Increasing confidence in the economy is leading to a planned rise in recruitment for the rest of the year, according to a new survey.
The 2015 Hiring Intentions Survey by recruitment firm Robert Walters found that over three quarters (76%) of hiring managers are planning to recruit by the end of the year. This is a 9% increase from the first half of the year.
Over 200 hiring managers took part in the survey, and the results indicate that businesses are beginning to feel more secure in their ability to recruit and retain employees.
Over half of the respondents (59%) stated that they want to recruit permanent staff, compared to just 7% who are looking exclusively for contractors. 57% said that they will mainly be looking to recruit newly qualified or junior employees.
SMEs are more likely to recruit than larger businesses, with 27% of recruitment managers for smaller organisations saying that they were likely to hire. This compares to just 22% of companies with more than 10,000 employees.
However almost half of the respondents indicated that they expect to be affected by skills shortages in the near future.
Skills shortages are a very real concern for UK businesses, with the most sought after skills being in the disciplines of Engineering, Medical and IT. To give an example, the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) found that 44% of companies said that new employees did not meet reasonable expectations for their levels of skills.
The North West and the Midlands (93% and 87% respectively) are the areas of the UK that are the worst affected by the skills shortage.
Speaking to Recruitment Grapevine, Wendy Merry, Civica Group HR Director, said: “To attract and retain talent in such a competitive market, we make sure we have a strong employee value proposition. This include agile working environment [and] various employee benefits such as the ability to purchase additional holiday days.”
“If we want people to work for us the only way we can do that this is by having a strong employer brand. That is why it’s key to work closely to with your communications team to make sure those messages are being communicated in the market.”
