Recruiter October 2019 by Redactive Media Group

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CROWDFUNDING Is it a good or bad idea to grow your company

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SIDE ALSO IN

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www.recruiter.co.uk

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October 2019

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INCORPORATING Recruitment E Matt N ers POU

Business intelligence for recruitment and resourcing professionals

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using public donations?

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Investing in Talent Awards Join us on Halloween for a treat (no tricks!) – and see now who is on the shortlist STEM employers reap visa reversal rewards Recruiters and employers benefit from the changes Get FAST 5O entries in! Brexit means this listing is set to be the most intriguing Goodwin ready to stand Group CEO and chairman of Antal International is preparing for an up-andcoming election campaign Start-up of the Month: Walters People Phill Westcott heads Robert Walters’ new UK brand This was the month that was... Contracts & Deals

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NEWS

05 Talent will out at Recruiter’s

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Benefits of ‘shared purpose’ in your team Tech & Tools Once more with meaning: the CV gets a makeover

FEATURES

20 THE BIG STORY Crowdfunding Has raising funds through public donations come too late to the party for recruitment businesses? 29 PAYROLL SPECIAL The cost of not being ready Are you prepared for the changes next year? 35 Rising to the challenge Firms are still ignoring the upcoming legislation...

INCORPORATING Recruitment Matters

E COMMUNITY 43 Social Network 44 The Workplace: Guy Hayward

45 Workplace Innovation: Chris Griffiths

46 Business Advice: Alex Arnot 47 My brilliant recruitment career: Brett Longden, Redline Group 48 Movers & Shakers 49 Recruiter contacts 50 The Last Word: Alan Furley

INTERACTION Viewpoint Mo Hussein, director of values, BAPEI Consulting Soundbites

I M AG E S | I STO C K / SH UTTER STO C K / IKO N

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Judging day sponsor:

UPDATE Sponsored by:

WE LCO M E

LEADER

he brightest day in the last few weeks was 4 September, the judging day for our Investing in Talent Awards – getting to catch up with our remarkable judges and meet many of the recruiters and support team members shortlisted in individual categories. Motivated, spirited and entrepreneurial, these candidates demonstrated the highly varied faces of inspiration. I wish there had been time to fully explore the back-stories of each and every one – so full of life, and focused on making their own dreams/ aspirations and those of their organisations come true. We met a number of immigrants to the UK who have found success in recruitment, a “No one can former young carer, say recruiters career changers, are all the MBO and start-up same. I can’t leaders – no one can say all recruiters are wait until our just the same. I Investing in Talent Awards can’t wait until our on 31 October” Investing in Talent Awards evening on 31 October; the future brilliance of the night is visible from mid-September! And looking even further ahead: Recruiter goes on the road again in November. We’ll be in Manchester to host a mini-conference and a fabulous HOT 100 2019 celebration – Londoners and all others are welcome to join us as we travel North! Follow recruiter.co.uk for more information coming soon. Hope to see you there!

Talent will out at Recruiter’s Investing In Talent Awards WITH HALLOWEEN JUST around the corner, it can only mean one thing in the celebratory world of recruitment: Recruiter’s Investing in Talent Awards at The Brewery in London. But this event is all treats – no tricks! The Awards event on 31 October will once again spotlight those recruitment companies and individuals who put their staff, temporary workers and contractors ﬁrst. Each year we are amazed and humbled at how high the standard is, and we can’t wait to showcase the great companies and individuals lighting up the world of recruitment. Take a look at those companies and individuals who are shortlisted for the various awards on pp18-19 of this issue. And if you’ve made it onto the list, take a bow – you’re already winners in our eyes! Stay tuned for news of who will host the event. To make sure you’re there on the night, book your tickets now. Tables are limited. Go to www.investingintalent.co.uk for more information.

See pp18-19 for a full shortlist of Investing in Talent Awards entrants.

DeeDee Doke, Editor

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UPDATE

AS OF 12 SEPTEMBER 2019

STEM employers reap visa reversal rewards BY COLIN COTTELL

EMPLOYERS LOOKING TO recruit graduates for STEM and technical roles will be the biggest beneficiaries from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that overseas graduates from outsider the EU will be allowed to remain in the UK for two years after graduating to look for work. The announcement is a significant reversal of the previous policy introduced by Theresa May, the then Home Secretary, when the time limit was set at four months. The new visa route will cover international students who start courses in 2020/21 at undergraduate level or above. There will be no limit on the numbers that can apply or on the type of jobs that are included. It is understood it will also apply to those already on higher education courses with Tier 4 visas (a general student visa) when the changes are introduced. Ashley Hudson, founder and CEO of IT Graduate Recruitment, told Recruiter the change in policy was “definitely a good thing”. He added: “A lot of companies struggle to find the talent they need just from within the EU, and this opens up a whole new talent pool.” A significant proportion of students who studied STEM subjects in the UK came from outside the UK, he said, “so if you exclude all of those, then you are not left with many candidates”. Smaller companies and start-ups stood to gain most, Hudson suggested. Whereas large tech companies receive a lot of applications from graduates, “small companies don’t have such a large talent pool, so expanding [it] will especially

help them – particularly with candidates applying directly”. Other graduate market insiders also welcomed the news: • Dan Hawes, co-founder of the Graduate Recruitment Bureau, also questioned how many students from China and India would take up the opportunity to remain in the UK after graduating. Not only were engineering graduates from China “in huge demand back in their home country” but, he suggested, “some may not want to stay because the damage has already been done as a result of the whole Brexit ﬁasco”. • Tom Freeman, MD of Sanctuary Graduates: “The change in the rules will mean that more employers can take advantage of the global talent studying at our world-class universities – reversing the recent absurdity of such talent being effectively off limits to all but the largest employers.” • Stephen Isherwood, CEO of the Institute of Student Employers: “We would like to see students who graduate in 2020 eligible for the visa. This will allow ample time for universities, students and employers to understand and implement the new rules.”

2020 FAST 50 list set to be most revealing yet BY COLIN COTTELL

THE ANALYST RESEARCHING this year’s Recruiter FAST 50 is urging recruitment companies to contact him as soon as possible if they want to be part of what he says is shaping up to be the most interesting listing for years. “Will growth rates have slipped down as a result of Brexit? And will some of the previously established companies be dislodged by some of the newcomers?” asks Mark Maunsell, director, business 6 RECRUITER

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services market intelligence, at corporate finance house Clearwater International. Clearwater is once again partnering with Recruiter to produce the FAST 50, with the 2020 table due to be published early next year. Maunsell says this year’s annual listing will be particularly interesting because “it will be the first year which will allow us to see the full impact of Brexit on recruitment firm’s growth rates”.

To be considered for inclusion in Recruiter’s 2020 FAST 50, companies must have achieved a minimum of £5m of sales in each of the last three years, based on their audited accounts. Although Maunsell is conﬁdent that Clearwater’s research will identify most of the companies that qualify, he advises those companies who ﬁle abbreviated accounts in particular to contact him at mark.maunsell@cwicf.com to discuss further and ensure they are included. I M AG E | I STO C K

12/09/2019 12:20

THOUGHTS FROM…

Goodwin ready to stand

DARREN RYEMILL

BY GRAHAM SIMONS

O PUS TALE NT SOLU TIONS FOU NDER , SPEAKING TO RE CRUITE R AHEAD OF APPEARING ON CHANNEL 4’S THE SEC RET TEAC HER

“Companies and business have a big role to play in helping education and the kids in education try and see what roles there are out there and try and make sure they are ready for those roles when they do finish school.” STEPHEN FRY AC TO R , COMEDIAN AND WRITER , ON TWITTER

“Weep for Britain. A sick, cynical brutal and horribly dangerous coup d’état. Children playing with matches, but spitefully not accidentally: gleefully torching an ancient democracy and any tattered shreds of reputation or standing our poor country had left.” ADAM GORDON CEO, CANDIDATEID

“It’s like Game of Thrones in rec tech right now!”

TONY GOODWIN, GROUP CEO and chairman of Antal International and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Brexit Party, has told Recruiter he’s ready to ﬁght an election whenever one is called. Goodwin, who announced that he had been selected to run as a PPC for Witney, Oxfordshire by the party in late August, revealed he expects a General Election on or around 28 November. Speaking to Recruiter from India, where he is on a business trip, Goodwin revealed his campaign website is now active and when he returns he will start campaigning in Witney, knocking on doors and ﬁnding out about his prospective constituents’ concerns. While Goodwin concedes he has an uphill task, as Leave supporter Tory MP Robert Court is the current MP for the constituency with a 22k majority, he believes the party as a whole has momentum on their side. “The feeling in the country is we are gaining ground. We have gone up from 13% to 15% in some polls to 17% in other polls of the vote. Nigel Farage’s position and that of the party is that we will put country before party and if there are seats we can work with the Conservatives on, then we work with them and pull out of seats where we stand very little chance of winning,” Goodwin said. “You have only got to go back to the European elections where a party that was formed for just four weeks took 31% of the vote and got 29 MEPs elected, making it the largest single party in the European Parliament. Yes, it’s not a General Election, I accept that, but I think this issue now is the one that could create change in politics. “The whole reason the Brexit Party has been formed is because they got 31% in the elections… If that can happen, anything can happen – even in a General Election.”

I M AG E S | I STOC K / PA L HA N S EN

STA RT-UP OF THE MONTH WALTERS PEOPLE Global recruitment consultancy Robert Walters Group has launched Walters People in the UK. The brand, which launched in France 15 years ago and is also in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland, will initially focus on contract and permanent recruitment in the accounting & finance and business support fields. Walters People director Phill Westcott told Recruiter the brand aims to stand out in the market by making transactional recruitment more personal, combining technology with a human-led

approach to deliver a more seamless recruitment experience. The brand aims to do this by operating across four pillars of commitment: Speed – through guaranteeing shortlists within 24 hours for contract roles and within 48 hours for permanent roles Testing – through a partnership with a testing platform, candidates receive aptitude and personality profiling so they can be assessed on how successful they will be in the role Video CV – digitising the CV by including videos of candidates describing their experience and skills Quality assurance – digitalising the

candidate registration process so there are no gaps in candidates’ work history or rights to work. Looking ahead, the brand is seeking to expand across its parent company’s UK office network. “At the moment, I’ve got 30 people who make up our Walters People business in London, but [Robert Walters Group] has a network across the UK with seven other offices. Our plan is to expand the brand into our regional businesses and expand on many of the disciplines that we can offer within Walters People, which will leverage the four pillars as the brand expands,” he said.

Find more daily news stories at recruiter.co.uk/news

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THIS WAS THE MONTH THAT WAS… Here is a round-up of some of the most popular news stories we have brought you on recruiter.co.uk since the September issue of Recruiter was published A U G U S T •‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒→

TUE, 20 AUGUST 2019

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TOP 10 MOST BIZARRE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS HEARD BY CANDIDATES

EX-PRIMARY CARE PEOPLE CEO JUNEJA JAILED FOR BEATING WIFE

What’s the weirdest question you’ve ever asked a candidate? We bet it can’t beat ‘Where do you see Arnold Schwarzenegger (below) in ﬁve years’ time?’… This is just one of the 10 most unusual interview questions to come out of a survey of 2,000 working adults in the UK, conducted by recruitment giant Adecco. Other questions featured in the list include: ● Can you sing the theme tune to Captain Pugwash? ● How would you climb out of a giant bucket? ● How would you respond to a random person asking to lick your armpit? ● Who is more important – Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy? Let us know if you have heard anything in interviews you’ve been to that can equal or beat these questions! More: https://bit.ly/2m1zXx0

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HM Revenue & Customs has written to almost 1,500 contractors claiming they have been incorrectly working outside IR35 rules. The Financial Times reports HMRC sent identical letters to contractors working in various departments of pharmaceutical company GSK, including IT and biomedical sciences. IR35 specialist Qdos claims many of the affected contractors have contacted it for advice on the letter, which states: “It is our view that the contract between your PSC [personal service company] and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) comes under the offpayroll working rules ‘IR35’.” Qdos CEO Seb Maley said: “In these letters, HMRC takes the view that contractors are guilty until proven innocent. … At this stage, none of these contractors’ actual working practices have been reviewed. Without doing so, it’s impossible for HMRC to say with confidence that contractors are in the wrong. We urge contractors who have been contacted by HMRC to seek expert advice. The same goes for independent workers who are unsure of their IR35 compliance in general.” An HMRC spokesperson said: “It is fair that two people working like employees broadly pay the same tax and National Insurance, even if one of them chooses to work through their own company. We treat everyone fairly and consistently, and the same rules apply to everyone.” When contacted, a GSK spokesperson said: “GSK is aware that some of our agency workers received communication from HMRC regarding IR35 tax rules. We acknowledge the important contribution these workers provide to the company. If individuals have concerns about this communication from HMRC, we would advise them to speak with their tax advisers.”

