Recruiter September 2019

Business intelligence for recruitment and resourcing professionals

A THE UNITED STA TES OF AM ERICA TH E

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INCORPORATING Recruitment Matters

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Is it getting harder for recruiters to staff US offices with UK staff?

ALSO INSIDE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Planning for the end of year, plus Start-up Supplement<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

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US work visas denied Is it harder for UK recruiters opening US offices to bring staff across the pond?

24 Fail to plan, plan to fail Despite the economic and political uncertainy, that shouldn’t deter recruiters from planning ahead

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TRENDS Taking work home? The rise of work separation anxiety Tech & Tools Making Sense of the candidate experience

INCORPORATING Recruitment Matters

18 THE BIG STORY

diverse first If in-house recruiting teams were more diverse, this would improve the D&I across their firms Pay attention to contingent workforce RecFest: HR should drive the contingent workforce agenda Debates rage over the future of the job board RecFest: The RL1OO panel asked whether it is the end of the road for job boards Start-up of the Month: Talent Drive Martin Smith launches the procurement and supply chain recruiter This was the month that was...

Contracts & Deals

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FEATURES

Meraki Executive Search & Consulting’s programme to develop female talent Social Network The Workplace: Guy Hayward Workplace Innovation: Dr Dane Poboka Business Advice: Alex Arnot My brilliant recruitment career: Anya Ryan, CJUK Movers & Shakers Recruiter contacts The Last Word: Hephzi Pemberton

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INTERACTION Viewpoint Katrina Hutchinson-O’Neill, Yardstick Associates and JoinTalent Soundbites

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he roller-coaster ride that has been 2019 has turned the corner, with its end in hazy view. Don’t mention Christmas shopping! Put off planning the office party. But whatever you do, get a grip on your end-of-year planning so that you’re ready to enter 2020 with all loose ends tied in a neat, strong bow (see p24).

This issue of Recruiter features sage advice from knowledgeable souls about getting your house in order as year-end approaches – particularly with the ‘known unknowns’ that lie ahead. (Don’t even whisper the ‘B’ “Get a grip on word.) Get down to the nitty-gritty of your end-ofyear planning doing the equivalent of so you’re ready to enter storing away your nuts for the winter!

2020 with all A big “thank you” loose ends this month to Nick tied in a neat, Barton of The strong bow” Barton Partnership for sharing his firm’s challenging experiences with securing/not securing visas for UK staff to work in the US – which proved the basis for this month’s Big Story (p18).

We’ll aim to keep you posted on developments.

Also: lots of ‘thank yous’ go to the many readers who told us how much they enjoyed last month’s Recruiter cover.

Wasn’t it brilliant? Kudos to our designer Sarah Auld for a job ultra-well done!

DeeDee Doke, Editor

I M AG E S | I STO C K | S HUT T ERSTOC K

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Diverse resourcing teams first

BY COLIN COTTELL

A SURVEY OF in-house recruitment teams conducted by the Resourcing Leaders 100 (RL100) peer network for senior resourcing leaders could be the catalyst to improve diversity & inclusion across the in-house recruitment community. And according to Adrian Thomas, RL100 chair, and director of talent and insight at interim and executive search consultancy Green Park, it ultimately could lead to more diverse workforces in the organisations for which they recruit.

He said the online survey that was launched in May was needed because while “companies want to be more diverse in their hiring” in-house recruiters needed to look at themselves to ensure that “they reflected the communities they hire from”.

“If we were representative of the communities we recruit from, we must do a better job at speeding up diversity in the workforce because recruitment is one area where you can really influence this,” Thomas explained. However, he said there was a strong sense within RL100 that as a group they were not representative of the communities they hire from. “When we see the pictures of the RL100 meetings, the summits and the events, were we happy that we were reflecting the communities that we were recruiting for? And our feelings were that we weren’t and that we ought to be.”

Thomas said the survey carried out in conjunction with global inclusion and talent attraction consultancy Vercida would enable RL100 to test various hypotheses, the first being “that if you are trying to end up with a workforce that reflects your community, starting with your recruitment team isn’t a bad idea”.

The online survey asked in-house recruiters to provide information about their age, any disability/impairments, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and belief, as well as for information about their income and the function of the person to whom they reported. Thomas said that he expected the final number of responses, “will be significantly higher than 600”. Results will be announced late summer.

Thomas said the report would then be used to generate a debate within the in-house recruitment community “around what is going to make a difference and what is not”. Thomas said possible interventions were encouraging more people from ethnic minorities or more people from the LGBT community into the industry, and training and developing people from diverse backgrounds into more senior roles. “We had a hypothesis, and now we have the evidence... Let us discuss and debate within the industry, and let’s change.”

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38,298 FOLLOWERS AS OF 8 AUGUST 2019

Pay attention to contingent workforce

BY GRAHAM SIMONS

HR SHOULD TAKE more responsibility for driving the contingent workforce agenda and tailor employer branding to meet specific needs of contract and L-r: Neal Krisko, Gemma Lines, Simon Rutter and Sam Smith temporary workers.

This was one of the conclusions of a panel assembled for this summer’s RecFest at Mudchute branding and EVP [employee value proposition] is different for Farm in London on 11 July. the contingent workforce than it is for the permanent Chaired by Sam Smith of Kelly Services, panellists included workforce. People want the same things, whether you are Simon Rutter, group communications director at permanent or contingent – they’re just dialled [adjusted] up multinational enterprise software firm Sage; Gemma Lines, or dialled down.” global head of growth, learning and recruitment at insurer Everyone wants to have real purpose when they go to work MS Amlin; and talent acquisition specialist Neal Krisko. whether they are permanent or otherwise, he emphasised.

In Lines’ opinion, HR really didn’t pay enough attention to “They want to be satisfied at the end of the day. They want contingent talent. Further, she argued, procurement to feel that they have made a contribution – that they are departments paid attention to the wrong things. going to be well rewarded and recognised and part of the “They do pay attention to how much you can screw team. That doesn’t matter whether you are permanent or someone on their day rates. They’re not interested in contingent. inclusion. They do their job for the organisation very well but “The difference when you are talking about employer they don’t do a talent job. So … in a changing world, where we branding for contingent [workers] is that sometimes you have are all going to be working differently and for longer and in to dial up elements of your culture – for example, flexibility different capacities and in portfolio careers, why would you would particularly appeal to contingent rather than maybe leave the decision-making for that workforce to a function permanent in terms of benefits and rewards. that are best suited to pricing?”

“They are a fundamental basis for EVP and employer She added that she would like to see HR take control of the branding, regardless of whether you are contingent or contingent agenda and resist only looking at the needs of the permanent. I think it’s how you dial up the graphic equaliser permanent workforce. and which ones do you play for your audience – which is what Agreeing, Rutter said: “It’s this myth that employer you should be doing for a good employer brand anyway.”

Are you much hotter than your peers?

ENTRIES ARE ALREADY flooding in for this year’s Recruiter HOT 100, the leading benchmark of profitability in the recruitment industry.

“Established in 2006, and now in its 14th year, the HOT 100 ranks recruitment companies according to 6 RECRUITER

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their gross profit per employee, rating you against your peers and definitively differentiating the best in the industry from the rest,” says Sue Dodd, director of Agile Intelligence, the company that compiles the HOT 100 report.

“Make sure you enter so that you have the opportunity to be part of this exclusive club of HOT 100

recruitment companies,” adds Dodd.

Please send in your entries as soon as possible, and no later than 20 September, by emailing hot100@ agile-intelligence.co.uk Please put HOT 100 in the subject line.

To be eligible for inclusion, you must have sales of at least £5m, a minimum GP of £1.5m and at least 20 employees.

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

08/08/2019 10:06

THOUGHTS FROM… AMAN BR AR CEO, JOBV IT E, A D D RE S S I N G R E C RU I T E R S AT RECF EST 201 9

L-r: Bill Boorman, Andrew Grier, Elaine Atkinson, Marcelle Foxcroft, Adrian Thomas and Natasha Bhana

Debate rages over future of the job board

BY GRAHAM SIMONS

RESOURCING LEADERS ARE split over whether job boards have had their day, as a panel discussion revealed at this year’s RecFest.

