Look out for us on the national news!

It started out as a telephone conversation with a Channel 4 News reporter wanting to glean information for a jobs market report.

Then came the request to do some filming in our Park Road office.

Before we knew it, recruitment partner Karen Dykes was in front of the camera discussing market challenges, the benefits of voluntary work and the current jobs situation for school leavers in the area!

The focus of the report, for this Sunday’s news programme, was a 15 year old student from Jack Hunt School in Peterborough. The news crew followed him compiling his CV and having careers discussions in school.

Then they came to our offices where Karen spent some time offering the teenager some pointers on his CV and discussing how beneficial work experience can be when it comes to job hunting in the future.

Karen was then interviewed further with her views about various aspects of the job market filmed.

Of course, we don’t know which sections will make it into the report – but we will all be in front of the television on Sunday at 6.25pm to find out!

Demand for digital marketing skills in city outstripping supply

For months, if not longer, the talk in recruitment has been about the disproportionately high number of candidates in comparison to vacancies. But, in one sector at least, the scales have tipped in the other direction.

The demand for digital marketing specialists is on the increase – and, from conversations we’ve been having with other business people and clients, we suspect it’s not a short term spike but the beginning of a long term trend.

For the uninitiated, and I should probably count myself in that number!, digital marketing incorporates search engine optimisation, Google analytics, pay per click advertising and the whole range of social media – Facebook, Twitter and the like.

More and more companies are getting involved in these forms of marketing. But they need people to manage it. And that’s where they’re struggling to find people. Online marketing is still in its infancy so the number of experts in the field is still relatively small. Demand is outstripping supply.

We’re particularly noticing this in Peterborough where media and marketing is one of the growth sectors. We are getting more and more requests from companies, large and small, for people with a background in digital marketing and finding the right calibre of people is a challenge.

I hope that this is something schools, universities and other training centres will pick up on so that, eventually, we will start to see a healthy flow of people with the right skill sets to match these kind of vacancies.

In the meantime, if you have an online marketing background or expertise, congratulations – you’re in demand!

Recruitment drive launched in the city

We are delighted to be part of a new recruitment drive launched in the city.

A long standing client has announced expansion plans which will create a total of 30 new vacancies. These are support roles for the contact centre so the hours are Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm rather than shift work. The aim is to fill the roles between now and the summer – some on a permanent basis and others on contract.

This is perfect timing for the city. As in so many places, the number of available jobs has been in continuing decline. The announcement that a raft of new roles is being created can only be a positive – not just because it offers new opportunities to job seekers but also as a demonstration that companies are investing in the city and in the future.
We’re now working with the client to pinpoint the right people for the new roles which will be supporting contact centre staff.

Again this sits perfectly in Peterborough which has become something of a ‘service centre’ hub over the last few years. The skills – customer service, admin and IT - are there among the workforce to be utilised.

We’re now busy organising an open event for next Friday. We will be inviting candidates whose CVs match the required skills to attend on an appointment basis. Those we deem suitable, both in terms of their skill set and their personality, will then be passed through to the client.

This is a really exciting opportunity for us, job seekers and the city – I shall look forward to reporting back on how it goes.

Jobless figures up but hope on the horizon

The good news is that opportunities in the job market do exist but, being at the front line, we know they’re not particularly easy for job seekers to find, or secure.
The latest rise in unemployment reflects this.

Figures, covering the three months until November 2011, show an increase of 118,000 in the number of people out of work. The jobless total, according to the Office of National Statistics, now stands at 2.68 million.

While the private sector has continued to create new jobs it is not in sufficient numbers to compensate for the 67,000 shed by the public sector. So the scales don’t balance. As I said, the opportunities do exist but not in the quantities necessary to reverse the upward trend.

The outlook may appear gloomy but we have noticed some sectors bucking the trend. And, according to news from the industry body Recruitment and Employment Confederation, we’re not the only ones.

There is strong demand in IT, for office professionals and in engineering and surveys reveal encouraging signs in terms of hiring strategies for the coming months.
Around 40,000 permanent positions each month are being filled by recruitment agencies – which does prove we’re working hard for our candidates!