Tawhid Juneja, former CEO of UK healthcare recruitment agency Primary Care People (PCP), was sentenced to 33 months in prison on 27 August. The sentence at St Albans’ Crown Court follows Juneja’s conviction in July at Luton Crown Court for coercive and controlling behaviour and two counts of assaulting his wife by beating. His Honour Judge Simon told Juneja that while “employees tended to be treated rather well, his [then] wife Carrie Juneja was not so fortunate”. In fact, he continued, “according to her evidence [she was treated] more like a slave”. The judge described one example of Juneja’s coercive and controlling behaviour towards his wife as forcing her to leave midway through having her highlights done at the hairdresser to satisfy Juneja’s demands. Turning to Juneja’s conviction for two counts of assaulting his wife by beating, Judge Simon described how he “had pulled Carrie Juneja by the hair and dragged her to the floor”, before outlining the other incident when an argument over which boxes to put items belonging to the couple’s two boys when moving house “involved a violent response”. Before handing down his sentence, Judge Simon addressed Juneja directly telling him that he had had “to balance the way that you treated Ms Juneja with your good character”, which the defence had highlighted during the trial, including his charitable work, taking young people under his wing and inspiring loyalty in employees. However, the judge said that in view of the degree of seriousness of the offence and the harm done to Carrie Juneja, he had decided that a custodial sentence of 33 months was appropriate. … Juneja was also disqualified from driving for 27 months for dangerous driving, an offence to which he had earlier pleaded guilty in March. The judge also issued a restraining order of five years during which he must not contact or approach Carrie Juneja. Stevenagebased Primary Care People went into administration in 2017, owing more than £2m to creditors. However, the assets were acquired by multi-discipline recruiter McGinley Group, which Juneja left in July 2018, according to the company.

More: https://bit.ly/2kcreaX

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TUE, 27 AUGUST 2019

CONTRACTORS AT GSK ACCUSED OF WORKING OUTSIDE IR35 RULES

IM AGES | SHU TTE RSTO C K / I STO C K

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MON, 2 SEPTEMBER 2019

MOST ANNOYING COLLEAGUES TEND TO BE CALLED ‘SUE’ OR ‘JOHN’ Are you annoyed by a ‘Sue’ or a ‘John’ at your agency? You’re not on your own, if research from Instaprint is anything to go by. The online print provider’s survey of 1,000 UK employers uncovered the names of both the top 10 most irritating men and women to work alongside. The top 3 in the men’s category are John, Dave and Mark, and for the women, Sue, Sarah and Alison top the list. More: https://bit.ly/2lMbo74

DAYS

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MON, 2 SEPTEMBER 2019

TWO CHARGED WITH GANGMASTER AND FRAUD OFFENCES AFTER ARREST IN SPAIN

MON, 2 SEPTEMBER 2019

RECRUITERS HAVE TO ADVERTISE JOBS WITH FLEXIBLE WORKING FROM DAY ONE? Requiring recruiters to advertise jobs offering flexible working as open to all workers from day one in the job would be a game-changer for candidates but could also increase employers’ access to talent. The TUC has joined the Flex for All campaign. The campaign has launched a petition to change the law to ensure flexible working is open to all workers on their first day, with employers required to advertise all jobs on that basis. Dr Sybille Steiner, partner solicitor at law firm Irwin Mitchell, said that at present only employees who have 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer can make a flexible working request: “The Flex for All campaign aims to change the law ... The proposed flexible working bill, which is being supported by organisations including TUC, would change the culture in the workplace to make flexible working more acceptable and put the onus on an employer to say why it cannot be accommodated. If Parliament passes it, flexibility would be the expectation in every job, unless employers have a sound business reason for having specific working hours. “For many recruiters and employers that already encourage their staff to work flexibly, this will make little difference. For others, there is still a shift to see how flexible working can be accommodated while ensuring services to clients are still met,” she said.

Two people have been charged with gangmaster and fraud offences in the Merseyside area after being arrested in Spain. Spanish authorities arrested the pair in Valencia on 1 August before they were transported back to the UK by Merseyside Police, a statement by the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) reveals. Alexander Goran, of no fixed address, has been charged with acting as an unlicensed gangmaster and conspiring to commit fraud by abuse of position. Ana Marie Goran, also of no fixed address, has been charged with aiding and abetting an unlicensed gangmaster and the same fraud offence. The pair appeared before Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on Friday 30 August after failing to attend a previous hearing earlier in the year, and have been remanded in custody to appear before Liverpool Crown Court on Friday 27 September for a pretrial preparation hearing. The suspects, both Romanian nationals, were the subject of a European Arrest Warrant issued in relation to investigations started by the GLAA last year into potential exploitation of workers in Merseyside and surrounding areas. Forty-one Romanian workers were found by GLAA officers during the multi-agency operation in Liverpool in March last year. More: https://bit.ly/2m4RGDO

More: https://bit.ly/2m1w8Il

Find more daily news stories at recruiter.co.uk/news

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GOVERNMENT’S POST-BREXIT SCHEME FOR EU WORKERS IS GOOD NEWS FOR RECRUITERS The government’s move to enable EU citizens to apply for temporary leave to remain in the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit is good news for recruiters. Last month, Recruiter reported on government plans to ensure that EU free movement rules would end immediately if there is a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. However, if a ‘no deal’ does happen, the government has now said that EU citizens who move to the UK for the first time will be able to apply for a 36-month temporary immigration status under its European Temporary Leave to Remain (Euro TLR) scheme. The government has added that applications to the scheme will be “simple and free”, will be made after arrival in the UK, and will not require EU citizens travelling to the UK after Brexit to make any special arrangements. While there will be some visible changes at the UK border and tougher rules for criminals, the government has said EU citizens will be able to cross the UK border in the same way as they do now. However, EU citizens who move to the UK for the first time after Brexit, and who do not apply for the scheme, will need to leave the UK by 31 December 2020 unless they have applied for, and obtained, a UK immigration status under the UK’s new points-based immigration system. EU citizens resident in the UK before 11pm hours on 31 October 2019 and their family members, and Irish citizens, are unaffected by these new arrangements. More: https://bit.ly/2k8Ge9B WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 9

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CONTRACTS

CONTRACTS & DEALS Berry Recruitment Group Berry Recruitment Group (BRG) brands Berry Recruitment and Wild Recruitment have been named as suppliers on the Crown Commercial Service and NHS Procurement in Partnership’s non-clinical temporary and fixed-term staff framework. BRG will supply candidates in administration and clerical roles, as well as IT and ancillary staff, including caterers, drivers, security operatives, maintenance workers and specialist tradespeople.

Resume-Library US careers site Resume-Library has announced a partnership with recruitment industry software platform Bullhorn. The collaboration will enable Bullhorn’s users to post their vacancies on Resume-Library and gain instant access to millions of CVs without having to leave the Bullhorn platform.

Norman Broadbent Search firm Norman Broadbent has seen several substantial shareholders and board directors increase their investment in the firm. In total, 3.9m shares have been bought by City investors and long-term Norman Broadbent backers Jon Moulton, Downing Capital and Pierce Casey. In addition, every board director, including CEO Mike Brennan and chief financial officer Will Gerrand, have purchased shares, as have several smaller, new shareholders. The stake was bought from Garraway Capital Management.

Ceridian Global human capital management company Ceridian has announced that Costa Coffee has chosen its Dayforce system to manage the high street coffee retailer’s recruitment, HR and payroll processes, and to deliver pay to 18,000 employees both in its UK retail business and in its support centre, as part of a wider people management initiative.

Sopra Steria Recruitment Recruitment and managed recruitment service provider Sopra Steria Recruitment has been awarded a place on the government’s RM6160 framework to provide temporary and fixed-term staff to NHS contracting authorities. The framework has been launched by the Crown Commercial Service and NHS Procurement in Partnership, working together as the Workforce Alliance. Stoke On-demand talent platform Stoke has raised $4.5m (£3.7m) in investment. The seed round was led by capital market firm TLV Partners with participation from others including Bogomil Balkansky, former vice-president for cloud recruiting solutions at Google; healthcare technology and services company Flatiron Health founder Zach Weinberg; and Boaz Chalamish, CEO of Clarizen.

Cordant People Blackpool FC has chosen Cordant People, part of Cordant Group, as its official partner for the provision of all permanent roles. Cordant People will provide operational, commercial and management staff to the football club.

DEAL OF T HE MONT H

Arctic Shores Manchester-based psychometric assessment provider Arctic Shores has secured a $5.5m (£4.59m) Series A investment to accelerate its international expansion. Beringea, a transatlantic venture capital investor, led the transaction with participation from existing shareholders, including Candy Ventures.

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Arctic Shores says that it will use the funds to accelerate the expansion of its international offices and launch a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to broaden its product offering to support both enterprise clients and SMEs. The round brings total investment in Arctic Shores to $10m.

Acorn Nationwide recruiter Acorn has been awarded a place on the Crown Commercial Service’s non-clinical temporary and fixed-term staff framework (RM6160) for the NHS. The two-year agreement will be rolled out across Acorn’s branches and specialist divisions throughout the UK, and will cover all non-medical roles including administration, all corporate functions such as finance and purchasing, IT and ancillary services. The staffing framework agreement supports the government’s policy to centrally manage the procurement of common goods and services through an integrated commercial function.

More contract news at recruiter.co.uk/news

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INSIGHT

BENEFITS OF ‘SHARED PURPOSE’ IN YOUR TEAM Recruiters often forget what a tremendous impact they and their team have on people’s lives BY JEROEN DE FLANDER

hen working in a team, it’s important to have a shared purpose, says Professor Adam Grant from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the world’s leading purpose experts. This helps to unite people who might otherwise drift in different directions, chasing their own passion. Grant’s research shows that people work harder, smarter, longer, more generously and more productively when they can see how their work affects others. “Although many employees do work that has a meaningful impact on others,” Grant points out, “all too often, they lack a vivid understanding of how their efforts make a difference.” Dozens of studies and real-life examples conﬁrm the ﬁndings from

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Grant. Spikes in motivation are driven by an enriched appreciation of how our work beneﬁts the wellbeing of others. Here’s a great example of an organisation that put Grant’s ideas into practice. Let’s look at UCB, an innovative stock-listed pharmaceutical company. They develop solutions for people with serious diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson’s. And while most of these diseases today are not yet curable, UCB’s ambition is to develop products that improve the daily life of those people living with these severe diseases. Created in the 1920s as a hybrid chemical company, UCB became patient-centric in 2006 with an innovative approach. “Today, our patients are at the centre of everything we do. Our thinking, processes, budgets and structures are all patient-centric, as

opposed to doctor-centric like some of the other pharma companies,” strategy director Philippe Vandeput says enthusiastically. “When we started to involve real patients a decade ago, our vision, ‘Inspired by Patients. Driven by Science’, really got a boost.”

What did they do exactly? To create a shared purpose, UCB started singling out patients asking them to

OCTOBER 2019

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POWER POINTS

I M AG E | G E T T Y

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how to use a griddle in my lovely new kitchen and bought a caravan in Wales. So the world continues to turn despite the diagnosis. Living with a long-term health condition is a journey with potholes and bumps, but also long stretches of smooth highway. I love to cook, I love to eat and I love to party. I don’t live for my Parkinson’s disease, I live alongside it.” You meet these real patients everywhere at UCB. When you walk into their offices, you see life-size pictures of Jerome and Sheila with their ﬁrst names and in the bottom-right corner ‘living with a severe disease’. They are included in PowerPoint presentations, annual reports, and their stories are shared on the website. Imagine seeing pictures of Jerome and Sheila in your office every day – patients you have met personally. What you will do that day, you do for them and millions of others living with a severe disease. It gives your work purpose. Your job contributes to the wellbeing of those patients, making their lives better. “We saw a real impact on our

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Spikes in motivation are driven by an appreciation of how their work benefits the wellbeing of others. UCB, a chemical company that became patientcentric in 2006, found that telling the stories of real patients helped to give their employees purpose and drive.

employees,” Vandeput explains. “These are real people; you know their stories and have shaken their hands. Our vision is more than just a slogan. These real patients make you feel what we do. “When I interview candidates, people are moved by the way we put the patient central, and they point it out as why they want to come and work for us.” Recruiters often forget what a tremendous impact they have on people’s lives. A career switch can be one of the most intense, rewarding experiences for people, helping them to move to the next level up on the mastery curve. It provides long-term joy. So next time, take a moment and think about the impact you have on others people’s lives. It will make you a better recruiter, as Grant’s research clearly shows. ●

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share their story, showing employees the positive impact of their work. There’s the story of Jerome, living with epilepsy since 1989. He never liked classrooms and would often stare out of his school window, wishing he could escape to run or swim. Jerome experienced his ﬁrst serious seizure on the way to swim practice. He was transported to a hospital, which warned him of the consequences of too much exercise. But Jerome was determined to prevent his epilepsy from deﬁning his life. With the support of his family, Jerome began medication, and his seizures became less frequent. Jerome now has a driver’s licence and works as a physical therapist. He has completed several triathlons and continues to live a very athletic lifestyle. And Sheila’s story, diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1996. “That terrible day when you get your diagnosis feels like the world has ended. I can still feel it in the pit of my stomach. But since then, I’ve walked the Great Wall of China, and been to Norway, Spain and Australia. I have received a Master’s degree, learnt

A shared purpose helps unite people. It helps teams work harder, longer and more productively when they see how their work affects others.