The topic was addressed by the Resourcing Leaders 100 Panel, which included Elaine Atkinson, head of resourcing and talent acquisition at professional services firm Deloitte UK; Natasha Bhana, head of recruitment for Europe at information services company AlphaSights; Marcelle Foxcroft, head of resourcing at insurer AXA UK; Adrian Thomas, director of talent and customer insight at search firm Green Park; and Andrew Grier, head of resourcing at French multi-national Saint-Gobain. The session was chaired by start-up adviser Bill Boorman.

First up was Foxcroft, who contends job boards still have a place. “When you’re looking at brand, EVP [employer value proposition], getting your name out to market, you can’t do it without external job boards,” she argued. “When you’re looking at volume, there is absolutely a space for the 60% of volume roles that we recruit for; we’ve got to have a platform to get our message out there.”

Bhana agreed, adding when it came to graduate recruitment, candidates need to see as much information as possible. “If you’re looking for one really good engineer, who is also client facing, you are probably not going to be able to find them off the back of a job board. but I think for graduate recruitment we need them.”

But for Grier, the very definition of what we know as a job board was unclear: “I reckon it depends on what you call a job board. Is Indeed a job board? Or is it just a marketeer? It’s an aggregator, dragging stuff in, putting it back out. Job boards are not dead – they’re just in another shape somewhere.”

However Deloitte’s Atkinson told the audience she thought job boards would eventually be phased out: “In our business we get 100,000 applicants every year.

We’ve got a huge employee base. They know lots of people. I think the focus is going to be on our known networks moving forward, developing relationships with them and in that way being able to hire our people, rather than going external.”

“There’s this tough quandary that we’re in where there are more jobs than people… Many things are going to come save the day – right? A brand new tech start-up is going to save the day? No, it’s not. Is geo targeting going to save the day? No, it’s not. How about a matching algorithm, is that going to save the day? No, it’s not… AI is going to save the day, no, no, no. What’s going to save the day?

Here’s my personal belief on what’s going to save the day – you all are going to save the day.”

S A R A JA N E H A RV E Y ‘AG ON Y AUT I E’, AUT I ST I C PR E S E N T E R , S P EA K ER , CON S ULTA N T A N D A DVO C AT E , S P EA K I N G AT RE C F E ST 201 9

“I think it’s a shame that autistic people think that we are a disease.”

HAYLEY STILL A S S OCI AT E D IREC TO R AT G LO B A L S P ECIA L I ST RECRU I T M E N T G RO U P H Y D ROG EN , ON IT S ‘ I OW N M Y T I M E ’ IN I T IAT I V E, W H ICH EN A B L E S CO N S U LTA N T S TO WO R K T H E H O U R S T H AT M A X I M I S E S T H EI R OU T PU T

“It’s a different way of life. It’s about what you need to achieve and how you need to set your week up and time up to do that.”

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STA RT-UP OF THE MONTH TALENT DRIVE Martin Smith (right), who has worked in both in-house and agency roles, has launched procurement and supply chain recruiter Talent Drive.

He told Recruiter that after a decade working for other people, the time was right to strike out on his own.

“I’ve always had aspirations to set up on my own – that’s always been an ambition in my life in general.

Having worked for smaller businesses that have grown, I think I have had quite a unique opportunity to understand businesses better and

how to grow recruitment businesses.”

Smith added his agency’s aim is to find talent quickly through effective collaboration with clients where he becomes a brand ambassador and extension of their recruitment or HR functions.

“I think there is a perception in the market, with the rise of internal recruitment talent acquisition professionals, that there is an almost ‘us and them’ approach and that’s not what I’m about at all. If an organisation is investing with me, I want to ensure I’m collaborating with

them… I’d say to people ‘I will give you as much of a service in terms of the marketing, branding, doing the interviewing, writing job descriptions for you. I can be as heavily involved in the interview and recruitment process as you want, or I can just find you the talent and provide it to an HR contact’.”

Looking ahead, Smith says he wants to have a settled team working for him, but to never lose the ‘boutique’ specialist feel of his business. “I don’t want to lose sight of that,” he said.

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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 August issue of Recruiter was published J U L Y •‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒→

FRI, 12 JULY 2019

TUE, 16 JULY 2019

COUNTDOWN TO IR35 LEGISLATION IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR BEGINS

MORSON BOOSTS SENIOR TEAM WITH ADAIR AND LYNCHEHAUN

The countdown to the extension of controversial rules extending off-payroll rules into the private sector has begun in earnest following government’s publication of draft legislation on 11 July.

While campaigners descended on Parliament earlier that week to protest against the changes, the draft rules ensure that from April 2020, medium and large companies will be responsible for determining whether the contractors they recruit fall within the scope of IR35 legislation and are liable to pay a higher rate of tax. Recruitment agencies will also need to operate a payroll for any contractors they supply who work through their own company and fall within the scope of the rules.

The draft legislation has not gone down well with industry bodies. Tom Hadley, the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s director of policy and campaigns said the draft legislation risked damaging the UK’s productivity and labour market flexibility at a time when it is most needed.

“We know from experience that the IR35 rules are a huge problem for employers and contractors alike.

Making sure everyone pays the right tax is essential, but the rules need to be clear to be effective.”

Meanwhile Samantha Hurley, operations director at the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) and co-chair of HMRC’s IR35 forum, commented that while the draft legislation was largely in line with the body’s expectations, APSCo was extremely disappointed that fee-payers will shoulder the liability of incorrect status determinations – particularly as this is at odds with what was anticipated.

Adrian Marlowe, chair of the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC), said the body would continue to review the draft legislation, against the background that it has long pressed for modernisation of certain key elements to IR35 principles.

Chris Bryce, CEO of freelancer and self-employed association IPSE, warned the extension of the rules would put a huge extra burden on organisations that depend on the use of highly-skilled flexible workers to help them succeed.

More: https://bit.ly/2Km11RD

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REED WARNS OF IMPENDING RECESSION FOLLOWING JOBS FALL The UK is heading for recession, warns James Reed (above), chairman of recruitment giant REED. His warning follows new data from the reed.co.uk Job Index, which shows the number of advertised vacancies fell by 2.3% in Q2 2019, compared to the same quarter last year – the largest percentage drop on reed.co.uk since 2010.

The hospitality and catering sector saw the biggest annual decline, with new job vacancies 24% down compared to Q2 2018, followed by education, which witnessed a 10% drop.

Commenting on the figures, Reed said: “Worrying storm clouds are forming around the UK’s job market.

The largest fall in jobs since 2010 on the REED website is a clear sign that the canary has fallen off its perch and that we are heading for a recession.

“The next prime minister will come to captain an economy with fewer job opportunities amid a national economic slowdown.

“A fiscal stimulus is required to kick-start the British economy. By providing targeted corporate tax cuts and giving British workers the pay rise they deserve, the economy can be supercharged back from the brink and job opportunities can begin picking up again.”

Morson Group has bolstered its senior team with two promotions. Adrian Adair (below left) is promoted to group chief operating officer from operations director and David Lynchehaun (below right) to group sales director from sales director.

Adair has also been appointed to the global talent specialist’s board of directors, becoming the first new Morson board member in 20 years.

Speaking to Recruiter on their objectives in their new roles, Adair said he wanted to maintain the growth trajectory of the group – no matter the economic circumstances – as well as fully integrate recent acquisitions into the group. The group posted £867m in turnover last year. Meanwhile, Lynchehaun said he wanted to develop the group’s managed service proposition in areas where it was less known, such as professional services.

The pair has a combined 14 years at the group. Adair said the average tenure of staff at Morson reflects the culture of the business.

More: https://bit.ly/2YHfM5b

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IM AGES | SHUT T ERSTOCK / IT V / ISTOCK / WE ST M I DL AN DS P O L I C E

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STAFFLEX’S AGNES IS THE OFFICE BUDDY WE ALL NEED To mark World Friendship Day, Recruiter featured man’s (and woman’s) best friend. Meet Agnes, a whippet who works at Huddersfield-based education, office and industrial staffing specialist Stafflex.

According to the agency: “Agnes supports the whole office with cuddles, treat snaffling and team spirit.” That’s just the sort of friend you need around the office, we think. Have a great day snaffling, Agnes!

