously and are playing our part to help tackle unemployment in these challenging times.

“We are participating in a government-led work experience scheme to help give young people valuable experience of the workplace and over 300 young people have gained a job at Tesco as a result of this scheme so far.”

Work experience schemes are widely used in the retail sector. According to The Guardian, Boots, Tesco, Asda, Primark, Argos, TK Maxx, Poundland and the Arcadia group are among those retailers that use them. Under the government’s work experience scheme, jobseekers can be expected to work for businesses for 30 hours a week, for eight weeks, without pay and can have their benefits removed if they withdraw.

The government has come under pressure from USDAW, the shop workers’ union, to end long-term unpaid labour for young unemployed people. John Hannett, USDAW general secretary, says: “USDAW is not opposed to schemes that genuinely aim to give young people appropriate work experience or help long-term unemployed people get back into work, but schemes should be voluntary, participants should receive the rate for the job, and there needs to be transparent checks and balances in place.

“The unemployment crisis is never going to be solved by forcing people to work for nothing. What the country needs is a proper strategy for jobs and growth.”

Earlier this year, the government’s efforts to get the unemployed into work attracted controversy when an unemployed graduate issued judicial review proceedings against the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Cait Reilly claimed she had been “required to carry out two weeks of unpaid labour at discount retailer Poundland”.

According to her solicitors, Public Interest Lawyers, Reilly had been volunteering at a museum when told that participation in a six-week training scheme, which included a two-week, unpaid retail placement, was “mandatory”, and that she would lose her benefits if she failed to take part.

Taken from the News section of the Recruiter website. To read the story on their site click here No end to controversy over ‘unpaid work experience’ for unemployed | News | Recruiter.

One side of the equation I’ll look at right now is the complaints we are seeing from large companies. Due to the very nature of a Corporation, and their constant strive for profits, they will always clash when they try to work together. Why is this? Well – One is looking to sell their services for as much as possible, whilst keeping their own costs to a minimum. Sacrifices will be made when operating this way as they cannot produce volume whilst maintaining the highest levels of quality; it’s a conflict of interest. Equally, on the other side; another corporation is looking to purchase services for the lowest possible price yet still expects to receive the highest levels of quality. We’ve all heard the phrase “When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”. Thus, large agencies don’t want to spend more on increasing their service levels, and large client organisations don’t want to pay more for sub standard service levels from the big agencies. This doesn’t even take into consideration that large agencies also like to play a numbers game; with their consultants being pushed constantly to achieve unrealistic targets in order to generate higher financial rewards. When you place more of a focus on targets, as opposed to quality of service, you have a big conflict of interest in the eyes of the client or candidate. Is it any wonder why we’re seeing so many large companies looking to set up their own in house recruitment teams… they all feel they can do a better job for less investment. Whether that will pay them back dividends when the markets pick up again, we’ll have to wait and see!

So there you have it, a corporate recruiting agency will nearly always have a conflict of interest when recruiting for a large corporate client. And not only does the client suffer, the candidates also suffer – as they are also treated as mere “numbers” on target sheets in most cases (that’s another story, which I’ll save for a later blog!).

So what about the other side of the picture, the SME companies and SME recruiting agencies…

In 2009, Small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs) together accounted for 99.9 per cent of all enterprises in the UK, 59.8 per cent of private sector employment and 49.0 per cent of private sector turnover. SME recruitment agencies also make up over 85% of UK recruitment agencies (REC statistics). SME companies will rarely have an internal recruitment team; in most cases won’t have a HR department, and certainly do not have the time or budgets to employ Social Media experts or RPO’s to run recruitment campaigns when they only hire occasionally throughout the year. SME’s will ALWAYS need recruitment agencies, and in most cases will prefer to use SME agencies who are experts in their local markets and industry sectors. Many small agencies pride themselves on their local market / industry knowledge, and are seen as pillars in their local employment communities. There are 1000′s of SME companies across the country who have had excellent experiences with small recruitment agencies (even more so in the current climate), and will use them time and time again. You will thus be able to find 1000′s of recruitment agencies who have lots of great testimonials from loyal and satisfied clients – proving that the services they provide are very much appreciated. However, these agencies aren’t the ones that have large marketing budgets, and thus they aren’t so well known. When most people think of recruitment agencies, it’s usually the big names that come to mind. This is the same in any industry – where the big players have the biggest budgets, ensuring that it’s their names that stay on top of the pack. If only the smaller boutique agencies had a way of raising their profiles to the levels or recognition that the larger agencies get within our market? Hmmm…

Anyway, before anyone starts making assumptions on what I’m saying here, I’ll repeat what I’ve said many times: Not all big agencies are bad, and not all small agencies are great. However, in future, if anyone wishes to comment on service levels in the recruitment industry, please do not make broad assumptions on an industry with as many companies in it as ours. It is very insulting to those companies who work their socks off day to day, providing high attention to detail, and doing all they can simply to survive due to the fact they don’t have the large resources that a big agency will have. Each and every client + candidate matters to a small agency – that’s their biggest USP, if you really want one. Those smaller agencies which don’t operate in this manner soon die off, as this is the only way that a small agency can really compete with the big ones. Small agencies could make a real difference to the experience that large companies receive when working with an agency – if only they could compete in regards to the size, reach, marketing and financial budgets of the larger agencies. Most small agencies struggle to gain access to national PSL’s of large companies.They also find it very difficult to meet all of the demands placed on them by hugely restrictive PSL agreements – especially in regards of fees, payment terms, insurances, and rebate periods. However – the horizon is changing, and one day soon you will see the small agencies competing with the larger ones on a more level playing field, thanks to what we are doing at The Independent Recruiting Group. When a small agency can operate on a national and multi industry sector level, yet still maintain their high service levels thanks to the owners being much closer to the business – you will then start to see a shift in the opinions that large companies have in regards to using an agency. Until then, we (the little guys) will all just carry on as usual, serving small clients and delivering exceptional results.