JEROEN DE FLANDER is the author of The Art of Performance: The Surprising Science Behind Greatness. More info: https:// jeroen-de-flander.com/ WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 13

12/09/2019 10:42

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e starts, ls fa l a r e v e s r e ft A at last crowdfunding is in the ff o e k ta to g n ti r ta s make sector. But does it rd da sense for the stan ell Cott recruiter? Colin investigates

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IM AGE | ISTOCK

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BETTER LATE E

12/09/2019 10:44

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T H E BI G STORY: C ROW D F U N D I N G

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hen the job ad search engine Adzuna successfully raised £2.1m through crowdfunding platform Crowdcube in 2015, it might have been the beginning of a new trend in the way that companies in the recruitment sector obtain investment. But despite the general growth of crowdfunding, whereby companies ask the public to invest in their business in return for equity, the approach has never taken off in recruitment. This is despite the publicity generated by companies such as craft beer company BrewDog, which launched crowdfunding in the UK as far back as 2009 and has so far raised more than £73m from more than 121,000 investors. “Recruitment isn’t always sexy,” says Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, who says that crowdfunding typically lends itself to tangible or cool products, food and drink brands, social movements or industry disruptors. However, there is evidence that crowdfunding is, albeit belatedly, gaining traction in the recruitment sector. Although not on BrewDog’s scale, and without the type of incentives that its investors famously receive, such as beer on their birthday and access to new brews, in August talent pipeline automation company Candidate.ID met its target to raise £500k through crowdfunding platform Crowdcube from UK and US investors, achieving it in a rapid four weeks. In the same month, online crowdsourced talent platform AnyGood? completed its £375k crowdfund raise through Seedrs, attracting investments of between £12 and £100k from 354 individual investors.

THAN NEVER N E

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TH E B IG STO RY: CROWDFUNDING

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“Crowdfunding is about much more than simply raising ﬁnance – it’s also a good way of marketing the business and ultimately attracting more customers”

Although the staffing sector has been slow to follow in the footsteps of Adzuna, there are some tentative signs that the crowdfunding penny is beginning to drop. Other companies that gone down the crowdfunding route include: JobLab, which matches graduates and employers; Juggle Jobs, which specialises in ﬂexible jobs; and AI-based recruitment technology solutions provider Recruitment Smart. Having hit its original target of £150k with two days left, job search app Imployable is just under £35k short of its revised target of £250k. Adam Gordon, co-founder and CEO of Candidate.ID, says that although the company’s crowdfunding round meant giving up 10% of the

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A benefit of crowdfunding has been a

25%

rise in requests from potential clients for a demonstration of Candidate. ID’s product

22 RECRUITER

company’s total equity of £5m, it was a price well worth paying. Not only will the money raised accelerate the company’s machine-learning programme “by probably a year”, he says, but it provides significant advantages over traditional ways of raising finance, such as bank loans, seed funding and venture capital. Indeed, Gordon says the company’s main motivation for crowdfunding was not to raise money at all. “I would apportion 75% of the reason why we did this to building a small army of advocates in the market. We don’t have a lot of money for marketing or to build a sales team. What we are doing is giving away something [equity] that doesn’t cost us any cash, in return in exchange for us receiving cash.” Gordon says that in response to the publicity generated by the fundraising campaign, one immediate benefit has been a 25% rise in requests from potential clients for a demonstration of the product, with many of these coming from people who do not even want to invest in the company. “We are a company of 15 people – you can’t buy that sort of publicity,” he says. An unintended consequence was receiving three acquisition approaches during the investment round. Juliet Eccleston, CEO and co-founder of online crowdsourced talent platform AnyGood?, agrees that crowdfunding is about much more than simply raising finance – it is also a good way of marketing the business and ultimately attracting more customers. “Because we haven’t done any marketing or advertising before, this was something we were very much focused on. It was really going out to the broader market and a new crowd of people to say: ‘This is what our platform is about’,” she explains. Eccleston says that AnyGood?’s crowdfunding campaign deliberately set out to target the company’s existing members, spending the first three weeks telling them about the opportunity to invest, before opening it up to the wider public. “We wanted to give them the opportunity to invest before anyone else,” she says.

OCTOBER 2019

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These seminars provide the perfect opportunity for recruitment agencies and umbrella companies to find out how to prepare for the new legislation being introduced in April 2020.

With all data stored on UK-based servers, clients no longer have to purchase or maintain their hardware and benefit from enhanced processing power and one-click payroll runs. Solutio is an independent operating system that ensures teams can continue working even when the system is running payroll. Without wishing to state the obvious, the benefits in terms of labour savings and efficiency are vast.

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Use your existing connections According to Gordon, a vital factor in the success of the company’s crowdfunding was getting people from HR and recruitment on board as investors. Some subsequently featured in Twitter videos explaining why they invested in the company. “If someone else says they believe your business is great, that is three times more effective than you saying it,” he says. He adds that publicising the company’s big-name clients – such as IBM and Specsavers – and the message that they hire 50% more people per recruiter by using Candidate.ID was “also a really big deal” when it came to attracting investors. Being transparent about their ﬁnancials

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With a minimum investment of £12, members were given the incentive to invest by an increase in the reward they receive for a candidate being hired from £1.5k to £2k. “A lot of people recognised that if they got somebody hired they could easily make their money back, so it was quite a big deal,” she says. These initial efforts led to 50 members investing in the company. Ross Kelly, an associate at crowdfunding platform Seedrs, who worked with Eccleston ahead of the crowdfunding campaign going live, says having a community is one of the key things he looks for when assessing a company’s suitability for crowdfunding. “Does it have a decent user base, and is it the kind of community that can grow on a viral level?” He says that AnyGood? meets both these criteria. Eccleston says the early signs are the company’s strategy of using crowdfunding as an advertising and marketing tool is working. “It’s good to have more than 350 allies and ampliﬁers of your company, so that now when I go on LinkedIn and post something we have a number of likes and comments, some from people who have never heard of the company before. People are really active; they want to see the company succeed, and it becomes a good partnership.” Gordon says that identifying your potential investors is key and must begin well before the fundraising goes live. In the case of Candidate.ID, he says this process started with asking 100 customers and people in recruitment whether they would be interested in investing. This step was followed by messaging 20,000 people on the company’s database, asking them the same question. It was only after feedback indicated that the initial target of £50k would be hit that the crowdfunding went ahead in July.

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TH E B IG STO RY: CROWDFUNDING

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– “we opened up the books” – was also an important factor, he says. “The two weeks we spent warming up our connections and database in advance of the crowdfunding going live was an important period and initiative, in terms of generating buzz and interest and getting people talking to each other about it,” he adds. Gordon says that efforts to focus the crowdfunding campaign on people within HR and recruitment proved successful. Around 350 of the 620 new shareholders were industry professionals, who put in more than 70% of the more than £500k that was invested. “Provided we continue to perform as a business, they will talk about us to their colleagues and peers. This was the main reason we did this, and it has been successful,” he says. Luke Lang, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Crowdcube, says Candidate.ID’s approach is very much in line with that of companies in other sectors that have used the platform. “Candidate.ID’s vision was highly aligned with ours. It believes in the power of the community, and wants its supporters to become investors. It already has plans in place for its crowdfunding investors to feed their ideas into the business and sharpen its vision for growth.” Aside from building an army of committed and engaged ambassadors for the company, with the prospect of this leading to more clients or customers, Hunter says the £2.1m raised by Adzuna in its 2015 crowdfunding has resulted in concrete business beneﬁts. These include facilitating its expansion into ﬁve new markets, improving the experience of jobseekers, and the acquisition of the Work in Start-ups job board, the company’s Australian arm. Eccleston says that AnyGood?’s raise allowed

TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL EQUITY CROWDFUNDING ● Don’t over-value your

business, as this could come back to bite you if you need another round of investment; ● Choose the platform that has the right cultural fit with your business, and consider ones that attract angel investors

● Speak to others who have

crowdfunded ● Mine your network and every possible contact ● Warm up your community or network in advance of the raise ● Make sure you respond quickly to investors’ queries

● During the campaign.

share good news with your followers online ● Get a lead investor as early as possible, as this will help to encourage others ● Build a good relationship, and work closely, with your account manager

OCTOBER 2019

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T H E BI G STORY: C ROW D F U N D I N G

“Companies that offer something different stand the best chance of hitting their crowdfunding target”

it to develop the platform, and to take on an extra member of staff for business development.

Be prepared for hard work

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Industry professionals put in more than

70% of the more than £500k that was invested in Candidate.ID

However, even those who have been through a successful crowdfunding round warn that it is not plain sailing. “It was a lot of hard work for everyone involved in the campaign,” says Hunter, and there was even a point in the early stages “when things started to slow down and we thought we were in real trouble”. He adds: “We had to go back through our contacts to ask everyone we could think of, not just for money,

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but for help. We cold-called, and worked every lead that we had hard. It’s exhausting – I didn’t see much of my wife and family during the eight-week campaign. But it was all worth it in the end.” Eccleston spent a lot of time on the phone to investors or meeting them face to face, but without necessarily any correlation between the time spent and the amount they invested. “You could spend 15 minutes talking to someone who then chooses to invest £50 – you just can’t tell.” Seedrs’ Kelly says recruitment is not the most obvious fit for crowdfunding because, unlike beer companies or challenger banks, recruiters don’t tend to have big consumer networks. “Recruitment’s B2B nature, and the fact that clients of recruiting firms are office managers or heads of HR, means there is unlikely to be the same level of engagement,” he says. Eccleston agrees that crowdfunding may not be right for everyone. “We are a B2B and we have a crowd, so it is a bit easier for us, but if you are a B2B company that doesn’t have some kind of story that people can buy into, or that resonates, or something they would want to buy themselves, it can be quite hard to do crowdfunding.” Companies that offer something different stand the best chance of hitting their crowdfunding target, says Adzuna’s Hunter. “If your recruitment site, app or product is new and different, or is already getting a lot of traction, crowdfunding is probably a viable route. If not, you might not get the funding traction you are looking for,” he says. As to whether to whether crowdfunding would be right for a standard recruitment agency, Eccleston says it depends on a number of factors. “If it’s a specific project that needs an injection of capital so people recognise they’ll get a return, then yes, but if it’s simply to grow organically then I’d look at a more traditional financing option.” With crowdfunding platforms taking a cut of around 6-7%, a bank loan “is probably going to be cheaper”, she says. That said, for the right type of company, offering the right type of service or product within the recruitment sector, crowdfunding could well be a viable and attractive option. ●

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10/09/2019 12:35

THE VIEW AND THE INTELLIGENC E

Offering leadership through Brexit uncertainties P2 BIG TALKING PO INT

The importance of local intelligence P4 LEGAL UPDATE

RECRUITMENT MATTERS

A question of health P6 Issue 78 October 2019

TR AINING

Upcoming training and events P8

T H E FU T U R E O F JOB S

How do we get the future right? W

hen Boris Johnson took ofﬁce as Prime Minister he promised to be a game-changer for Brexit. At the time of print, the UK looks likely to leave the EU without a deal on 31 October. Predicting the future is challenging, especially beyond this date. But one thing that we can be sure about is the need to build a better bridge between education and the fast changing world of work. So 65% of children entering primary school today will end up working in new job types that don’t yet exist. New generations of workers will move away from the 9-5 jobs of the past, and ﬂexible working will become the norm. It’s one of the reasons why the REC is calling for the Apprenticeship Levy to be reformed into a training and skills levy that could be used to fund training for those on temporary contracts. The prospects are promising. The now Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, wrote in the Financial Times in June, promising to “broaden the