More: https://bit.ly/31ruRtz

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EX-REALITY TV CONTESTANT PRAISES SUPPORTIVE RECRUITMENT FIRM IN COPING WITH FAME

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‘LADDISH’ COMMENTS MADE ON CHAT GROUP RAISES LEGAL WORRIES FOR RECRUITERS Recruiters should ensure offending communications have a clear workplace connection if taking action against consultants engaging in sexist ‘banter’ on social media platforms.

The warning follows reports about an ongoing case at London’s High Court involving two men – Paul Wells and Roberto Solari – who are suing their former employer, a Surrey-based logistics firm, for £300k after they were fired for sharing ‘sexist banter’ on WhatsApp. Peter Wright, managing director at DigitalLaw, told Recruiter the success of such a case would depend on the worker’s contract of employment and whether the chat group is set up as a work group to discuss work issues.

Meanwhile Stephen Jennings, partner and solicitor at Tozers Solicitors, said he felt it was fairly unsurprising that such comments have led to disciplinary action. “Most employers will have equal opportunities policies, which will clearly warn of the penalties of engaging in this sort of behaviour – extreme comments of the sort reported here could well be gross misconduct.”

Consequently, Jennings advises recruiters to be careful in a few respects if they encounter this situation: • There does need to be a work connection. It would be harder to justify disciplining for messages sent privately outside of working hours.

• They need to have made it clear that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable and the likely consequences.

• Care needs to be taken to act consistently.

• The seniority of employees is relevant. More can be expected of highly-paid managers.

A supportive employer has proven invaluable to a recruitment consultant in coping with fame following his stint on reality TV earlier this year.

Broadcasting regulator Ofcom announced it was proposing to add two new rules to its broadcasting code to protect the welfare and wellbeing of people taking part in programmes on TV and radio.

Stacey Freeman, head of perm division at Brighton-based recruiter Adenstar Developments, who appeared on Channel 4’s Shipwrecked earlier this year, welcomed the proposals. He told Recruiter that Channel 4 was very good in dealing with him and there was always someone he could talk to when he was on the show. He also had to meet with a psychiatrist before and after appearing on the show.

However, Freeman admitted people do struggle especially if they go on shows as big as Love Island (below) but he added he had been lucky, as he is a very positive person and has benefited from working at an agency that takes mental health seriously.

“When I came out [of the programme], I was too busy. I was doing seven days a week, getting up at 6.30am and going to bed at 12am, and it just wasn’t working for me. They [Adenstar] noticed it and they wanted me to push on and pursue whatever [side] career I wanted to do, as long as I gave to them as well, so I only work [at Adenstar] two to three days a week.

“They believe in mental health and I wouldn’t be working to my full potential for them if I was having to do five days a week as well.”

To hear from another recruitment ex-reality TV contestant, see link below for full story.

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

More: https://bit.ly/2T7LQ0Q

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

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MON, 5 AUGUST 2019

EMMA WATSON LAUNCHES HELPLINE FOR THOSE BEING HARASSED AT WORK Harry Potter star Emma Watson (above) has launched a legal advice line for those experiencing sexual harassment at work.

The new helpline aims to plug a gap in the availability of legal advice so women can access the help they need to hold their employer and harasser to account.

The Guardian reports that Watson helped to kickstart the advice line, which is backed by Time’s Up UK’s justice and equality fund and managed

by Rosa, the UK Fund for Women and Girls, with advice provided by the charity Rights of Women.

Watson said: “It finally feels like people are realising the scale of the problem, and I’m certainly hopeful that with global standards such as the recent International Labour Organization treaty on harassment at work we’ll start to see a new climate of prevention and accountability on this issue domestically.” The new advice line number is +44 (0)20 7490 0152.

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CONTRACTS & DEALS

WeLove9am Gloucestershire-based employer branding and marketing agency WeLove9am has bought out media-buying business LogicMelon Media for an undisclosed sum.

According to a statement, WeLove9am had previously co-owned the ad-buying subsidiary with Cambridge-based Logic Enterprises.

Frontline Recruitment Multi-sector recruiter Frontline Recruitment becomes the sole and exclusive recruitment partner to Tech Data, a wholesale distributor of technology products, services and solutions, under a new contract. Frontline will provide staff to Tech Data’s Magna Park facility in Lutterworth, Leicestershire.

Hays Education Recruitment giant Hays Education has been appointed the preferred recruitment supplier for the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). Hays Education will help school leaders with their recruitment, online training and personal career development.

Woodrow Mercer Technology, finance and e-learning recruiter Woodrow Mercer has been named as a G-Cloud 11 consulting partner on an initial 12-month basis, with the option to extend the agreement by a further 12 months. The G-Cloud 11 framework, which is open to businesses of all sizes, is an agreement between the government and suppliers to simplify the deployment of cloud-based services, including hosting, software and support.

Phaidon International Global recruiter Phaidon International has selected strengths-based assessment experts Capp to provide its new recruitment portal.

The portal, which will assess more than 2,000 graduates worldwide over the coming year, uses a combination of questions, video and other media in a bid to provide an authentic preview of what it is like to work at the micro-specialist staffing group, helping prospective employees to understand if the company is the right fit for them, while also giving the company a deeper insight into candidates’ strengths and potential.

DEAL OF T HE MONT H

Sanderson Recruitment Resource Solutions Group company Sanderson Recruitment has acquired the UK recruitment division of IT recruiter Sopra Steria. The deal will boost Sanderson’s group revenue to more than £550m.

Bristol-based Sanderson employs more than 300 people following the acquisition. The deal was supported by Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.

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Sanderson also recently secured a substantial shareholding in international recruitment consultancy iKas Global – an introduction that was also facilitated by advisers at Lloyds Bank.

The group hopes that this investment will provide Sanderson with a new platform to access markets in the Asia Pacific region.

WORK180 WORK180, a global jobs platform focused on employers who support women’s careers, has expanded its Series A-1 round to raise £1.2m to accelerate its global expansion into the UK. This is the company’s third funding round and, like its previous rounds, was led

by Skip Capital, the private investment fund of Kim Jackson and Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar. The firm says the £1.2m will go towards advancing WORK180s expansion, growing the start-up’s technology team and further developing its product offering, such as the HR Health Check, an online tool which helps companies benchmark their policies against those of their peers.

More contract news at recruiter.co.uk/news

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ALWAYS TAKING YOUR WORK HOME? THE RISE OF WORK SEPARATION ANXIETY With sick leave at an all-time low, are today’s employees actually healthier?

BY JENNI WILSON

ith almost two-thirds of employees admitting to working during their annual leave or when feeling unwell, it’s likely these statistics could be, in part, due to a rising epidemic – ‘work separation anxiety’.

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Defining work separation anxiety The rise in work separation anxiety is triggered by an increasingly ‘always on’ work culture. Many employees struggle to ever truly shut off from work, with thoughts and worries about their job always present, even when they’re away from the office.

It can mean working evenings and weekends, and even doing work tasks during annual leave or when off sick. In some cases it can mean the opposite, when strained and stressed employees struggle on, without using earned annual leave or taking sick days.

This constantly heightened state of stress increases the risk of numerous physical and mental health problems, including burnout – the exhaustion and mental fatigue caused by overworking – that’s now recognised as a medical condition by the World Health Organisation.

A growing problem The growing work separation anxiety problem is likely due to the changing 12 RECRUITER

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expectations placed on modern workers.

A rise in work laptops and mobile phones with internet access means the lines between work and personal lives are becoming increasingly blurred.

A recent Pew survey found 47% of office workers say the internet, email and mobiles have increased their hours worked. Overworking can sometimes be a result of employees’ personal feelings of needing to be constantly working to be an asset.

These findings suggest some companies might be unintentionally (or not) creating an environment where staff feel they should be ‘on-call’ at all times.

However, research shows adding more hours to your work only results in an expected increase in the amount you get done up to a certain point. Employee output falls sharply after 50 hours and deteriorates completely after 55. So much so that someone who works 70 hours produces nothing more with those extra 15 hours.

Overworking is not only detrimental to our physical and mental health, it’s counter-productive too.

How to spot the signs Employees typically won’t feel comfortable speaking to anyone about feelings of over-working or burnout and in many cases may not even notice

these unhealthy behaviours in themselves.

So, it’s important businesses not only recognise some of the common signs of work separation anxiety but also offer relevant training to line managers so they can offer help to colleagues they feel might need it.