Shared by Sean O’Donoghue in RECRUITMENT DIRECTORS

Vanilla Seminar – January 25th

Vanilla Recruitment is delighted to present an interactive seminar in conjunction with Denise Mather of OPAL – Changing Lives & DEMand RESULTS a local Personal Coach, Hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner www.demandresults.co.uk. For more information or to book your place please click here or call Charlene on 01858 898 058 or email cbennett@vanillarecruitment.co.uk.

Alcohol misuse is estimated to cost UK business £48,000 every minute. But unlike other schemes that often penalise and cause mistrust amongst employees, this programme is designed to create positive sustainable changes in group behaviour across the whole organisation.

BreathScan alcohol screening and the thinking, programmes and products to encourage broader, positive changes in attitudes to responsible alcohol consumption. The company already works with Governments and a variety of businesses across the world, having completed a successful pilot with the US military.

The FIA (Fitness Industry Association) has welcomed the UK launch of the BreathScan programme as an important new way to trigger changes to healthier lifestyles. The FIA has joined up with fitness equipment manufacturer Johnson Health Tech UK Ltd to help pilot the scheme.

David Stalker, CEO, FIA, said: “Alcohol misuse is corrosive on good health in the UK. An approach that challenges the drinking culture may well have much wider positive benefits to general wellbeing. That’s why we are supportive of the BreathScan programme and we are embracing this pilot with Johnson Health Tech.”

MD of Johnson Health Tech Jon Johnston, added: “Alcohol is so widely and readily available now, it’s become important for people to gain a better understanding of when and how much alcohol can be safely consumed without causing a risk to themselves or others.

“Of course this is obvious, but we’re certainly not on a mission to promote abstinence, we are genuinely committed to encouraging positive long term change. Whilst alcohol isn’t a major issue within our own business, as an employer we have a duty of care towards our staff. As a leader in the health and wellbeing sector, we also want to help and encourage the wider population to embrace a healthy lifestyle. Appropriate consumption is key to both aspects.”

According to the CIPD some 10 million UK employees drink more than the recommended weekly guidelines. Despite over 77% of employers identifying alcohol as a major threat to employee wellbeing over 40% of employers don’t have alcohol policies and most, (84%), don’t run health awareness programmes for their staff.

source: HR Magazine.co.uk

1.       Failure to make eye contact                                                83%

2.       Weak handshake                                                                  54%

3.       Failure to smile                                                                      48%

4.       Crossing your arms over your chest                                  41%

5.       Playing with something on the table                                 40%

6.       Playing with your hair or touching your face                   36%

7.       Fidgeting too much in your seat                                         34%

8.       Bad Posture                                                                            32%

9.       Using too many hand gestures                                          13%

10.   Handshake that is too strong                                                6%

Source: Recruiter Magazine 17 August 2011

In association with Denise Mather of OPAL – Changing Lives & DEMand RESULTS

Vanilla Recruitment is delighted to present an interactive seminar in conjunction with Denise Mather of OPAL – Changing Lives & DEMand RESULTS a local Personal Coach, Hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner www.demandresults.co.uk

• Have you ever set yourself goals and achieved some and not others?
• Ever wondered why you easily connect with some people and not others?

If you answered YES to either of these questions, would you like to know WHY?

This seminar will take you through some interactive techniques that will enable you to determine what makes people tick and identify their individual buying and decision making strategies. The insights you gain will enable you to work more effectively with individuals and teams, giving you the keys to sustained positive results within sales or in managing people.

Key areas covered on the day…

• Understanding individuals buying and decision making strategies
• How to use eye patterns to help with communication
• How accessing our previous experiences negatively impact on our future decisions
• What that means about our preferences

Who should attend? Business Owners, Sales Professionals or Managers of People

What is the cost? £15.00 per person

When is it? Wednesday 25th January from 9.30am-12.30pm.  The seminar itself starts at 10.00am with the opportunity to network before and afterwards

Where is it? The Angel Hotel, 37 High Street, Market Harborough, LE16 7AF

BOOK NOW…
The event is likely to be fully booked so it is important to register your place in advance. To book your place please print and fill in the booking form below and send it to us along with your payment to 48 St Marys Road, Market Harborough. For more information please call Charlene on 01858 898 058 or email cbennett@vanillarecruitment.co.uk

Please find below the full text from the mailer…

Missing Something? – Problem Solved Guaranteed!*

If your recruitment process is proving to be a puzzling experience then why not give Vanilla a call?

Vanilla Recruitment is delighted to announce the launch of our HR & Training division. Recruiting for permanent and interim HR & Training professionals across the Midlands and expertly headed up by Liz Seaton. At Vanilla we believe in a professional yet simple approach to your recruitment needs. We provide a specialist service to ensure that your experience with us is a pleasure, and that all your HR & Training recruitment problems are solved.

For a professional & discrete service contact Liz on 01858 898 058 or email lseaton@vanillarecruitment.co.uk
*No Placement No Fee, 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Call for full T&C’s

I would highly recommend Vanilla for anyone looking to strengthen their team.”

 Jeremy Snape -Director of Sporting Edge