@RECPress RM October 2019-NEW.indd 1

“65% of children entering primary school today will end up working in new job types that don’t yet exist.” Apprenticeship Levy into a wider skills levy, giving employers the ﬂexibility they need to train their workforce, while ensuring they continue to back apprenticeships”. The recruitment sector can play a leading role in inﬂuencing future labour

market policies and shape the changes coming our way – as long as it has a strong collective voice. By spreading the good recruitment message and helping clients and individuals adapt and thrive, recruiters will have earned their continued growth. And they have a vast collective base of expertise to use to get ahead of the game. To support them, the REC has launched the Future of Jobs Observatory – a platform for thought leadership on the future of work. The Observatory also provides a hub for the REC’s network of Future of Jobs Ambassadors – forward-thinking recruiters who visit schools and colleges to help future generations with CV tips, interview skills and career advice. These ambassadors will showcase the work they are doing as part of the REC’s annual Future of Jobs Summit in central London on 6 November. National and international speakers will also look at how work is changing, what the impact of AI and new tech will have on work, and how recruiters, businesses and policy makers can prepare. For more information get in touch with Neal: neal.suchak@rec.uk.com

www.rec.uk.com 11/09/2019 09:40

L E A D I N G T H E I N D U S T RY

the view... It’s time for us to own our own destiny, says NEIL CARBERRY, REC chief executive

nnually, Collins English Dictionary publishes its word of the year. Last year ‘single-use’ came to prominence, reﬂecting concern for climate change. If they were to look at everything written about business this year, surely one phrase would stand out: ‘Brexit uncertainty.’ Writing this a few weeks back, I’m not going to try and be Mystic Meg on how things look as you read it, in this Brexitmonth edition of Recruitment Matters! But, as the deadline draws near, ﬁrms are trying to work out how to navigate what lies ahead. As we see in REC’s data, this has led to a gentle decline in hiring and investment decisions (see p3). Perhaps more concerning is whether the Brexit focus is distracting us from bigger changes. Before ‘Brexit’ became Collins’ word of the year 2016, we were discussing how the rate of change was speeding up, how automation and tech were all changing the way we work. It has always been the role of recruitment professionals to provide leadership and insight on an uncertain future. You’re the change specialists. That’s what employers tell us all the time. In our August JobsOutlook survey, 87% of employers said they use recruiters primarily for their expertise. So what can we do to show some leadership? Thinking beyond Brexit – clients want to know what Brexit will mean, but also how to use this moment to reshape for the future. Our Future of Work conference on 6 November will focus on what’s next. Being champions of brilliant recruitment – as feedback from members and client businesses involved in REC’s Good Recruitment Campaign suggests, there is lots of room for innovation on issues like inclusion, improving employer brand or workforce planning. Thinking big – as recruiters, our specialism should make us leaders in recruitment and selection technology, tied to great customer service. Supporting you on this will be REC’s priority – starting with some innovations on how we get our product to you, which we are excited to tell you about soon. The world of work will continue to evolve in spite of our embattled politicians and whatever happens with Brexit. I’m proud of the role our industry is playing as leaders, supporting businesses and candidates to thrive in challenging times. We’ll navigate them together. If you want to keep up to speed with all things recruitment, then follow me on Twitter @RECNeil

2 RECRUITMENT MATTERS OCTOBER 2019

RM October 2019.indd 2

Are recruiters ready for the challenges and opportunities of Brexit? asks TOM HADLEY, REC director of policy and campaigns HADLEY ’ S C O MMENT

The final countdown In the words of a follically-blessed Scandinavian rock band, it’s the final countdown. With the 31 October Brexit deadline now looming large, how are recruiters preparing and what are the emerging priorities? Our latest poll shows that 48% of REC members have undertaken some no-deal preparations but have plenty still to do, while 43% have made no preparations and only 8% feel well-prepared. This mirrors the feedback from other business organisations. As one REC member pointed out during a recent webinar: ‘It’s hard to prepare, when we have no real idea of what we should be preparing for!’ Our regional Brexit Workshops – clocking up over 3,500 miles and counting – webinars and sector groups have enabled us to engage directly with over 1,000 REC members. In addition to the threat of a worsening economic climate, the main concerns flagged by recruiters include reduced access to EU labour, complexities around right to work checks and difficulties in sharing data between the UK and the EU. Key ‘prompt’ questions that recruiters are asking themselves include: • If I have clients in the EU, how will I continue to provide them with services? • What are operational implications linked to data transfer and currency fluctuations? • How can we best reassure and inform staff and workers on settled and pre-settled status? • How might hiring activities be impacted by no-deal and how can we spread risk by looking at new sectors or overseas markets? • What new opportunities can be seized, for example linking high demand roles and increasing need for innovative recruitment solutions? But how are clients gearing up? Feedback from regional workshops is that employers are preparing in three phases: maintaining stability, managing costs and building a platform for future growth. The opportunity is there for recruiters to provide the staff and skills needed for stability and improved productivity, and strategic advice on broader workforce issues. Our goal is to facilitate this through access to the latest market data and best practice intel. The overriding priority is really about mindset: our industry is renowned for its resilience, so let’s set a proactive and optimistic tone to the way we approach economic and political challenges ahead.

“8% of REC members feel prepared for a no-deal Brexit”

You can follow Tom on Twitter @hadleyscomment

www.rec.uk.com

10/09/2019 16:45

£35bn

the intelligence... Building confidence in the economy

Britain’s £35bn recruitment industry is at the heart of prosperity and the ﬂexible jobs market is a key strength.

BY THALIA IOANNIDOU, RESEARCH MANAGER AT THE REC

he UK is due to leave the EU on 31 October. At the time of writing, Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to re-negotiate the deal that had been rejected three times in Parliament in order to remove the Irish backstop, but asserts that if such an agreement is not possible the UK will leave the EU on World Trade Organisation rules. With that deadline fast approaching, businesses continue to look for a pragmatic plan that builds confidence in the economy and tackles long-standing issues. Headline jobs numbers remain positive but wider concerns about the economic outlook impact on businesses’ hiring intentions. Despite remaining firmly in negative territory, employers’ confidence in the prospects for the UK economy had started to show signs of improvement following the extension to the Brexit deadline. But amid political uncertainty, employers have remained cautious about hiring and investing. Latest data from the REC shows that employers’ confidence in making hiring and investment decisions fell by 1 percentage point to net: 0 in May-July. Employers’ sentiment about hiring permanent staff increased by 2 percentage points in the short term and by 2 percentage points in the medium term, compared with the previous quarter. And while hiring intentions for temporary agency workers remained unchanged in the short term, there was a 4-percentage point decline in the medium term.

RECRUITERS SEEK EFFICIENCIES IN A TIGHTER MARKET 0.0%

-0.7%

-0.5% -1.0% -1.5% -2.0%-2.5% -3.0%

RM October 2019.indd 3

The latest information from Recruitment Industry Benchmarking’s RIB Index shows that net fee income (or NDR/GP), the total amount earned in fees, declined by 2.8%, year-on-year, for the average RIB recruiter in Q2 2019.

Having achieved positive growth in NDR in each quarter across 2017 and 2018, a dive into negative year-onyear growth in Q2 2019 means that businesses started looking at their costs in order to remain proﬁtable. As anticipated, they

reacted by trimming their largest overhead – their employee base – with numbers down 0.7% year-on-year. As headcount reductions tend to lag a month or so behind negative NDR growth, we can expect to see that further adjustments will have been made early in Q3 2019.

-2.8% NDR versus last year (%)

Employees versus last year (%)

NDR versus last year (%) and total employees versus last year (%), for the median RIB recruiter: Q2 2019

www.rec.uk.com

It is noteworthy that, according to the same survey, more than three in four (77%) UK employers have either little or no surplus workforce capacity, and that includes 45% of public sector hirers (up from 34% a year earlier). Meanwhile, employers of permanent staff continued to express concern about the sufﬁcient availability of appropriate candidates for hire, with health and social care, engineering and technical, and hospitality being the skills areas of most concern. It is in uncertain times such as these when recruiters’ role as trusted advisers to business becomes even more important. When surveyed

in May-July, nine in 10 (87%) employers who recruit temporary agency workers highlighted the importance of a recruitment agency’s geographical and/or skills expertise when selecting their agency partners – up from 70% a year earlier. The knowledge and expertise of recruiters is invaluable in helping employers source the staff they need for their business to grow and the REC’s newly launched Workforce Intelligence series, in partnership with labour market analysts Emsi, is designed to help (see p4). Britain’s £35bn recruitment industry is at the heart of prosperity and the flexible jobs market is a key strength. The challenge for the prime minister is to find a clear, realistic and effective path to boosting business confidence and meeting the economy’s needs and skills requirements. To find out more about the REC’s monthly labour market insights and the Workforce Intelligence reports, visit the REC website.

BELINDA JOHNSON runs employment research consultancy, Worklab, and is Associate Knowledge & Insight Director of Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB). The RIB Index provides bespoke conﬁdential reports on industry benchmarks and trends. See www.ribindex.com; info@ribindex.com: 020 8544 9807. The RIB is a strategic partner of the REC.

OCTOBER 2019 RECRUITMENT MATTERS 3

10/09/2019 16:46

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE

big talking point

MAPPING GROWTH ACROSS THE FOUR NATIONS (2013-2018)

SCOTLAND

The word on the street 2%

NORTHERN IRELAND

The REC has partnered with Emsi UK to provide detailed local job market data. Here’s why that data could help grow your business hether you are looking for growth or worried about retaining current clients, knowledge is power. Recruitment businesses need to be wellinformed of labour market conditions and they need to be able to have strategic conversations with clients to offer real value as a business partner. It’s not enough to have a basic idea of the trends affecting the industry as a whole. The UK is a big place. Regions are experiencing varying rates of growth, across different sectors. Current pressures and challenges play out in different ways. It all depends on the kind of businesses and jobs in the mix. And the differences are set to grow.

A regional approach Economic uncertainty in the run up to Brexit has affected and will continue to affect businesses in any number of ways. How much they feel the impact of the decreasing availability of EU workers will depend on which sectors are dominant in their area, while the knock-on effect that one large, struggling employer can have on their local supply chain and recruitment prospects can be signiﬁcant. On the positive side, areas are also increasingly proactive in pursuing opportunities for growth, building on the successful businesses (or universities) they’re home to and what they see as their particular strengths. Each nation of the UK has its sights set on improving

4 RECRUITMENT MATTERS OCTOBER 2019

RM October 2019.indd 4

ENGLAND

10% 6% WALES

lacklustre productivity and implementing strategies to boost growth. In England, this started in earnest in 2011 when the government introduced local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) – with local authorities, education establishments and businesses working together to focus on improving local conditions for growth. They, in turn, have supported new enterprise zones, which offer businesses tax breaks and government support to unlock development sites, attract new businesses and create jobs. And eight new ambitious metropolitan mayors, most recently in Shefﬁeld and North Tyne, are eager to spearhead regeneration

87% - the number of employers who prioritise a recruitment agency’s geographical and/or skills expertise when selecting their agency partners.

15,480 - the number of jobs created in Manchester last year, compared to 10,848 lost in Nottingham.

8% - the fall in health and social work jobs in North Yorkshire, despite the sector fuelling growth across England and Northern Ireland. www.rec.uk.com

10/09/2019 16:46

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE

and improve their region’s employment records. Now we’re starting to see the arrival of local industrial strategies too. The ﬁrst, for Greater Manchester, launched in June, focusing on how the local area will support continued growth in areas of strength: health care and innovation; advanced manufacturing; digital, creative and media; and clean growth. This growth plan will have a clear impact on skills needs, as well as client and candidate expectations. And as more areas realise their different priorities, recruiters’ need to improve their local knowledge to match. Already, according to the REC’s JobsOutlook in August, 87% of employers who recruit temporary agency workers highlighted the importance of a recruitment agency’s geographical and/or skills expertise when selecting their agency partners – up from 70% a year earlier.

TOP 10 LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIPS IN ENGLAND FOR JOBS GROWTH 2013-2018 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Digging deeper But it’s not just differences between regions – but also within regions – that matter. The REC’s new Workforce Intelligence series – in partnership with Emsi UK – provides detailed data and insight on key issues such as jobs and job posting trends, industry growth and headline occupation categories. And comparing the available reports shows how uneven growth can be. The North East region, for example, was hit particularly hard following the recession – and it’s the only area to post a net decrease in jobs in the 10 years since. But different industries and localities in the region have had very different experiences. Since 2015, highly specialised jobs in education and professional/scientiﬁc roles have fallen by 13% and 28% respectively in the North East LEP, but administrative and support services saw an increase of 23%. And while 2,650 jobs were lost in Newcastle last year, 820 were created in Sunderland. Differences in performance can be seen across other regions too. Last year the East Riding of Yorkshire saw more jobs created than its neighbours of York and Harrogate

5% - the fall in construction jobs in Birmingham & Solihull, compared to a 22% increase for sector in the South East LEP.