Of course, there will be the odd occasion where employees may have to cancel a day of annual leave or reply to an email on a weekend – especially if they are in a more senior role – without any issues, so how do you know when it’s becoming a problem?

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for as well. Employees might be acting increasingly nervous, be restless, short-tempered or tense and show signs of low moods due to constant worrying.

• Offer your employees a variety of benefits communication channels – print, email, webinars, text messaging, phone or online chat – and give them the choice to opt into those that meet their own preferences.

Offering support

• Start by getting buy-in from the top, with senior managers showcasing positive behaviours like leaving on time and having their lunch breaks. Employees are more likely to follow suit if they see managers or directors doing this.

• Assign managers to relevant training courses that address overworking, how to spot the signs and some of the suggested actions to prevent employees from becoming too anxious or unwell.

• Consider platform emotional literacy training or mental health first aid to help staff recognise the signs of emotional distress in themselves and others.

• Employees may also benefit from speaking to experts on time and stress management, to help becoming stressed when they do not have total control of a project. This may include failure to delegate, cancelling annual leave last minute, sending work emails from home or late at night and coming into work when sick.

Common physical symptoms may include employees experiencing dizziness, tiredness, headaches, sweating and shortness of breath. A study found chronic psychological stress prevents the body from properly regulating the inflammatory response of cortisol. So people who are overworked and exhausted are likely to develop colds more often.

There are emotional signs to watch

guide them through skills for dealing with feelings of work stress outside of office hours.

• Introduce external services for those who may need extra support, such as Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs). This is a practical way to provide in-person and online help for employees who may be suffering from work separation anxiety.

• Remember, while it’s great to add options to your internal workplace wellbeing offerings, make sure you communicate these benefits to your staff when they are introduced.

• Send out regular reminders about the available benefits using these different platforms. Make sure employees understand why you’re investing in certain benefits and their advantages too.

• Encourage managers to have frequent one-to-ones with those they’ve identified as struggling.

Managers should work with these individuals to decide the next best steps for support. This may include reassigning workloads to make sure they won’t have to take work home or check emails at the weekend.

It’s crucial to thoroughly evaluate your work environment regularly.

Combine objective hard and soft measures such as monitoring sickness absence rates with feedback from one-on-ones and satisfaction surveys to gain a more well-rounded picture of employee wellbeing.

If specific issues come out of this research, begin discussions across the board on how you can start to overcome these. For example, you could offer flexible working patterns so employees start their shifts later if they need to take an international call in the evening.

Work separation anxiety often stems from expectations, and by letting staff know they’re entitled to use holiday or encouraging them to achieve a healthy work-life balance, you can start to help them manage feelings of stress and anxiety away from the office. ●

↗

Employers have an important role to play in encouraging employees to achieve balance.

JENNI WILSON is a corporate director at Nuffield Health.

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T R E N DS

TECH & TOOLS

The personal touch Pay attention to the candidate experience SUE WEEKES

The rise of the gig economy and reliance on contractors and freelance workers means that recruiters need to ensure the top talent wants to stay working for their clients. Improving the candidate experience should be at the heart of every recruiter and employer’s strategy for temporary or permanent employees. Sadly, it too often falls short. Perhaps ironically, it is technology that is increasingly helping recruiters have a more ‘high touch’ service with candidates.

Software company Sense is bringing together automation and personalisation to raise the bar on candidate engagement in the contractor market.

CANDIDATE-DRIVEN Finding the time to forge meaningful relationships with contractors and candidates isn’t easy.

Anil Dharni, CEO and co-founder of Sense, believes it is the candidates themselves that are driving the shift to more interactive and personalised experiences. “In today’s labour market, it is the candidate who has the upper hand,” he says.

“This allows candidates to expect a high level of attention and to pursue other opportunities if one company isn’t getting the recruitment strategy right.” If you aren’t taking the trouble to invest in the

relationship, other recruiters will.

GETTING PERSONAL Consumers are used to the platforms they use in other walks of life and recruitment platforms should be no different.

According to Sense, 84% of companies fail to personalise the candidate experience throughout the recruitment process. It has just launched the Journeys tool within its candidate engagement platform (which integrates with applicant tracking systems) that enables recruiters to create personalised experiences with contractors and candidates (and clients

and teams). It also automates repeated tasks like data entry and scheduling, freeing up the recruiter to add value elsewhere in the process.

AUTOMATION KEY Engaging with, say, 100 contractors who may be on the agency’s books is a tall order for even the most prodigious recruiters. Journeys uses the data captured within an ATS to personalise and automate communication with every candidate. It automates communication to contractors from recruitment, deployment and beyond, and can pick up on attrition

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL It is hard to argue with the statistics when it comes to the power of personalisation in the online world at large. According to Infosys, users feel frustrated when content is not personalised, while Accenture says the same number are more likely to buy from a retailer if they are recognised by name or make recommendations based on previous purchases.

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signals and trigger an action that will increase the chances of retention. US firm HealthCare Support found that candidates who interact through Sense are four times more likely to stay on assignment with them and even if they do leave, move on for a positive reason.

POWER OF TEXT Around 90% of text messages are reportedly read within three minutes. Sense believes that while many agencies are “unofficially” using text as a method of communication, by not formally integrating it into their business processes they are missing out on opportunities. It has built a two-way text messaging service into the platform that enables recruiters to use

it more strategically. It allows them to create personalised communication workflows and uses artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to send the right messages to the right people at the right times. Recruiters have an option to switch off the automation if they want more personal one-to-one text communications.

HELPING WIN THE WAR FOR TALENT Dharni says Sense has identified the biggest gap in the potential use of recruiting data is for the purpose of personalisation. “In this war for talent ... you should be candidateobsessed: be sure you’re treating them as people instead of revenue and thinking of people as a long-term investment rather than a short-term asset,” he said. ●

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VIEWPOINT

Keeping up with the AI Joneses Don’t believe the AI hype in talent acquisition B Y K AT R I N A H U T C H I N S O N-O ’ N E I L L

n the world of talent acquisition, artificial intelligence is a lot like sex. Everybody thinks that everybody else is doing it more or better. But is that really the case?

There’s a lot of hype out there about the near-world impact of AI in the world of TA. A recent survey I conducted in partnership with ClickIQ suggests that a lot of the AI hype is, more likely than not, a lot of slightly premature hot air.

By talking to actual TA & HR leaders, their hands-on approach to research uncovered that, for most, AI is far from the most pressing issue.

Of the recent survey responses, only 8% said TA tech advancements kept them awake at night, and just 6% worried about their team’s skills and capability.

What about the threat of AI replacing recruiting jobs?

General trends suggest that AI is likely to function as more of a gradual integrated solution, helping to streamline rote time-wasting tasks. None of the participants surveyed predict AI will make TA teams obsolete, but just over 48% predict AI will drive better automation of administration.

I

The investments in technology and talent going into these products are real, but what is being marketed as AI in common use today is actually just very smart algorithms with a dash of machine learning sprinkled in. Still hugely clever with the right applications, but a long shot off autonomous AI.

The takeaway

The research suggests that TA leaders are most likely to be investing in solutions that solve real world problems today, while being ready to evolve with the technology in due course – rather than holding their breath and waiting for a full-blown revolution.

Only 20% of resourcing and HR leaders surveyed felt they even had the right TA model in place to meet their business needs today and into the future. Their ‘real time’ problems seemed much closer to home, and largely unchanged from So where is the disconnect? similar conversations over the last 20 years: If AI isn’t the most insomnia-inducing issue in the bedrooms budget and/or TA resource availability, the belief of TA leaders today, why do many stats suggest otherwise? that TA teams succeed not because of their tech Here’s the thing – AI is a new concept, and society hasn’t stack, or even thanks to the support they get from really had the time to hash out a universal definition. In all their businesses, but simply because of hard work the hype it is very likely that people might be exaggerating and skills of their TA teams. what counts as AI and what doesn’t.

Jonny Campbell, CEO of recruiter capability firm Social Talent was encouraged rather than surprised at the results. “A learner driver can’t win a Formula 1 race, no matter how great the car is.

Likewise, an amateur golfer won’t win the Masters just because they buy top-of-the-range golf clubs.

Throwing tech at a hiring problem without first enabling your people and fixing your processes is a waste of resources, and it’s no surprise that senior TA leaders wisely recognise this,” observes Campbell.