Of course, I’m realistic. The job market is tough at the moment. And the general thinking is that it will continue to get worse before stabilising later in the year.
In the meantime, we are doing what we can to help lessen the impact of the difficult economic times on both clients and candidates.

An interesting year…and another to come

The introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations in October was the biggest national event affecting our industry in 2011. So far, the figures don’t suggest it has made any real dents in the demand for temporary and interim staff. But we’ve only just slipped into the 12 week time frame for ensuring temporary staff receive comparable pay and benefits to permanent staff. Once the reality of that starts kicking in, there could be knock on effects and we will be watching closely for them.

It has certainly created a huge volume of work for us and our clients. We have spent much of the year discussing compliancy with businesses we work with – and others in the Peterborough region. Processes have had to be put in place, record keeping amended and information gathered to ensure the regulations are adhered to. By the time the regulations were written into legislation we were very pleased we’d spent so long preparing.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that 2012 is going to throw up its own challenges.
There is a general concern within the industry that the labour market will remain fragile certainly in the early part of the year.
There is also a worry that all the talk of that will rock employer confidence which is key to job creation.

Training will be vital. We know that while there are a lot of people looking for jobs there are some vacancies which can’t be filled because of a lack of candidates with suitable skills. This is something we will be discussing with those we work closely with in education and higher education.

Our industry body, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) is predicting unemployment will peak at around 2.75 million.

Our region didn’t fare too badly in 2011, when compared with the rises in unemployment elsewhere in the country. We can only hope that trend continues.
Of course, much of what happens nationally – and as a result locally – will depend on the European situation which we shall be watching closely.

And just a little note about what’s been happening here at ACR. Looking back it has been a year of changes. We have said goodbye to some familiar faces, hello to a clutch of new ones – and congratulations to a number of new mums and mums-to-be among the team too!
Throughout all that we have continued to strive to provide our clients and candidates with the excellent service they have come to expect from us.

And that’s just what we will continue to do in 2012.

Happy new year!

AWR: the first impact figures

The Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) have been in place for a couple of months now so we are able to start looking at the impact they are having on the sector.

The REC launched AWR Monitor at the same time the Regulations were implemented. Along with other REC members, we’ve been feeding our data into it, and the first monthly snapshot has now been produced.

The good news is that the demand for temporary staff remained relatively strong – temporary and contract staff billings increased in October at a similar pace of growth to that shown the previous month.

Demand was strong for both temporary and contract staff in engineering and construction, blue collar, IT and computing, secretarial and clerical, and for medical staff.

More than eight in 10 employers were planning to maintain or increase the number of temporary staff in both the short and longer term while just three per cent were planning to substantially decrease their numbers within the coming three months.
This is obviously good news for those who are career temps and have been concerned that demand for their services would fall in light of the new rules.

And it’s also cause for celebration for those who are using temporary, interim or contract work as a route back to longer term employment. The knock on is, of course, that those people are working rather than becoming another addition to the unemployment figures. It’s good to see that 84 per cent of people believe, as we do, that more needs to be done to support the use of flexible working as a bridge into employment.

* We are still working with clients and contacts to ensure the correct processes are in place to be compliant with the Regulations.
Do get in touch if you’d like more information about how we can help.

Santa run: We’ll be there… with spirits!

Nothing prepares you for Christmas more than seeing several hundred ‘Santas’ gallivanting around a frosty field on a cold December morning!

We’ve been involved with the Rotary Club of Stamford Burghley’s Santa Fun Run for the last few years. The Reindeer Recruiters have tackled the three mile course while the less energetic members of the team have served up mulled wine and mince pies to the finishers.

This year’s run around Burghley Park is on December 11 – the day after our Christmas party. Bearing that in mind, we’ve decided we’ll be far more use sticking to the refreshment area than trying to drag our feet, which will no doubt be aching from all that dancing, around the course.

So we’d like to wish everyone who is planning on taking part lots of fun and luck. And we’ll be there at the end warming the wine and handing out the pies!