3,200 - the number of new accommodation and food service jobs expected in the Shefﬁeld region over the next three years – double what the national trend would suggest.

7,400 - the number of arts, entertainment and recreation jobs created in the Liverpool region over the last three years – 6,000 more than the national trend would suggest. www.rec.uk.com

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Hertfordshire Worcestershire Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Cheshire and Warrington Greater Manchester London Humber Coventry and Warwickshire South East Midlands Greater Birmingham and Solihull

19% 16% 15% 15% 14% 14% 13% 13% 12% 12%

combined. Meanwhile, Bromsgrove led job creation across the Birmingham and Solihull LEP, but a fall in employment in Tamworth, Redditch and East Staffordshire contributed to a picture of slowing growth overall.

Onto a winner? Focusing in on sector performance and health & social work has fuelled jobs growth across England and Northern Ireland, but it’s worth noting it was one of the worst performers in North Yorkshire (down 8%). No sector offers a guaranteed bet for growth. Similarly, just because a sector is suffering in one area, it doesn’t mean that that’s the case across the board. Despite the fall in professional/scientific roles in the North East, growth in the same sector has helped drive Cheshire and Warrington into one of the top five performing LEPs in England (see table above). Construction jobs may have fallen by 15% across Birmingham and Solihull between 2015 and 2018, but the sector comes top for growth for the South East LEP, which covers parts of Essex, Kent and East Sussex (up 15% for the same period). And if you need further proof that different sectors present different opportunities in different regions, look at the rest of the top five performing LEPs: for Hertfordshire, growth has been driven by wholesale, retail and motor repair industries; for both Worcester and Greater Manchester, it’s transportation and storage; and for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, it’s the accommodation and food service sector. London perhaps surprisingly only ranks sixth for jobs growth, but here it’s driven by the creation of jobs in information and communication. Every region is unique. And by deepening their understanding of local labour market dynamics, recruiters can better support clients and candidates. At the same time, whether they are looking to diversify, specialise in certain sectors or expand into new territories, the REC’s reports can help them make better informed decisions about the direction and growth of their own business. Visit www.rec.uk.com for more information.

OCTOBER 2019 RECRUITMENT MATTERS 5

10/09/2019 16:46

SECTION 60

legal update

Can I ask questions about a candidate’s health during the recruitment process? By BUNMI ADEFUYE, Senior Solicitor at REC

his question is commonly asked on the legal helpline. Section 60 of the Equality Act 2010 (Equality Act) states that when an application is made for work, you must not ask about the candidate’s health before offering work or on a conditional basis where you later turn down the candidate based on the answers given. Although if you make an enquiry about a person’s health, this will not automatically give rise to disability discrimination under the Equality Act

ARE YOUR CONSULTANTS FIGHTING FIT?

6 RECRUITMENT MATTERS OCTOBER 2019

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as there are exceptions where questions can be asked before offering work: • to assess if s/he needs adjustments to be made to attend an interview (such as ramp access, auxiliary aid if the person is deaf) • to assess whether s/he can carry out a function that is intrinsic to that role (eg. you can ask, ‘do you have any health issues that will prevent you from operating a forklift?’) • monitoring diversity – but you must actively use the information to monitor diversity; it is not enough to collect the data and store it • taking positive action based on a protected characteristic (eg. women being encouraged to apply for

What lies ahead is increasingly uncertain, but recruitment is a vibrant and resilient market – it grew by 11% last year. The number one issue we hear from members is it is difﬁcult to recruit your own staff – so now is the time to think about what you can do to grab the opportunities and challenges the future throws your way. Start with your team – are they tuned up and ready for the ﬁght ahead? Most importantly, do you have any solid contingency plans in place to ensure your best consultants

roles in engineering and technology) • fill a role that requires a person to have a protected characteristic (eg. a deaf person to work with other deaf people) If none of the exceptions apply, health questions should not be asked prior to registering a candidate or offering employment. If there are any disclosed conditions, you must consider whether they could amount to a disability under the Equality Act and whether reasonable adjustments can be made. An automatic rejection of the candidate could open you up to a discrimination claim unless you can show that your decision can be objectively justified. If you ask for information in circumstances which are not covered by the exceptions, there are two possible consequences: • The Equality and Human Rights Commission has authority to investigate and take action; and • If a candidate is unsuccessful after providing health information and pursues a disability discrimination claim in an Employment Tribunal, the burden of proof is reversed so you will have to prove that you did not discriminate against the candidate. Recruiters and employers have to be careful not to ask blanket health and disability questions before providing work finding services or offering a role to a candidate.

are not poached by your competitors? We always suggest recruitment businesses build a successful employee retention strategy, based on three pillars: training, recognition and rewards. • Train your consultants to make sure they’re at the top of their game • Get them recognised to boost their credibility among your clients • Reward them for their contributions to your business growth and to keep up performance

It sounds challenging but it all starts with one simple step. A skills audit. As an employer, here’s what you can do: • Invest some time to understand your team’s career aspirations and carry out a ‘core’ skills audit to see where the gaps lie. Then map these with your company’s vision and growth plans to see where you need to invest to tune up your team and make them ﬁghting-ﬁt. Find out more at: www.rec-irp.uk.com/ membership

www.rec.uk.com

10/09/2019 16:46

I N S P I R AT I O N To keep up to date with everything the Institute of Recruitment Professionals is doing, please visit www.rec-irp.uk.com

JAMES MILNER, executive director

manager at Redline Group, on developing a rewarding career

Success has everything Recommendations are to do with talented more important than people. targets.

What would you tell someone just starting in the industry?

Our success has grown over the years through recommendations. We need to retain that as we grow. Our ambition is to be the UK’s number one IT recruiter, but we’re never going to be huge – we need to balance volume with our focus on strong relationships.

We try to balance strong experience with Embrace technology nurturing raw talent. as early as possible Our directors have all been here for over 10 years to keep ahead of the and they still look after competition. clients. Their experience provides good role models to the rest of the business. But we’ve also had great success at hiring junior people, training, mentoring and promoting them. I’m not just talking about graduates – if you’re switched on, work hard and can build great relationships, education doesn’t necessarily come into it.

RM October 2019.indd 7

NATALIE TYLER, sales and marketing

at The Bridge, on building a successful agency

The Bridge has recently been named by the London Stock Exchange as one of the most dynamic and fastest growing SMEs in the UK, and I genuinely believe the team we have is the best I’ve worked with in my 16 years in recruitment.

www.rec.uk.com

Q&A

What I know

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE INSTITUTE OF RECRUITMENT PROFESSIONALS

For us that means AI and data-driven products that improve productivity. We’re quick to trial new job boards and search technology. But we’re keen to involve the whole ofﬁce to ﬁnd solutions that work. And now we’re owned by Morson Group, we’ve got a wider network to tap into, too.

Take time to learn as much as possible. Success doesn’t come over night. You have to put in the work, understand your clients and candidates, and learn from those around you. Recruitment is tough but incredibly rewarding. When someone new joins my team I always tell them that it will be a rollercoaster ride, but you will have fun and love what you do. The highs always outweigh the lows.

What’s your best candidate story? My candidate was in a great career for over 10 years at a small technology company. He got to a point where there was no room for progression and needed a challenge. He applied for a position I had with a technology company.

Unfortunately, ofﬁce politics were bad and he felt he didn’t ﬁt in. Six months later, visiting a client to discuss a new role, my candidate popped into my mind. Understanding the role, the company and the culture, I knew that he was perfect for it. In short, he’s still happily working there now. This was a ‘win win’… I should have charged a higher fee!

What do you think makes you a good recruiter? I am business-minded, sales-orientated and a driven individual. You have to run your own desk and team the way you would run a business. Sometimes I can’t switch off, but that’s because I am passionate about what I do.

OCTOBER 2019 RECRUITMENT MATTERS 7

10/09/2019 16:46

TRAINING & EVENTS

Upcoming training See the year out in style by supercharging your professional development October 2 Successful Account Management (London) 8 Telephone Sales (London) 9 Recruitment Law: GDPR (London), Recruitment Law: Managing PAYE Temp Workers (London) 10 Consultative Selling (Leeds), Recruitment Law: Understanding the Essentials (Edinburgh) 15 Business Development Planning (London), Introduction to Recruitment Practice (London) 16 Recruitment Law: Supplying Limited Company Contractors (Birmingham) 17 Interviewing Skills (London), Social Strategy & Branding (London) 22 Essential Skills for Temporary Recruiters (London) 23 Essential Skills for Permanent Recruiters (London), Management Essentials (Newcastle)

November 5 Start Up Your Own Recruitment Agency (London) 6 Recruitment Law: Supplying Limited Company Contractors (London) 7 Recruitment Law: Understanding the Essentials (London) 12 Business Development Planning (Edinburgh), Introduction to Recruitment Practice (London) 13 Essential Skills for Temporary Recruiters (Birmingham) 14 Essential Skills for Permanent Recruiters (Birmingham), Successful Account Management (Bristol) 18 Telephone Sales (London) 19 Candidate Sourcing & Management (London) 20 Balancing Act (London), Customer Service for Recruiters (London) 21 Social Media Recruiting - Mastering LinkedIn (Glasgow) 26 Advanced Management Skills (London)

Upcoming events 2-3 October – Recruitment Agency Expo, NEC, Birmingham The largest and longest running event in the UK for recruitment industry leaders. REC chief executive Neil Carberry will be opening Day 2 with his session on Climbing the Ladders and Avoiding the Snakes – the Future for Recruiters. 6 November – Future of Jobs Summit, REC, London This annual REC event brings together thought leaders and industry experts to discuss how we can prepare for the future world of work. Hear too from the Future of Jobs Ambassadors about the work they are doing with schools and colleges.

December 3 Management Essentials (London), Perfect Client Meeting (London), Start Up Your Own Recruitment Agency (London), Telephone Sales (Birmingham) 4 Essential Skills for Temporary Recruiters (London), Recruitment Law: Supplying Limited Company Contractors (Belfast) 5 Essential Skills for Permanent Recruiters (London), Recruitment Law: Understanding the Essentials (London), Social Strategy and Branding (Manchester) 10 Business Development Planning (London) 11 Recruitment Law: Supplying Limited Company Contractors (Cambridge) 12 Develop and Win: Tenders and Large Contracts (London)

SEMINARS Preparing for IR35 series… in Newcastle (2 Oct), Aberdeen (3 Oct), London (8 Oct), Belfast (13 Nov) and Cambridge (20 Nov) Talking recruitment webinars: 9 October, 11 December

For more information, visit www.rec.uk.com/training-and-events

RECRUITMENT MATTERS

The ofﬁcial magazine of The Recruitment & Employment Confederation Dorset House, 1st Floor, 27-45 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NT Tel: 020 7009 2100 www.rec.uk.com

8 RECRUITMENT MATTERS OCTOBER 2019

RM October 2019.indd 8

Membership Department: Membership: 020 7009 2100, Customer Services: 020 7009 2100 Publishers: Redactive Publishing Ltd, Level 5, 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL Tel: 020 7880 6200. www.redactive.co.uk Editorial: Editor Pip Brooking Pip.Brooking@rec.uk.com. Production Editor: Vanessa Townsend Production: Production Executive: Rachel Young rachel.young@redactive.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 6209 Printing: Printed by Precision Colour Printing © 2019 Recruitment Matters. Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, neither REC, Redactive Publishing Ltd nor the authors can accept liability for errors or omissions. Views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the REC or Redactive Publishing Ltd. No responsibility can be accepted for unsolicited manuscripts or transparencies. No reproduction in whole or part without written permission.

www.rec.uk.com

10/09/2019 16:46

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F Y O D A T S E R O C G E N I H T BE T O N

PA PAY PA AYRO AY RO L L: L : COST CO INCREASES

As recruitm recruitment agencies look budgets at their bud for 2020, tthere warnings of are warnin a cocktail of cost increases increase set stafďŹ ng to hit sta companies compa next April that could have devastating devasta consequences. consequen Colin Cottell Co explains exp

I M AG E S | I I KO N I M AG ES

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PAY RO L L : COST I N C R E A S E S

n addition ad to the abolition of the Swedish Der Derogation rules, which one recruitment firm has estimated could mean a £5k wage rise per worker per annum, further wag upward pressure on wage bills is set to upw come from further increases in the com National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the Nat National Living Wage (NLW). This is on Nat top of recent increase in employers’ pension contribution rrates – from a minimum of 5% to 8% in April – as well the intro introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy that affects large recru recruitment agencies. Louise Rayner, CEO of o NumberMill, an accountancy firm that specialises in back office services for recruitment agencies, says the situation “is getting out of hand and is very concerning”, and moreover, she added, “totally unaffordable”. While individual elements of the expected cost rises are on the radar of recruitment agencies and their clients, “I am not sure they have put all these things together”, she warns. “I can’t see what choice agencies have but to increase their costs, which will mean an increase in the price to the end user,” says Amanda Hobson, managing director of finance and back office services for recruitment agency Easypay Services. “Agencies won’t be able to afford to cut the margins for the ‘on costs’, which they will incur. They won’t be able to absorb those at all but will simply have to pass it on; they couldn’t afford not to. “Employers’ NI [National Insurance] contributions are 13.1%, holiday pay is 12.8% and some agencies only operate on a 15% margin – that’s gross margin for placing temps, so there is no way they could absorb NI and these other costs.”