“TA & HR leaders shouldn’t be overwhelmed by concerns they are being left + behind in the AI arms race,” concludes Andy Brett, global people & culture director for employer branding giants Universum.

KATRINA HUTCHINSON-O’NEILL is founder and managing partner of “Keeping up with what your company, candidates and hiring managers need is a Yardstick Associates and co-founder of lot more important than ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ based on what you might be JoinTalent. She was Recruiter’s In-House hearing at HR tech conferences.”● Recruitment Leader of the Year 2018.

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I N T E R AC T I O N

SOUNDBITES

Reed chairman James Reed has warned the UK is heading into recession. Do you agree?

WEB CH AT/ TWITTER DON’T BELIEVE THE SNIPE, GO AND MEET THEM In response to your article ‘Glassdoor defends anonymous posters following claims of offensive postings’ (recruiter. co.uk, 30 July), I think services like this can be fraught with issues from libel to insults, misrepresentation and vendettas against employers.

It can also very easily include positive information as well but as posters are allowed to be anonymous there is no way to tell which is which. My view is if you have doubts about a company, go and meet them and make your own mind up.

ADAM JONES

TA L E N T M A N AGE M E N T

TALENT MANAG EMENT

Recruitment practices within the railway sector hasn’t moved with the times – that is, until now.

Colin Cottell investigates

A

s the birthplace of the railway Britain has a proud record of invention and innovation that goes all the way back to 1829 and to Stevenson’s Rocket, the first locomotive engine to serve two cities.

However, some argue that as with the railways themselves, recruitment and talent management in the railway sector has been slow to keep up with the times. “We haven’t seen much innovation in relation to recruitment practices,” says Nina Lockwood, founder of Intuitive Recruitment, an interim executive search and contractor provider that specialises in the rail industry.

“It’s still quite traditional, ‘Come in and see us and we will ask you some questions, we might ask you to deliver a presentation’. So in terms of the recruitment process, we are where we were 20 years ago.”

However, although no one working in recruitment across the rail sector would argue that it is a case of full steam ahead yet, change is underway with examples of new and innovative approaches emerging.

Lockwood herself can point to examples of innovation, such as a job share between two senior female engineers that began more than 13 years ago at rolling stock leasing company Porterbrook and continues successfully to this day.

Recruiting for the ‘who’…

Another example is the approach championed by recruiter and customer experience design consultancy Proactive, until recently known as Proactive Rail. Founder and managing partner Ruth Rubin says that rather than focusing on a person’s CV, as has traditionally been the case in the sector, the company’s approach has been to ‘Recruit for the Who’.

“We look positively at the gaps in CV, we are searching for the ‘diamond in the rough’, and we cast the net wide,” she says. “A CV doesn’t tell you about a person’s potential, and many people will not yet have reached their peak.”

The most important traits that the company looks for when recruiting for customer-facing roles on the railway are altruism and empathy, Rubin says, arguing that there is a clear link between these and being suited to this type of role. This approach has seen Proactive win contracts with a number of Train-Operating Companies (TOCs), including Southeastern, Heathrow Express (owned by Transport for London), London Overground (owned

by First Great Western) and Greater Anglia (owned by Abellio and Japanese company Mitsui).

…not for a role

customer-facing roles without a job description, which was first successfully introduced back in 2011 on First Great Western (trading as Great Western Railway). Diane Burke, commercial director at Southeastern, worked closely with Rubin to introduce the idea to her company in 2016. “We had established there was a need to have a role on stations that had no operational responsibilities, and was there to purely look after people, and do the right thing for them,” Burke explains.

With this aim in mind, she says, “we decided it was best to not give them a job description but [instead] purpose, and to hire really good people with high levels of empathy and altruism”.

Burke admits that persuading colleagues, including station managers and HR, to agree to what they saw as this “very radical approach” was difficult. “If you look at the Southeastern website or apply for a job, you have to complete a number of tests, a bit like the 11-Plus,” she points out, “whereas for these roles we didn’t.”

Instead, candidates were asked about types of situations they had experienced, and what their response had been to other people encountering those circumstances themselves.

Perhaps the most groundbreaking example was to initiate the idea of

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ALICE ATTWOOD @ALICE_ATTWOOD A really interesting piece from @RecruiterMag with our Head of Employee Experience, Michelle Clark, on the steps we're taking to modernise working practices & encourage more women to join rail: bit.ly/33a8wCm #railinclusion #diversity @SouthernRailUK @TLRailUK @GNRailUK

SIMPLICITY @THINKSIMPLICITY Recruiting for the ‘who’ not for a role #rail #recruitment moves to a new #track. via @RecruiterMag #UK #candidate #talentattraction #diversity #engineering They say ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ and having skill shortages requires trying new and innovative ways to recruit the talent needed for the business.

Some roles require a specific skill set and relevant experience whilst others just require potential.

DAVID TAYLOR MA N AG IN G D I REC TOR , F I RST P OI N T G ROUP

“A recession is two quarters of reduced GDP, and it may already be the case that we have this in Q2 and Q3 of 2019. While we will have to wait to get the official figures to confirm this, I firmly believe that confidence is king when it comes to business investment, expansion, headcount and staff augmentation. I think to avoid a recession, economic stimulus such as tax cuts, interest rate reductions and government infrastructure projects will be required. For now, all we can now do is focus on what we can affect in our businesses and be prepared to react quickly to changes.”

JO SELLICK MA N AG IN G D I REC TOR , S EL L ICK PA RT N ERS H I P

“Our economy has recently shown some positive signs of growth. However, I fear any progress could grind to a halt as a direct result of a no-deal Brexit.

With Boris as our new PM I feel a recession could be on the cards. If our previous track record is anything to go by with the seven to eight-year cycle, we are probably due one. It is a worrying thought, and I believe businesses should start preparing for the worst. We need a stable government and a deal of some description to rid the economy of the uncertainty that currently exists and safeguard our economy against the threat it is currently facing.”

JANE O’GORMAN D IREC TOR , T EN 2 T WO

“We are facing challenging times and I don’t think we can rule out the possibility of another recession.

In addition to our permanent part-time/flexible roles, at Ten2Two we are seeing a slight increase in the demand for flexible interim support from businesses that are reluctant to make long-term commitments in this current climate. That said, part-time/flexible permanent support can be the key to unlocking or retaining experienced talent, that’s affordable, productive and loyal – all essential ingredients, particularly in times of economic uncertainty.”

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CA THE UNITED STA TES OF AM ERICA TH E

HE UNITED STA TES OF AM ERICA TH E

UNITED S

F AME STATES O TATES OF A MERICA THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE UNITED

AMERIC UNITED S TATES OF S TATES OF A D E T I N U MERICA THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE

rowing a recruitment business overseas is a tough job at the best of times. But for UK recruiters who want to successfully grow a new business in the US things have been getting tougher.

According to recruiters and lawyers representing them, President Trump’s rhetorical statements about ‘American jobs for American people’ are having damaging consequences on the ground by hampering their ability to grow out their offices in the US and expand their fledgling businesses.

Nicholas Barton is founder of The Barton Partnership, an executive recruitment firm that provides consultants for projects and permanent staff in business strategy and transformation and M&A. In 2017, Barton opened an office in New York. “I believe that for any UK firm looking to

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build a business in the US,” Barton says, “at least 50% of their office would have to be staffed by British or UK individuals that have been trained correctly that can go over and complement a US workforce and aid in their development and training and upskilling.”

Barriers to entry?

However, Barton says these efforts are being been thwarted by a tougher line taken on work visas by the US Embassy in London. Whereas before, it was fairly certain that an application for an E2 visa (see box, p23) to allow a UK national to work in the US for a limited period of time would be successful, Barton says an application for an E2 visa for one of his employees was turned down earlier this year.

An E2 is a visa linked to an overseas investment in the US, one of whose criteria is that the

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T H E B I G STO RY: U S V I S A S

ED

TA

“This is about moving people over to help establish a business so that we can train local people to our level of capability and place local people into local jobs” NICHOLAS BARTON

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T H E B I G STO RY: U S V I S A S

“I believe that for any UK firm looking to build a business in the US, at least 50% of their office would have to be staffed

by British or UK individuals” Nicholas Barton <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Founder, The Barton Partnership <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

US-based company is at least 50% foreign owned. E2 visas are valid for up to five years and there is no limit on the number of times it can be extended, although it is usually for a maximum of five years.

