Eloise’s October 2022 News – New PM, Recruitment Market, First Impressions, ID Checks, WFH
Hello and welcome to October
It feels like it’s been a busy month already in the recruitment market, October has arrived with a bang.
With the cost-of-living crisis, the mini-budget fallout, and upcoming strikes, there is a lot for businesses, and us as individuals, to contend with and unpick.
September was jam-packed and has left a lot in its wake; a new prime minister, Queen’s funeral, an extra bank holiday, Putin’s latest threats, mortgage issues, and energy price hikes – just for a start.
There are a lot of things that are largely out of our control that we have to think about, plan for, and balance.
Our first month with a new, female, prime minister was one that we all hoped would bring about some optimism. Time will tell if the mini budget and bold changes will be right or wrong. Although, we’re hearing of u-turns for some of the more controversial decisions already.
There have been protests in London against the cost-of-living crisis, energy costs and climate change. We’re due for more strike action from most of the UK’s rail operators. There’s lots of disruption coming across the Royal Mail network, with planned strikes throughout October and November. There is also likely to be more port and dock worker strikes. Plus, there are strike action talks in progress among teachers, hospitals, refuse workers and barristers.
There is a lot of gloom, worry, anger and fear out there. And we need to be looking out for each other.
- How is the cost-of-living crisis impacting the mental health of your employees?
- How are you handling it within your business?
Of course, there is no ‘one size fits all’ response. Each business is facing its own challenges; how one company can support their people won’t always be possible for another. But something we can all be doing is encouraging conversation. Talking openly as people about the challenges we’re facing. Offering support to others.
Talking could lead to all sorts of solutions that wouldn’t have been obvious or suggested beforehand. Teamwork and support are going to be the overriding themes for the next few months.
Here are some great resources from the CIPD with suggestions for your business:
https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-being/cost-living-crisis#gref
And a great interview with some business leaders about their approach via the Best Companies Insight Hub:
The recruitment market
As expected, the KPMG and REC Report on Jobs for August showed a slowing in the posting of new jobs. This is in response to the cost-of-living crisis and economic uncertainty. Companies are being cautious.
However, this day was going to come. The recruitment market has been flooded for the last year. This was going to have to slow at some point and now is that time.
Starting salaries have continued to increase though. With employers working hard to attract talent away from competitors.
The number of job seekers in the market has also contracted again, with fewer foreign workers, and people less willing to move roles in uncertain times.
What does this mean for you if you are recruiting or thinking about recruiting?
You need to pitch your roles just right to tempt people. And you need to act quickly.
I still hear of stories from candidates all the time (not ours) when they’ve applied for a job, not heard back for weeks, then got an invite for an interview in a few weeks’ time, and then have more delays hearing the outcome. This does not show the recruiting business in a positive light, and it also means that any company that the candidate might also be applying to, which has a quicker recruitment process, will stand more chance of getting that person.
First impressions
Building on my recommendation of a swift recruitment process and not leaving candidates hanging for weeks on end. I liked a report published by the Evening Standard about the importance of candidate first impressions. The report was according to a poll of 9,000 people in 11 countries.
It found that more than a third of candidates make a decision about whether they want a job in the first five minutes of their interview. And this can include some of the time they spend in reception or a waiting room and how they’re treated ahead of the interview.
37% of candidates decide whether to take a job either after the first communication or early during the recruitment process.
It’s so important for the entire process to be slick, swift, and well-managed. Everyone needs to be on board from the initial meet and greeter to the hiring manager.
The report also found that 90% of new starters would leave a job in the first month if it did not live up to expectations. 91% said that they would consider leaving within the first few weeks for reasons such as poor management and discrepancies between the job advert and the reality.
Getting the contract signed is just the beginning. Your onboarding process is vital to keeping your new recruit.
HRHuddle
We were delighted to hold the first face-to-face HRHuddle for a very long time, on Friday 30th September, at our Vanilla HQ in Market Harborough.
It was great to see so many familiar faces, and local HR people, together in one room rather than seeing each other as little squares on Zoom. Thank you so much to everyone for coming and catching up. We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.
The session was an informal get-together and a chance for in-person HR socialising. It’s the first one of this kind we have hosted – thank you to Emma Spradbury for the idea and for getting it off the ground. It might well become a biannual thing that we do going forward.
The next formal HR Huddle webinar will be covering the topic; ‘How employers can support employees with the cost-of-living crisis’. The date is yet to be confirmed, so keep an eye out for the email if you’re on the HRHuddle mailing list. If you’re not on the list but would like to be click here to sign up or drop me a line; [email protected]
Here are some photos from our event:
New ID checks
This is an important reminder that from 1st October there are new legal obligations for employers regarding right-to-work checks.
In March 2020, there were adjustments to the right-to-work checks employers needed to make due to covid restrictions. These were temporary rules that came to an end on 30th September 2022.
From 1 October, employers will need to conduct a check in one of the following ways for new employees:
- an in-person manual check using original documents – see List A and List B
- via the Home Office’s online checking service
- via an Identification Document Validation Technology (IDVT) identity check
At Vanilla, we have partnered with an IDVT provider and are ready for the new legislation. Please get in touch with any of our team if you’d like support with your IDVT checks.
The consequences of illegal employment could be a penalty of £20,000, or in extreme cases, criminal prosecution.
Working from home
This is a tricky topic that I talk about every day.
Lots of employers I work with want teams back in offices because they think productivity is better that way.
But, most of the candidates I work with want to be able to work from home because they think they’re more productive that way.
I was very interested to spot a LinkedIn survey working with Microsoft. They surveyed 20,000 staff across 11 countries.
87% of Microsoft staff surveyed argue that they are just as productive, if not more so when working from home. However, 80% of the managers surveyed disagreed. I wonder if this was based on opinion and thoughts, or stats and facts though – no comment on that in the report finding.
With this, they also reported that an unprecedented number of people have switched jobs since the start of the pandemic, with Gen-Z workers almost twice as likely to have changed roles. These younger workers will make up roughly 30% of the entire workforce by 2030.
Out of the 14-15 million job listings on LinkedIn, only 2% involved any remote working pre-pandemic. Some months ago, this had risen to 20%, and was 15% in September.
With hybrid working and work flexibility still being a number one priority for job seekers. But employers trying to encourage employees back into offices full-time, where are we heading with this standoff? And how will the cost-of-living crisis and increasing energy costs and heating, impact people wanting to work from home?
What are your thoughts? Please do let me know.
Community news
We are delighted to be sponsoring a local football team again this year. Harborough Town Football Club under 14s will be sporting the Vanilla logo on their kit during their matches. It’s been a great start to the season, with three wins from three games! Good luck to all the team and we look forward to cheering you on from the sidelines.
And that’s us for another month
Let’s hope October now calms down a bit and we can all catch our breath. I’ll be back in touch in November.
We recruit throughout the East Midlands covering Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and the surrounding areas, especially Market Harborough, Lutterworth, Leicester, Corby and Kettering. We help people find their perfect job and match suitable jobseekers with businesses looking to hire the best candidates across our five specialisms – Sales, Marketing, Accountancy & Finance, HR and Office
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