Rising costs Matthew Fryer, group compliance director at specialist accountancy and umbrella services provider for contractors Brookson, agrees that the cumulative effects of “the raft of cost increases for recruiters over recent years, with further increases expected in 2020” have now “become material”. According to Fryer, these higher costs will be of particular relevance to agencies paying lower paid temps, and especially if they are then using umbrella companies to employ and pay the workers. “Agencies should be aware of the minimum contract rates which umbrellas will accept,” he explains, “so once the employer costs [such as holiday pay] have been retained [by the umbrella] from the contract rate, there is sufficient funds to ensure the temp is paid at the NLW.” This has been forecasted to rise from £8.21 today to £8.67 next April. Fryer says that among all the cost increase, there is a particular “sting in the tail” from next April’s introduction of the off-payroll rules into the private sector. “If a temporary worker continues to work via their personal service company post-April 2020, and the worker is assessed to be caught by IR35, then the employer’s NI cannot be

funded from the agreed contract rate. This presents an immediate 13.8% cost increase that either needs to be funded from the agency margin, a rise in the rate paid by the client to the agency, or a termination and renegotiation of the contract.” Fryer says the abolition of the Swedish Derogation in April is also likely to increase the cost of supplying agency workers. As a result of this change, it will no longer be possible to exempt temporary agency workers from receiving the same basic working and employment conditions including pay, known as ‘pay parity’ as an equivalent full-time employee after a 12-week qualifying period in return for being paid between assignments. According to the government, there are around 130,000 agency workers on Swedish Derogation contracts, making up 8-10% of UK agency workers, with particular concentrations in minimum wage blue-collar sectors such as retail and manufacturing. According to international recruiter and training provider Gi Group, the additional cost of pay parity for agency workers currently on Swedish Derogation contracts is likely to be signiﬁcant. It estimates that for a workforce of 100 temporary agency workers, currently paid £9.85 per hour, including employment costs, the effect of ‘pay parity’ is likely to increase the wage bill by at least £500k per annum.

“We have found the key is communication, so speak to your payroll providers early so it can be managed well”

Are you ready? Stephen Hollins, new business manager at PAYE umbrella company MyPay, agrees that next April will be particularly challenging for recruitment agencies. “These changes will affect everyone, there is no getting round them,” he says. Hollins says the ﬁrst thing agencies need to do to mitigate the effects is to make sure they understand the cost implications of the changes: “We have always found the key to something like this is communication, so speak to your payroll providers early so it can be managed well. This will allow them to agree budgets with their clients to ensure they are ready for April.” He continued: “What they don’t want to be is in March time is wondering how they are going to get everything done for the next month. The more planning you can do,

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PAYRO LL: COST INCREASES

and the earlier the better, you will be able to understand the changes, and the better you will be prepared for April.” When it comes to who will end up paying the extra costs, agency or end client, Hollins says the answer will not always be clear cut. “It very much depends on the end client’s relationship with the agency, the industry they are in, the skills within that industry and whether there is a shortage.” Rayner says recruitment agencies must not be afraid to have “frank conversations with their clients”. And not only about who will absorb the extra costs. Ultimately, Rayner says agencies must persuade clients to look beyond charge rates and to focus on the benefits that temporary agencies can provide. “The benefits of a recruitment agency is flexibility. As an employer, you can’t have a seasonal workforce on your books 52 weeks a year – it just doesn’t work; and that’s why flexible working and recruitment agencies have a value.” They should adopt the same approach with the abolition of the Swedish Derogation rules, Rayner advises. While she admits that “the chances are that the entire world will put existing workers on Swedish Derogation contracts onto PAYE”, agencies should not be shy to sell “the benefits of being able to respond to peaks and troughs [in demand] and carrying the costs of workers when you don’t really need them”.

Risky solutions In the face of rising pressure on employment costs and wages, Hobson says, none of the options open to recruitment agencies are particularly palatable. Those who absorb the costs themselves could potentially drive some to the wall, they could go half and half with the end user or “they could look to a risky solution to avoid it”. Rather than having a difficult conversation with end clients about cost increases and who should shoulder the burden that risks them losing the business, Hobson expect that many agencies will look for ‘a risky solution’ instead. According to Hobson, one such solution being offered by umbrellas is to put workers on Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) cards “and then [wrongly] persuade agencies they are outside of IR35”. Hobson claims that some

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umbrellas are even advising some workers can still be employed on a travel & subsistence scheme – this despite changes to outlaw such schemes in April 2016. Hobson says that increasing employment and wage cost will only lead to more of these types of schemes, with the construction most likely to take these higher risks, she says. A potentially viable option for some agencies is statement of work, where a client effectively outsources the whole service rather than the agency just supplying the labour. However, Hobson says that while this might work for IT consultants, it wouldn’t work for say pickers and packers, and there are risks of providing this type of service for a ﬁxed price. Crawford Temple, CEO a PRISM at trade association for payment intermediaries, agrees that April 2020 will see upwards pressure on employment costs in the sector. He says one particularly inﬂationary factor is “a typical reduction of between 25% and 30%” in the take-home pay of contactors working through their own limited companies and currently outside IR35, many of whom are likely to be deemed to be caught by IR35 and therefore employees – with all the associated costs associated with that status. “If you want to keep key workers you will have to increase the rates,” he says. However, Temple says it is a mistake to think that agencies won’t adapt to the changed circumstances. “In essence, what will happen is that forward-thinking recruitment companies will start to change their engagement models and their mix.” Temple suggests that among potential alternative engagement models are statement of work, joint employment (where more than one entity is a worker’s employer), and margin-only deals, where the agency doesn’t engage with the contractor directly but receives an on-going fee for the services of the contractor, all of which have the potential to reduce employment costs. “There are going to be cases where there isn’t going to be any other way except to increase the budget,” says Crawford. “But if the conversation with the client is ‘Oh, I have got to increase my budget [for staff ] by 2%’, that is a very different conversation to ‘I need to increase the budget by 20%’.” While April 2020 is shaping up to be a tricky time for recruitment agencies, the bigger danger is ignoring the changes until it is too late. ●

“There are going to be cases where there isn’t going to be any other way except to increase the budget”

OCTOBER 2019

12/09/2019 11:51

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PAY RO L L : L E G I S L AT I O N

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE The clock is ticking on two pieces of legislation relevant to recruitment and the private sector â&#x20AC;&#x201C; yet there is a lack of awareness among the companies that will be affected. Roisin Woolnough looks at how they can prepare

I M AG E S | I S H U T T ERSTOC K

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PAYRO LL: LE G ISLATION

hat’s looming large on the horizon and has been doing so for some time? The obvious answer is Brexit – which has been looming very large for what seems like a very long time. But there is something else, too, which is speciﬁc to the recruitment industry and the private sector – and that something is IR35. In April 2020, the government is due to extend IR35 legislation to include the private sector – it became law in the public sector in 2000. Also on the horizon is the Key Information Document, which comes into effect in April 2020, too. Under this legislation, all recruitment agencies will need to give candidates information about pay rates and how they will be paid. However, pay experts warn that awareness in the recruitment sector of both sets of forthcoming legislation is not at the level it should be. Graham Fisher, group CEO at the PAYE umbrella company Orange Genie, thinks lack of awareness about the IR35 extension is partly because Brexit has dominated the airwaves, overshadowing other important business matters. This has made it hard for businesses to properly plan ahead, but Fisher says recruitment agencies, contractors and the private sector

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BREXIT AND GDPR: WHAT ARE THE PAYROLL IMPLICATIONS? Before the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced in 2018, there was widespread publicity about the new legislation – what it meant, what it required of companies and so on. Information was readily available about what was needed to comply and what the potential repercussions were if organisations’ processes fell short. However, because of the lack of clarity on Brexit, there is also uncertainty about what will happen to EU legislation that has also become UK legislation. Will GDPR still stand, for example? Will there be data security issues between the UK and the EU because of Brexit? How will these affect recruitment agencies, their clients and their

contractors? What are the payroll implications? Solange Semedo, general partner and head legal counsel at recruitment back-office software company ETZ Payments, says it’s hard to predict with any real certainty what effect Brexit will have on payroll and on the recruitment sector generally. However, when it comes to GDPR and data security, she thinks the impact, if there is any, will be minimal. “I don’t think it will affect us that much in the UK with regard to data protection. We’ve got the Data Protection Act 2018, which mirrors GDPR, and we’ve got the Information Commissioner’s Office (IOC). The Data Protection Act will still address data protection. From a candidate’s perspective, and from consumers’ and

from recruiters’ perspective as data holders, they will still have those stringent obligations under the Act.” This is a view that Orange Genie’s Graham Fisher also holds. He says that companies just need to keep on doing what they are already doing with regard to data. “I hope all of us went through the GDPR changes we needed to make to comply with legislation. GDPR is here to stay, and that makes sense. The only quirk is data being sent from the EU to the UK. There might be an issue because the EU would treat it as a third party, even though we are using GDPR legislation. But I’m not worried – it would mean slight admin changes that you could deal with quickly.”

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PAY RO L L : L E G I S L AT I O N

have to get to grips with the imminent reality of IR35. “The big issue in the market is uncertainty about Brexit – that’s slowing down decisions on new projects starting,” he says. “But the biggest legislative challenge is IR35. There are people who are preparing in the private sector, but they are precious few at the moment.” Fisher thinks HMRC needs to increase IR35 publicity and get it ﬁrmly on the business agenda. In his view, one of the big problems when IR35 was introduced in the public sector was the lack of preparedness. “HMRC and the Treasury tell us that IR35 has been a huge success in the public sector, but we don’t agree with that. They brought it in and implemented it at short notice, so few people had the opportunity to prepare.” When businesses are properly prepared for new legislation, everything tends to happen more smoothly. Take, for instance, the new legislation requiring employers to include additional information on

AND NEXT IN LINE… OFF-CYCLE PAY OPTIONS? According to ‘Future of Pay’ research by global technology company ADP, 62% of employees say that off-cycle pay options – such as the ability to choose pay frequency – would make a difference when they are considering a job offer. The study, in which 4,000 employees and 2,900 businesses were surveyed, also revealed that almost half of employees would pay for early access to earned money at least once per year, and one in five would do so at least once a month. Despite employees’ desire for flexible pay, 70% of

organisations think transfer money and the pay itself matters manage finances in more than the real time, but options offered to employer pay employees. cycles, by Jeff Phipps, comparison, move employees managing director at at a snail’s pace. ADP UK, cites the “Payment growth of “a new options, off-cycle class of ‘on-demand’ payments and workers who can financial wellness respond to a support can help business’s immediate businesses differentiate a surveyed needs in hours or company even minutes” as key to competing to attract interest in easier and and retain talent,” earlier access to pay. adds Phipps. “Despite tech The survey was developments, payment conducted with methods and pay cycles employees from are lagging behind companies with 50-plus consumer technology,” he employees across 13 says. “Consumers can countries worldwide.