Barton says the upshot is that the company is faced with hiring local people in the US, who are paid between 20% and 40% more but are not as skilled or experienced in terms of capability and output as few operate in a full 360-capacity role.

“Fundamentally, it is delaying our ability to grow the US office substantially,” he says.

What is also frustrating Barton is: “This is about moving people over to help establish a business so that we can train local people to our level of capability and place local people into local jobs.”

Barton also claims that in the case of the employee he planned to send to the US, the interview with the US consular official at the US Embassy in London was a case of going through the motions. “So the way it was done it was clear that they’d already predetermined it was a ‘no’. And it was just really, a waste of time on our part.”

In the same boat However, if Barton is frustrated by the US visa regime, he is not alone. “It’s not just myself – quite a few recruitment firms have been struggling,” he says. According to Nita Upadhye, managing attorney at NNU Immigration, who represents Barton and several other UK recruitment firms, there has been a sea change in approach since President Trump took office. “The new administration has adopted dozens of executive orders, presidential proclamations and policy memos that are slowing down legal immigration without congressional action,” she says.

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However, what she says was “a game changer” was the ‘Buy American and Hire American Executive Order’ [signed by President Trump in April 2017]: “That gave clear authority to immigration officers to rigorously and ruthlessly scrutinise applications closely through the lens of protecting US jobs, granting broad discretion to deny applications; recruitment companies seem to be a particular target.

“They need to be convinced that a US worker could not do the same job. If an officer has an applicant who presents himself as a specialist in the field, the officer wants to be convinced that these are skills that can’t be found in the US. Yes, they might be degree-qualified employees, but if they have a degree in history how does that relate in any way to recruiting for the financial services market, for example?”

And she agrees with Barton that sometimes the interview process at the US embassy “seems as though it is a foregone conclusion”.

Experience wins out?

Adam Matthews, MD of the US arm of UKheadquartered life sciences recruiter Discover International that launched in Miami, Florida in November 2018, says his experience with E2 visas has been mixed, with five successful applications and one unsuccessful. He says the successful applicants that included himself were all managers or senior or principal consultants. All had a minimum of two years’ experience in the sector and in one case six years. In addition, Matthews says, “they all have degrees, are well-presented and would have come across well on the day”. On the other hand, the employee whose visa application

“If an officer has an applicant who presents himself as a specialist in the field, the officer wants to be convinced that these are skills that can’t be found in the US” Nita Nicole Upadhye <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Managing attorney, NNU Immigration <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

SEPTEMBER 2019

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T H E B I G STO RY: U S V I S A S

was rejected only had a year and half’s experience with the company. “I don’t think he did a fantastic interview, and probably said a few things that set the alarm bells ringing,” says Matthews. “If you had a person who had never worked for you before or had worked in a different specialism in recruitment, I wouldn’t bother because they are not going to get through.”

Matthews says had he not been able to bring over these staff from the UK it would have been very hard to hire US citizens with the same specialist knowledge and skill, “who know the culture and what the company is about”, within the same timeframe. Nor would he have been able to grow the company’s revenue that has allowed it to take on seven US citizens out of a total workforce of 12.

Charlotte Slocombe, partner at law firm Fragomen, who runs its consular team in London, says the problem is wider than just E2 visas, but also extends to H1Bs (for new hires) and L1s (for intra-company transfers). The application process for these visas requires applicants to successfully petition USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigrant Services), part of the department of Homeland Security, before applying for a visa at the US embassy in London. According to the USCIS website, the ‘Buy American and Hire American Executive Order’ directs US agencies “to advance policies to help ensure H-1B visas are awarded to the most-skilled or highest-paid beneficiaries”.

Slocombe says the subjective nature of the immigration process, which makes it a question of interpretation, means “the goal posts have shifted”, so that “even somebody with 10 years’ experience that would have been a slam-dunk case before is

“I don’t think he did a fantastic interview, and probably said a few things that set the alarm bells ringing” Adam Matthews <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Managing director, Discover International, US <<<<<<<<<

“Even somebody with 10 years’ experience that would have been a slamdunk case before is potentially not a slamdunk anymore”

potentially not a slam-dunk anymore”.

Based on a recent report to The Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress, the denial rate for E2 visas has risen from just 2% in 2014 to between 6% and 13.8% in 2018. Likewise, according to USCIS, in the first three quarters of 2019 approval rates for L1 and H1B’s fell to 72.1% and 74% respectively from 85% in 2016 and 95.7% five years ago.

Heavy scrutiny It is not only that more visa applications are being rejected, says Slocombe, but they are also scrutinised more heavily. “We are having to dig deeper, put more information into an application, more information about a company’s background history as well as the employee’s background,” agrees Upadhye.

Evidence for this increased level of scrutiny comes from a rise in the proportion of visa applications that are returned with a request for further evidence (RFE) to support the application, Slocombe says. The RFE rate for H1Bs has increased two-fold this year to 40.7%, while the 53.6% RFE rate for L1s is up by 9% compared to the same period last year. However, according to Upadhye, the true situation is likely to be even worse than the statistics indicate, “because we are not even going forward with some applications. We are now seeing increasing levels of review to the point where we worried about sending a recruitment company employee to the embassy”.

Start at the top Charlotte Slocombe <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Partner, Fragomen <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Jeremy Wastall, commercial director (partner) at Precision Global Consulting (PGC), who works with UK recruitment companies to help them provide

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T H E B I G STO RY: U S V I S A S

workforce management solutions in the US, says the problem is not with the first person from a recruitment company, who is often an investor in the US enterprise and tends to be senior. “I haven’t heard of them getting rejected,” he says.

The real problem is with the second tier of more junior recruiters, and particularly graduates. The main argument previously used by UK recruiters – that a new office in the US needed to be staffed

by UK staff because they understood the culture of the business and the different style of recruiting in the UK compared to the US – no longer washes with the immigration authorities, he says. “It is kind of ‘You can train our citizens to work like that’.”

With junior staff more likely to be denied working visas, the job of the first person sent to US to get the business up and running has got tougher, he says. “You are hiring people, you are managing people, you are trying to mirror the culture you have in the UK, but now you have only got US citizens and they are culturally different, so you are kind of fighting the tide.”

Recruiter’s request to speak with Jeffrey Vick, visa chief at the US Embassy in London, was refused.

However, in a statement a US Embassy spokesperson said: “Whenever an individual applies for a US visa, a consular officer reviews the facts of the case and determines whether the applicant is eligible for that visa based on US law.

Consular officers refuse visa applications if an applicant is found ineligible under the Immigration and Nationality Act or other provisions of US law. All visa applications are adjudicated on a case-by-case basis; no case is ever pre-adjudicated.”

EXPLAINED: US VISA TYPES

E2 The E2 visa permits individuals from 80 specified countries (including the UK) to invest in or set up a business in the US. It requires that the principal applicant intends to make a significant investment equating to at least 50% ownership in a US business. It must not be a marginal business but one that includes plans to develop, with the likelihood of employing US citizens. Once the principal applicant has obtained registration of the company as an E2 Treaty Investor, they can apply for E2 visas for employees, who are the same nationality as the investor. Employees must either be in an executive/ supervisory position or possess skills essential to the firm’s operations in the US. E2 visas for UK nationals valid up to five years, no limit on E2 visa renewals, usually granted for additional five years.

H-1B The US H-1B visa allows US companies to employ graduate-level workers in specialty occupations that need theoretical or technical expertise in specialised fields. Any professional-level job that usually requires a Bachelor’s degree or higher can come under the H-1B visa for specialty occupations. However, applicants without these qualifications may be successful through their work experience and/or other qualifications. H-1B visas valid for up to six years. Cap on annual H-1B visas (currently 68,000) reduces chances of a successful application, say immigration lawyers.

B1 A B1 in lieu of an H-1B visa allows a director or skilled employee who meets the H-1B specialist requirement to work in the US business of the UK parent firm or to work in one of its clients on a temporary project or assignment. Visa is usually valid for one year.