4,000

2,900

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PAY RO L L : L E G I S L AT I O N

payslips, as introduced in April this year. Fisher says plenty of notice and guidance was given about what was required, how and why, which made the implementation pretty uneventful. Crawford Temple, CEO at PRISM, a professional trade association for the payment intermediaries sector, agrees that the payslips transition went well on the whole. “While there were some small amendments to the umbrella providers’ contracts, this was anticipated and so, in the main, it was implemented with little fuss,” he says. “The only teething issues we have seen are where payment systems have not recognised a rate as a day rate, and applied the number of days as the hours. This was quickly spotted and resolved.” Julia Kermode, CEO at the Freelancer and Contractor Services Association (FCSA), and Jill Smith, policy operations manager at the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP), agree that the payslips legislation was easily adopted. However, Kermode is concerned that agencies are not aware of the Key Information Document and will not be ready come April next year. PRISM’s Temple agrees: “This seems to have been missed by most, probably as the focus is on off-payroll, and it will impact every recruitment business and umbrella provider.” By and large, payroll is an outsourced function these days, so you should be talking to your payroll providers to ﬁnd out what, if any, changes lie ahead. Nick Woodward, CEO at ETZ Payments, says he has been consulting with his private sector customers about IR35.

“Companies should be realistic and give a fair price for dealing with IR35 – around £5 per contractor per month” He thinks most agencies will leave it to the last minute to get ready for IR35, and then embark on panic buying. Not surprisingly, he advises against that, and thinks agencies should be looking around to see what’s on the market and what solutions payroll companies are offering for IR35.

Keeping costs down Further, Woodward thinks the payroll cost of IR35 should be absorbed by agencies, but that those costs should be small. “Companies should be realistic and give a fair price – around £5 per contractor per month. There are a multitude of cloud-based payroll

products, and companies should be using technology to get the costs down and still make a proﬁt. A price of £50-100 per contractor is far too much.” He says all payroll companies and agencies should have fully embraced the digital age, leaving manual processes behind. This view is supported by Stacey Wright, head of marketing and client relations at recruitment payroll software provider Zeel Solutions, who says that being fully digital makes everything easier, including the adoption of new legislation. “Having reliable, HMRC-recognised software implemented in your business will ensure factors are handled such as changes to format of payslips, RTI (real-time information), auto-enrolment and many other payroll regulations,” she says. Finally, there is a Brexit-related issue looming that recruiters need to be thinking about with regards to payroll: right-to-work checks. Kermode says this is something that the FCSA is keeping a close eye on. “No one knows any answers yet, but if I was a recruitment business I would be keeping in touch with my trade body, keeping up-to-date with what is happening.” It’s hard to prepare for the unknown, so the best option is to stay informed and keep checking in with trade bodies and contacts, she says. Whatever happens or doesn’t happen with Brexit, recruitment agencies have to be ready for any payroll changes that take place in the coming months. Being sidetracked by Brexit is not much of an excuse for not getting your payroll in order. ●

USEFUL RESOURCES ● Data Protection Act 2018: www.gov.uk/data-protection ● The IOC and GDPR: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-

general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/

● Right to work checks: www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-work-checks-employers-guide ● Key Information Document: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldseclegb/

286/286.pdf www.fcsa.org.uk/regulations-require-key-information-document-to-be-provided/

● Off-payroll working: www.gov.uk/government/publications/rules-for-off-payroll-working-

from-april-2020

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CO M M U N I T Y

SOCIAL NETWORK WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? GET IN TOUCH!

I NSTAGR AM

Summer may be over, but that hasn’t stopped all you ﬁt recruiters from getting on your bikes or pulling on your pumps for a good cause. Here’s what just a few of you have been up to… LEAPING TO THE CHALLENGE

hyperec_hrs Fantastic day filming for the #RecruiterRicky podcast

Two intrepid consultants from global recruiter Leap29 took on a 241-mile challenge to cycle from London back to the Leap29 office in Wilmslow, Cheshire, over just three days. Visiting London g landmarks before heading up North, Angus McCormick and Kyle Williams were given free n overnight accommodation at Sedgebrook Hall in Northamptonshire and the Holiday Inn Birmingham North en route to their final e destination. The pair have already passed their £1k target for the East Cheshire Hospice in Macclesfield!

• Thank you to DeeDee Doke, Editor of the @recruitermagazine and @julie_ deane, founder of @camsatchelco for sharing your pearls of wisdom today • Shout out to @yaketyyak for a fab job on filming as always • Podcasts will be live soon • #recruitment #podcast #career #entrepreneur #cv #interview #science #tech

Angus McCormick and Kyle Williams stop off at Buckingham Palace before cycling back up to Cheshire

@RecruiterMag instagram.com/recruitermagazine/ recruitermagazine.tumblr.com/

STRIDING OUT FOR THE STROKE ASSOCIATION

ON YOUR BIKE FOR ASTRIID!

Recruiter Lucy Price and account assistant Kim Donaldson at global strategic resourcing specialist Hortor were pounding the streets of Newcastle in the Great North Run on behalf of the Stroke Association. Hortor donated £500 each to both of them, who trained three times a week in preparation for their half-marathon. Look forward to hearing how you got on!

Astriid, Recruiter’s Charity of the Year, is to benefit from a cycling challenge taking place on 25-27 September. Groups of cyclists will travel around 190 miles from London’s Tower Bridge to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Sponsored by cloud-based software firm Salesforce (a long-term supporter of Astriid, which provides meaningful work for people with long-term health conditions), the event is still looking for cyclists to take part. Astriid is asking each individual rider to pay a £99 registration fee, e and then commit to raising £750 in sponsorship. What are you waiting for? Get on your bike for a good cause! IMAG ES | ISTOCK

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rec_social Whooop whooop!!! Happy Friday! We are back in @recruitermagazine This time, we are (Our happy place talking about Pinterest and how you can best utilise it as an SEO tool! Check it out, we would love to hear your thoughts. #friday #fridayfeels #articles #magazines #knowledgeshare #pinterest #socialmedia #socialstrategy #seo #recruiter #recruitment #recruiting

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E CAREERS CO M M UNITY

The Workplace BY GUY HAYWARD

44 RECRUITER

We have recently appointed our own head of people – Alice Morton. I had thought the need for such a role sat exclusively with FTSE and large public sector organisations. It clearly doesn’t. I love the impact Alice has made, and I love hearing what others are doing too. We should all have one. It represents a major shift in how we envision our future. Kim Castelda, in her role at Bullhorn as chief people officer, sits at the boardroom table – a fact that, she believes, “ensures that our employees will always be top of mind when the executive team discusses strategy”. This is a simple way of keeping the firm’s aspiration ‘to provide an incredible employee experience’ at the forefront. This is because of recruitment and the identification of talent. It’s about not just finding new hires, but determining with management when recruitment is necessary in each team, as well as if the hire will benefit –and about understanding the costs of failure to hire the right person. Heads of people are responsible for every new face who joins your business, with an induction and onboarding experience scheduled, consistent across all teams. What better way is there to set someone up for success?

“I had thought the need for a head of people role sat exclusively with FTSE and large public sector organisations, but it clearly doesn’t” They also look after performance. Not to remove someone, but to meet an obligation you have when you hire. To discuss performance continually – so people know what to do to succeed, and learn to love what they do. In addition, they are responsible for continued education and constant upgrading of skills and knowledge across every level. Everything ‘people’ becomes one person’s responsibility. Some will think: we already do this. I thought I was doing it, but on further critique I wasn’t doing it as well as I thought. Maybe it is worth all of us taking a look at exactly what we are doing? ●

↗

IT’S SOMETHING THAT is talked about; it may even be included in the ‘Work for Us’ section of company websites. But I wonder: how much importance do organisations really place on ensuring their people are looked after? How much investment is directed into an HR infrastructure that supports careers and growth? How sophisticated is our approach to connecting our business objectives with the environment we build for our people to perform in? I’m critiquing myself and Goodman Masson with how I introduce these points. We’ve long placed our people at the centre of everything we do. But I realise that previously we had a gap – a gap that I believe is shared by many other ﬁrms. The vast majority of UK businesses can be categorised in the SME bracket, yet most do not have a ‘head of people’ or ‘chief people officer’: someone skilled at building, developing and managing a company’s most important asset – its people. Businesses may have one person (or a team) with HR as their job title, or may think they have a modern HR director. But do they have someone who is responsible for all aspects of HR – connecting talent acquisition, learning & development, and performance?

GUY HAYWARD – redefining the modern workplace CEO, Goodman Masson

OCTOBER 2019

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CO M MU N I T Y

WORKPLACE INNOVATION

BRING ON THE BRILLIANCE ↗ CHRIS GRIFFITHS with Rachel Pewsey. Chris is the bestselling author of The Creative Thinking Handbook, and founder of OpenGenius, the company behind creative productivity software Ayoa

Focused daydreaming can be a way to uncover new ideas. Consider when you get your best ideas: walking the dog, or taking a shower. It’s then that your brain can be left to explore creativity

Work and rest – get the balance right for the most creative ideas BY CHRIS GRIFFITHS

WHETHER YOU WORK 9-5, shift work or anything in between, we all know the struggle of maintaining a good work-life balance. However, not only is finding a healthy routine beneficial for your wellbeing, but giving yourself adequate time to rest is key in helping you realise your most creative ideas. When you’re well rested, you probably find you return to work feeling more fresh and alert. Rather than having your mind fogged with fatigue, being well rested means you become more focused, with your reactions quicker and sharper, which ultimately leads to clearer thinking and the potential to reach more innovative and creative solutions. It can be easy to take good rest for granted, but here are three simple ways you can learn to rest better, so stress and deprivation don’t affect the quality of your work.

Learn to switch off This can be much easier said than done and is especially difficult for entrepreneurs and those who are self-employed, whose work can consume their thoughts long after they’ve left their desks. But a fuel without ﬁre eventually burns out, and this has a larger effect on your mental state than you may realise. One way to get started is to literally switch off – as in shutting your laptop down, and even putting your phone in another room. By removing any distractions that lure you back towards your work, you’re giving yourself time to clear your mind and refresh your thinking.

Discover the power of daydreaming Once you’ve managed to switch off, your mind is left to explore its imagination through daydreaming – something you might be IMAG ES | ISTO C K

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surprised to hear can actually help you come up with creative ideas. So if you really struggle to pull your mind away from work, engaging in focused daydreaming can be a great way to let your mind wander and subsequently uncover new ideas. Consider when you get your best ideas: perhaps when you’re out walking the dog, or even taking a shower. It’s in these moments, when you step out of your work mindset, that your brain can be drawn away from your daily, routine tasks and left to explore more creative opportunities.

Set aside time for rest – and stick to it Making time for good rest is essential and something we should learn to prioritise. Rest shouldn’t be seen merely as a reward for hard work, but as a fundamental element to generating quality results and achieving success. There’s always something that you can be working on – so if you don’t block out time for adequate rest, you’ll ﬁnd it difficult to do. Being able to switch off also allows you to see the bigger picture. When you’re deep into a task, you naturally become more narrow-minded and structured in your thinking to get the task completed. Taking a step away and coming back with fresh eyes means you see your work in a new perspective that you wouldn’t have considered before. However you choose to spend your rest time, your relaxation time should be for you, and not focused on what you think you should be doing. So whether your personal rest means relaxing with a good book or even baking in the kitchen, then make sure you do that. You’ll thank yourself the next day, when you return to work with a clearer mind and resparked energy to take on your tasks. ●

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E BUSINESS ADVICE CO MM UNITY

ASK THE EXPERT How do I create a great company that someone will want to buy?

PART 2

In the ﬁrst part of this article (Recruiter, September 2019), I explained how a buyer will typically value a recruitment business, the principal exit routes available to owners, the principle of accelerating growth in anticipation of a sale and how to drive steady returns. This second part focuses on practical actions that will maximise the value of your business in a seller’s eyes.

Alex Arnot

Documenting every aspect of the business

The SME Coach

Perceived risk erodes the value that investors and prospective buyers are willing to offer for a business. To make your business robust in the eyes of potential buyers, provide them with a ‘timeline’ of how the business has grown, the challenges it has faced and how it overcame them. Monthly reports covering every aspect of the business – finance, sales, operations, talent, marketing, and so on – for three-plus years will give investors confidence both that they understand all the risks associated with the investment and that the directors have been consistently making strong business decisions. These reports may simply be the documentation of the board meetings, including targets, actions and outcomes. If you would like a free copy of the ‘MyNonExec Board Pack template’ I use with clients, contact me via LinkedIn. Documenting challenges, particularly if subsequent reports show how those challenges have been resolved, will reassure prospective buyers that risks have been addressed. If investors believe the seller isn’t disclosing risks or is understating them, then that will likely significantly erode the multiple. How thorough the due diligence process is will depend on the buyer, the level of investment and the perceived risk. Prospective buyers will often speak to current and former employees, as well as to potential suppliers, clients and even competitors.