L1 The L1 (or intra-company transfers) visa allows overseas companies to transfer employees under two types of L1 visa schemes. The L1A allows for transfers of executives and managers including business owners to a new or existing office for up to seven years. The L1B allows for transfers of employees with specialised knowledge for up to five years. To qualify for an L1A or an L1B the employee, or business owner, must have worked for a subsidiary, parent, affiliate or branch office of the US company outside of the US for at least one year out of the last three years. For a new office that has been in operation for less than one year, L1 visa is granted for one year.

“You are hiring people, you are managing people, you are trying to mirror the culture you have in the UK, but now you have only got US citizens” Jeremy Wastall <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Commercial director, PGC <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Faced with this situation, what should recruiters do? Upadhye says that because of the doctrine of consular non-reviewability, decisions taken by US consular officials cannot be challenged in court.

And while there is a possibility of successfully applying for a B1 in lieu of an H visa, which could allow an employee to go work in the US business on a project-like basis, this does not compare with a full-work visa. The L1 visa category used for intra-company transfers is another possibility.

However, according to Upadhye: “If an E2 is not successful, the chances are that an L1 won’t be successful either because it is a whole other level of scrutiny.”

Of course, the much-talked about UK-US trade deal could conceivably save the day by making it easier for UK recruiters to transfer their staff to their fledgling US businesses. But for now you could do worse than follow the advice of Discover International’s Matthews, which is to “get a really good lawyer”. ●

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07/08/2019 15:13

FINANC IA L PLANNING

With so much uncertainty in the world, even though it’s hard to know what tomorrow may bring, that shouldn’t stop recruiters planning ahead to the year-end and beyond, says Roisin Woolnough

FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL f ever there was a year for which recruiters should be doing end-of-year planning, Kate Shoesmith says this is it. “Next year feels like quite a critical year to have all of your ducks in a row,” says Shoesmith, director of sales and marketing at the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).

“It is hard to plan in the current scenario because we really don’t know how Brexit will go, but recruiters have to do the best they can. We can all be guilty of waiting to see what happens, but there’s too much that is going to happen in 2020, so you have to have plans in place.”

It’s not just Brexit that has a big question mark over it. There is so much uncertainty in the world of UK business and recruitment generally at the moment, partly because of Brexit,

I

24 RECRUITER

that it’s hard to know what tomorrow will bring. Will there be a general election? Will Boris Johnson still be in charge in six months from now? What direction is the government taking?

What impact will of this have on the economy? None of these big questions show any signs of being resolved quickly or easily. In fact, almost the only thing that is certain is that change is likely to happen at some point in the coming months, and the implications could be far reaching.

Given the current climate, it is hard to plan ahead with any real certainty, but as Shoesmith says, plan ahead you must, as best you can. As a recruiter and particularly for those who run their own business or division within a business, consideration must be given to possible eventualities and scenarios, and how to approach them.

Even if business is strong and the

contracts are rolling in, recruiters have to make the time and allocate resources to future business planning. “The gravitational pull in recruitment is strongly towards fees today – nothing wrong with that per se – but if you want things to be better next year, it pays to have a plan,” says Alison Humphries, a highly experienced non-executive director (NED) and business mentor in the recruitment space and founder of the Recruitment Leadership business.

LEGISLATION In terms of what definitely lies ahead in 2020, several bits of important legislation come into force in the recruitment sector. Firstly, there’s the rollout of IR35 in the private sector, due to happen in April. Recruiters need to have a firm handle on what IR35 means for them, for candidates and

SEPTEMBER 2019

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F IN A N C I A L PL A N N I N G

clients in order to ensure compliance all round. Recruiters need to be able to advise clients and candidates on IR35, and ensure that there are no glitches or interruptions to projects.

There is also the Government’s Good Work Plan, which was published in December 2018. From 6 April 2020, any employees or workers who begin employment must be provided with a statement of employment particulars.

Also under the Good Work Plan is the removal of the Swedish Derogation rules in the Agency Workers Regulations 2010. Swedish Derogation contracts currently allow agency workers to trade off equal pay for pay between assignments before terminating the contract.

I M AG E S | I STO C K

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“The gravitational pull in recruitment is towards fees… but if you want things to be better next year, it pays to have a plan” UNDERSTANDING YOUR MARKET It is imperative to know what is going on in your particular market or markets. What’s happening now? Are there any disruptions on the horizon?

How stable is your market? Humphries calls this “sense-checking your surroundings”.

Take time to talk to key clients and

review in-depth data published by the REC and Office of National Statistics, to name just two sources. How can you allocate resource to growth areas?

Secure your position with existing clients? What kind of candidates do you need to attract?

Talk to your front-line consultants within your business to find out what clients and candidates are telling them.

Being in the know is key to taking advantage of new opportunities as they arise.

Although Brexit is such an unknown entity, Humphries says recruiters still need to be as prepared as possible for disruption. “The impact of Brexit remains unclear, but you should discuss and document a crisis plan with your WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 25

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FINANC IA L PLANNING

leadership team. Too often in downturns, recruiters don’t acknowledge they are in one until remedial action becomes crisis,” he explains.

And similar in terms of capitalising on new ventures: “The same applies to sudden demand – opportunities can be lost if you don’t resource them quickly enough.”

EVALUATION Something that the REC does, and that Shoesmith says increasing numbers of other organisations are doing as well, is to compare the current outlook to what the situation was like before the 2008 recession: “We go back in quite a lot of detail over a few years. Are the market conditions the same or different?”

Looking back is an important part of looking forward. Recruiters need to evaluate how the year has gone and if targets have been met. If they haven’t, why not? Humphries advises consulting with key members of staff about the year’s progress – what’s worked, what hasn’t and why.

“Very often, great initiatives fail to impact due to poor project planning/ implementation, insufficient research, lack of supporting training and too many crises.” What are the lessons learnt from this year? Do some of those targets need to be revisited and fine-tuned?

It’s also important to evaluate and celebrate successes. Were they happy accidents or the result of careful planning and execution? Can those successes be replicated in the same or new markets?

Lots of organisations use business-planning tools. Humphries says recruiters should consider using a SoW – a statement of work often used in project management. Or an organagram, an organisational chart that outlines organisational structures. Shoesmith is a fan of the PESTLE (a mnemonic representing political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors) business tool for conducting external reviews.

26 RECRUITER

ANN SWAIN, CEO OF THE ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL STAFFING COMPANIES “Year-end provides an ideal base point for not only accounting and financial planning, but also wider organisational strategy and objectives. It offers an ideal benchmark to measure progress and success across all facets of the business and map the coming 12 months and beyond.

The professional recruitment market shifts rapidly, and scheduling an annual SWOT (strengths, ths, ables weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis enables business leaders to step back, take stock, identify fy opportunities and elevate their commercial thinking. This, in turn, should inform a quarterly and yearly business plan designed to increase revenue and profitability. The exercise should include analysing your current client portfolio, building a sales pipeline and formulating a proactive and tailored marketing strategy that balances new business development with a client retention strategy.

For those companies working towards financial year-end in April 2020, recruitment leaders face the additional challenge of ensuring that their businesses are prepared to manage the introduction of changes to off-payroll working in the private sector. To do this effectively, firms must – if they haven’t already – put together expert steering comprising of representatives from HR, IT and legal functions. These groups should be tasked with reviewing supply chains, business models, budgets, systems and processes to ensure they are ready to hit the ground running when the new legislation comes into force.”

SKILLS AND STAFFING One of the biggest problems facing recruitment agencies at the moment, according to Shoesmith, continues to be the recruitment of internal staff. There simply aren’t enough consultants to meet demand. To overcome this shortage, work out where your skills gaps are, how to meet them through recruitment and if any existing staff can be trained up.

POWER POINTS ● Budget What budget do you need for 2020? How

did your 2019 budget serve you as an organisation? ● Technology Do you need any new tech? If you do,

what and why? Don’t be seduced by the latest toy – make sure whatever you buy suits your needs today and tomorrow. ● Staffing and skills needs Do you have the staff and skills you need? If not, how are you going to get them? ● Market review What’s happening in the market?

How are you performing, compared to your peers, in the market?

And work hard to hang on to the staff you have got. Are you providing them with good career paths? The right training, benefits and recognition? You need to have a plan not only how to get in skills, but also how to retain them.