Scalability

46 RECRUITER

Earn-outs and business continuity Buyers invest in businesses based on expected future returns, so everything that improves the predictability of anticipated proﬁts will increase the value. Contracts with key clients and suppliers can guarantee a certain level of revenue or cost, and proprietary intellectual property can also secure a competitive advantage. However, in recruitment it is maintaining the management team and big billers that typically makes the greatest difference to consistent revenues. Given the importance of retaining the team, owners will often, in anticipation of a sale, tie in key staff using an enterprise management incentive share scheme. These shares entitle the employee to a share of the value of the business when it sells, without giving the employee any rights to dividends or control over the business. Buyers will often take the same approach with the existing owners, tying them in for a transitional period – two-plus years – after the sale. The sale agreement may also stagger payments, with an initial ﬂat fee, and then several staggered payments determined by the performance of the business in the years that follow. ●

↗

While risk erodes the multiple, demonstrating the potential for future growth will increase it. Operating in high-growth sectors will make the business attractive to buyers who want to move into that sector or quickly capture market share. Developing multiple revenue streams through sector, product or geographical diversiﬁcation will show buyers that the business can replicate its success in

additional markets, maximising the potential for future growth while simultaneously reducing risk because of diverse revenue streams. However, from the seller’s perspective, diversiﬁcation is a relatively high-risk approach – it involves moving away from your core area of expertise and is generally initially resource-intensive in terms of both time and money. My advice is to stay niche wherever possible, as long as you can prove future scale.

ALEX ARNOT is founder of MyNonExec and board adviser to more than 30 recruitment companies

OCTOBER 2019

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CO M M U N I T Y

CAREERS

“I love the diversity – no day is ever the same. I’m always speaking to and dealing with different people” MY BRILLIANT RECRUITMENT CAREER What was your earliest dream job?

↗

A footballer. And at eight years old, I actually started playing for Luton Town football club.

BRETT LONGDEN consultant, manufacturing and operations, Redline Group and ex-Luton Town footballer

What was your first job in recruitment and how did you come into it? This role at Redline. My brother-in-law works on the contracts side of the company. Two-and-a-half years ago in May 2017, he referred me, as Redline was just starting its ‘talent academy’. It’s a programme designed to accelerate a consultant’s recruitment career through an eight-week training progamme. It enhanced my skills and technical knowledge, and I have been in the manufacturing and operations team for more than two years.

Who is your role model – in life or in recruitment or football? In life – my grandad – he’s an honest, straight-talking guy who I have tried to emulate. In football, it would have to be Ronaldinho – not that I’m anything like him.

What do you love most about your current role? The diversity – no day is ever the same, so it keeps me on my toes. I’m always speaking to and dealing with different people, with different careers.

What would you consider to be the most brilliant moment of your career in recruitment and football? In football, it would have to be signing a professional contract when I was 17. In recruitment, it would be when I

I M AG E S | SH UT T E R STO C K

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BRETT LONGDEN achieved my ﬁrst full-quarter target. After graduating from the Redline academy, I was the ﬁrst out of six people to achieve this target. I treated myself to a holiday in Marbella.

What’s your top job to fill at the moment? There are two: an outsourcing manager and a conﬁguration manager for one of y clients, in the aerospace my primary industry, based ased in Berkshire.

Laugh or cry, what did your mostt memorable candidate e make you want to do o and why? Deﬁnitely cry – it was only a couple le of weeks ago, so it’s still fresh. A candidate e accepted a great job – it meant moving ving back home after having to stay away during the week. Everything ything was going smoothly, othly, and then two weeks later his

current employer made a counter-offer with the ﬂexibility to work from home. So it was a win/win situation for this candidate – he was earning more money and he got to spend a couple of days working from home. I was happy for him, but also gutted that he didn’t go with my offer.

What is your signature dish? Beef stro stroganoff – I’m pretty handy in the kitchen. kitch

What’s the best or worst interview question you’ve ever heard? ques “Tel me about yourself” – it’s such “Tell an open-ended question. I’ve had candidates tell me that people have asked them this. But it doesn’t give the candidates any direction of where the interview is wh looking to go down. It’s too lo open a question to start an op interview with. in

Wha would you regard as your What theme tune? them All I D Do Is Win by DJ Khaled.

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E CAREERS CO M M UNITY

AMERIT CONSULTING The US staffing organisation owned by national service disabled veterans welcomes Alysha Connelly as territory manager for Greater Nashville, California in its business development team.

AVROBIO The phase 2 clinical-stage gene therapy company based in the US has appointed Georgette Verdin as chief HR officer. Verdin will be responsible for all aspects of human resources, including talent management and organisational development.

development in the UK and Ireland.

DIAMOND RECRUITMENT Joanne Davies has become head of sales at the office/ commercial, industrial and driving staffing specialist, taking responsibility for the group’s transport/ industrial and commercial recruitment divisions.

EAMES CONSULTING GROUP The ﬁnancial and professional services recruiter has promoted technology and change specialist Adrian Chua from managing consultant to associate director in its Singapore office.

HEIDRICK & STRUGGLES The global executive search ﬁrm has made the

CROWN WORLD MOBILITY Jeremy Beglin joins the global mobility solutions provider as regional manager for business 48 RECRUITER

Third-party logistics company Wincanton has appointed Sally Austin group HR director. Austin, who has worked across the engineering, defence and manufacturing industries, was most recently group HR director with technology-based construction and engineering company Costain Group. She previously held a variety of HR roles in the company and became group HR director in 2014. Before joining Costain, she held positions at BAE Systems, Coopervision and latterly Eaton Corporation, working across Europe. Commenting on her new role, Austin said: “I’m delighted to be joining Wincanton and have already seen the vibrant company culture that exists across the business. My passion is to improve organisational capability and business value through strategic HR leadership and knowledge. At Wincanton our people are one of our greatest resources, and I look forward to driving a culture and working environment where all our employees can perform at their best.”

following new appointments: Lynn Bermann as principal in its ﬁnancial services practice in New York; Jill Blackburn as principal in its healthcare and life sciences, and ﬁnancial officer practice in Chicago; and Melissa Oszustowicz as principal in its industrial practice in Minneapolis.

HRC RECRUITMENT

JVP GROUP The recruitment marketing specialist has appointed Natalie Wood as head of client support.

Margaret Richmond has joined the Scottish recruiter’s accountancy and ﬁnance team as director.

Email people moves for use online and in print, including a short biography, to recruiter.editorial@redactive.co.uk

MOOREPAY The payroll and HR provider

OCTOBER 2019

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welcomes ex-Virgin Media executive director Anthony Vollmer as managing director.

executive search team as head of practice.

NHS PROFESSIONALS

The boutique executive search ﬁrm has appointed Jon Boyle as partner.

CONTACTS

SPHERE DIGITAL RECRUITMENT

EDITORIAL +44 (0)20 7880 7603 Editor DeeDee Doke

The agency that supplies temporary staff to the NHS has appointed Becky Rogerson as regional director for the south region. James Orr joins as managing director of the Doctors Direct business division.

Redactive Publishing Ltd 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL 020 7880 6200

REDGRAVE

The digital staffing specialist has made James Nelson a senior manager in Manchester.

TML PARTNERS The international executive recruitment ﬁrm welcomes Peter Bush as manager to lead its UK operations in the commerce and industry sector.

ONEZEERO The Impellam brand welcomes Terry Cannon as associate director to head its new digital marketing and e-commerce division.

YOUR NEXT MOVE A selection of vacancies from recruiter.co.uk

Qualserv Consulting Recruitment consultant – NO SELLING IT North-West London £27k base to £75k OTE

ORION GROUP The engineering recruiter has promoted Ross MacRae to group deputy MD. He will retain his role as HR director.

Ennis & Co Researcher/Analyst Automotive Bristol, Cheltenham £28k-£30k – OTE c.£35k uncapped Atlantis Medical Recruitment consultant Healthcare London Competitive salary Rule Recruitment Trainee recruitment consultant Sports and leisure, healthcare, rec-to-rec City of London £22k-£35k per annum

PRECISION SEARCH The agency, which is part of specialist recruitment consultancy Precision People, has added Sandy Seta to its

For more jobs, people moves and career advice go to ● recruiter.co.uk/jobs ● inhouserecruiterjobs.co.uk ● internationalrecruiterjobs.com

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING Recruitment@recruiter.co.uk

+44 (0)20 7880 6215

deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

Reporters Colin Cottell, Graham Simons colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk graham.simons@recruiter.co.uk

Contributing writers Sue Weekes, Roisin Woolnough Production editor Vanessa Townsend vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk

Art editor Sarah Auld Picture editor Akin Falope

PRODUCTION +44 (0)20 7880 6209 Senior production executive Rachel Young rachel.young@redactive.co.uk

PUBLISHING +44 (0)20 7880 8547 Publishing director Aaron Nicholls aaron.nicholls@redactive.co.uk

ADVERTISING +44 (0)20 7880 6213 Sales manager Paul Barron

RECRUITER AWARDS/ INVESTING IN TALENT AWARDS +44 (0)20 7324 2771

paul.barron@redactive.co.uk

eventsteam@redactive.co.uk

+44 (0)20 7880 6245 Senior sales executive Joanna Holmes joanna.holmes@redactive.co.uk

CIRCULATION and SUBSCRIPTIONS Recruiter is the leading magazine for recruitment and resourcing professionals. To ensure each issue of Recruiter magazine is delivered to your desk or door, subscribe now at https://subs. recruiter.co.uk/subscribe. Annual subscription rate for 12 issues: £35 UK; £45 Europe and £50 Rest of the world • Recruiter is also available to people who meet our terms of control: http://bit.ly/RecruiterCC • To purchase reprints or multiple copies, or any other enquiries, please contact subs@redactive.co.uk or +44 (0)1580 883844 CONTRIBUTIONS Contributions are invited, but when not accepted will be returned only if accompanied by a fully stamped and addressed envelope. Articles should be emailed. No responsibility can be taken for drawings, photographs or literary contributions during delivery, transmission or in the editor’s hands. © 2019 Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. This publication (and any part thereof) may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in print or electronic format (including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet) or in any other format in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of Redactive Media Group. Redactive Media Group accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. The publishers cannot accept liability for any loss arising from the late appearance or non-publication of any advertisement for any reason whatsoever. ISSN 1475-7478

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E THE LAST WORD CO M M UNITY

“If a client wants a university qualiﬁcation as a minimum, is it just a lazy way to ﬁlter?”

Alan Furley There’s more to life than university

y son came home from school the other day and said he’d been asked what he wanted to do when he grew up – he’d duly replied “X-ray technician”. A s he’s only ﬁve, such clarity raised my wife’s and my eyebrows. We later realised the class had been learning the last letters of the alphabet, and this particular job had come up for the letter X. Having the conversation, though, reminded me how much pressure children are under from the off to choose a career. While they are young, this can be a useful and fun way of getting them to think about the world; however, as children develop into young adults, it can cause undue strain and stress. Our education system has been created in a linear way. For many, there’s often no question they will be going to university – even if it’s to

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study something they will not actually get a job doing. Research from Barclays Apprenticeships found that almost half of the students and graduates who had left in the previous five years said they regretted their decision to go to university. As recruiters, we are all aware that the first stipulation for many jobs is ‘degree-educated’. This not only causes inequality by immediately filtering out people who could be great candidates but also, to my mind, is one of the reasons there is such a massive talent shortage, particularly in STEM subjects. So it was heartening to see things may be changing. The CEO of Apple recently started a worldwide conversation by stating that coding in specific areas should no longer require degree-entry qualifications. Apprenticeships are also now being widely adopted by small and large

businesses alike, and we have the introduction of a T-Level course – a technical qualification in major professional vocational areas that will provide core theory, concepts and skills for an industry. The question I pose to our industry is: are we doing enough to support people who are not going down the traditional university pathway? Or are we setting ourselves up for a fall down the road by doing what we’ve always done, and failing to adapt to a new paradigm? This is a major issue that we must get our heads round – if a client wants a red-brick university qualification as a minimum, we need to be more robust in pushing back and asking why. Is it just a lazy way to filter that is full of bias? Parents also have a big part to play in supporting these ambitions. I’ve sat with many senior

professionals involved with STEM education, training and business who agree that parents are one of the biggest barriers to new ways of entering STEM, as they all want their kids to go to uni – no matter what the cost or the prospects on the other side. Interestingly, the Barclays research also showed 70% felt their parents would have been disappointed if they hadn’t gone to university, and almost one-ﬁfth went only to please their parents. I’m ready to support my son into whatever career choice he makes, and hope that as a business we can do the same for loads more people who have taken a different road. Maybe, by doing so, we can support talent from all parts of our community, and create a fairer system for all. ●

Alan Furley is a director at ISL Recruitment

OCTOBER 2019

12/09/2019 10:50

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