And it’s important to keep staff on track in these vital last months of 2019, in the hectic lead-up to Christmas, advises Sachin Ruparelia, CEO at recruitment consultancy Camino Partners. To keep staff focused and motivated, Camino Partners has offered short-term incentives in the form of additional annual leave, duvet mornings and restaurant vouchers, among other benefits. That way, Ruparelia says your organization can hit 2020 in good shape, ready to face the year ahead.

Then there’s setting goals for the year ahead. Make sure the goals you set for 2020 are achievable or you are doing more harm than good. “Your 2020 goals need to be clear, calculated and challenging but ultimately achievable,” says Ruparelia.

“Remember, unrealistic targets can be demotivating.”●

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THE VIEW AND THE INTELLIGENC E

Championing recruitment in your local area P2 BIG TALKING PO INT

The Apprenticeship Levy scandal for temps P4 LEGAL UPDATE

RECRUITMENTIssue 77September MATTERS 2019

The latest on IR35 reforms P6 TR AINING

Upcoming training and events P8

I M M I G R AT I O N

Reform immigration system to keep the economy at full strength T

he Recruitment & Employment Confederation has joined a broad, cross-sector, coalition of trade, business and education bodies in calling for a more open immigration system to keep the UK at “full strength”.

Ahead of the new Prime Minister taking office, the #FullStrength coalition wrote to him calling for clear action on reforming the immigration system to avoid employers facing a “cliff-edge in recruitment” amid worsening chronic skills and labour shortages.

It sets out four reforms to the government’s Immigration White Paper: • lowering the salary threshold for Tier 2 visas • extending the temporary work route for overseas workers from one year to two years and allowing people on this route to apply to other routes such as a skilled visa while in the UK • revising the sponsorship model to make it easier for firms of all sizes to bring in the

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overseas talent they need, and • reinstating the two-year post-study visa for international students to work in the UK post-graduation.

More than 60% of jobs in the UK currently fall under the proposed £30,000 salary threshold, which highlights the risk in setting the future level too high for vital services such as health and social care.

And as REC chief executive Neil Carberry explained, the extension of the temporary work route could help take the edge off the uncertainty around access to labour that

Brexit is exacerbating.

He added: “A healthy UK economy will need people coming from abroad to contribute at all skill levels, across a wide range of sectors. Our immigration system needs to be managed, but it must also be open – helping businesses to grow and create jobs for citizens and new arrivals alike. To build a truly global Britain, we should welcome our friends, colleagues and family members who come here to add to our society and our economy, and the new Prime Minister and his team need to take these proposals from the #FullStrength coalition seriously.”

The coaltion also includes London First, techUK, British Retail Consortium, UKHospitality, Federation of Master Builders, Universities UK, Innovate Finance, Association of Labour Providers, The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), and North West Business Leadership Team.

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

the view...

Championing local recruitment is essential to seeing the bigger, national picture, says NEIL CARBERRY, REC chief executive

O

ne thing that drives how I spend my time is a belief that, running a UK-wide organisation like the REC, you need to understand the situation all over the country – not just from the London bubble. This is very much on trend, of course – given the impressive ‘Power up the North’ campaign launched across northern England recently. But it applies just as much to all regions and nations of the UK. As expectations, skills needs and growth plans begin to vary between areas, the REC is supporting members in their local context. This summer, for instance, we launched new research on the skills and demand picture in each area (see p3).

But we also need to support brilliant recruitment on the ground. In July, we ran both training and briefing sessions in Manchester. I also had the pleasure of leading a delegation of REC members to meet the city’s Mayor, Andy Burnham.

It’s testament to Manchester’s vibrant economy and recruitment sector that we could put such a comprehensive programme together. Recruiters are on the front-line of an exciting era in the region’s economic and social history. Weighing heavily on the Mayor is that all this could unravel if businesses can’t find the talent they need. “You’re critical to everything we want to achieve in Manchester,” the Mayor told us.

Our discussion focussed on two themes: • Supporting Manchester’s industrial strategy for growth and job creation. Members shared some of the great work they do – in schools, with career changes or to help people progress.

A strong partnership with recruiters is essential to building the future workforce Manchester needs.

• Harnessing the power of good recruitment. Andy Burnham’s Good Employment Charter envisages what work in Manchester should be. It’s fantastic that good recruitment is a key theme.

Looking to REC members as guardians of high standards and partners for the next stage of growth is a natural choice.

I left the meeting convinced of two things. Firstly, recruiters should be at the heart of local economic and jobs discussions, as experts. This will help the economy and grow the understanding of why good recruitment matters and how we add value.

Secondly, I saw the role the REC should play in facilitating these discussions. To be a genuinely national organisation, we must also be a regional one.

If you want to keep up to speed with all things recruitment, then follow me on Twitter @RECNeil

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TOM HADLEY, REC director of policy and campaigns, issues his ‘to do’ list for jobs to the new Prime Minister HADLEY ’ S C O MMENT

A letter to Mr Johnson As parliament returns from summer recess, here are our messages to the new PM: Dear Prime Minister, Jobs matter. They open opportunities for people and underpin prosperity by helping businesses to grow. The REC is passionate about our industry’s role within a dynamic and inclusive jobs market; there are four priority areas for us to address together: 1. Understanding that flexibility and good work go hand in hand – A flexible labour market is one of the UK’s biggest strengths. And ensuring it delivers good work is also important. We want to work with you to tackle key policy challenges – like inclusion, or the scandal of locking temporary workers out of Apprenticeship Levy-funded training.

2. Making the case for brilliant recruitment as a driver of productivity – Promoting peer-to-peer exchanges through initiatives like the REC Good Recruitment Campaign will help businesses improve performance. So much of the UK productivity gap is about leadership and employee engagement. Work with us to address this – as well as better public sector recruitment and an immigration strategy that works for business.

3. Creating the environment for compliant businesses to succeed – Companies that do the right thing should be the ones who succeed.

Recruiters are held to a high standard, through industry codes of practice and regulations. But too often enforcement is weak, or policy changes – like the upcoming changes to IR35 – are rushed in and make life difficult for compliant businesses. Work with us to change this.

4. Taking a lead on the future of jobs – Our jobs market will evolve as automation and consumer behaviour change the jobs we need. This is a big challenge, as we help people into growth sectors, and away from shrinking ones. This is a major focus for the REC Future of Jobs Observatory and we are keen to share our latest insight.

UK recruiters place a million people into permanent jobs each year and ensure that a further million are on temporary and contract assignments on any given day. We want to harness our industry’s expertise and drive and ensure that jobs and growth are at the heart of the government’s agenda.

Yours sincerely, The £35.7bn UK recruitment industry You can follow Tom on Twitter @hadleyscomment

www.rec.uk.com

05/08/2019 17:48

92%

the intelligence...

New Workforce Intelligence series strengthens regional expertise

BY THALIA IOANNIDOU, RESEARCH MANAGER AT THE REC

T

he REC is excited to introduce a new series of research for members with labour market analyst Emsi UK. This new partnership provides REC members with employment and job growth insights for each Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) in England, and single reports for each of the UK nations – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Economic and political developments since the Brexit referendum in June 2016 have highlighted, more than ever, that recruitment businesses need to be well-informed about labour market conditions and be able to have different strategic conversations with clients. Lacking job market awareness and a confidence to offer clients advice on business planning can undermine recruiters’ credibility.

In fact, being jobs market experts is at the heart of the value recruiters add to clients and candidates. Building strong relationships with existing and new clients, as well as successfully winning more business, largely depends on the agency’s geographical and skills sourcing expertise.

Alongside the quality of services offered, employers have consistently cited this as most important when selecting their recruitment agency partners. According to our monthly ‘JobsOutlook’, the proportion of employers that highlight the importance of this increased from 70%

NEW CLIENT ACTIVITY SOFTENS

10%

15%

14%

19%

30%

20%

33%

45%

34%

47%

60%

Jan-May 2019

37%

Jan-May 2018

53%

Jan-May 2017

0 Median

Upper Quartile

Lower Quartile

New clients as a percentage of total clients, Jan-May 2017-19

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RM September 2019.indd 3

in July 2018 to a noteworthy 92% in July 2019. This rose to 95% among public sector hirers of temporary agency workers, significantly higher than the figure of 57% recorded a year earlier.

The Workforce Intelligence series, a service free for REC members, provides detailed data and insight on key issues such as jobs and job posting trends, industry growth and headline occupation categories.

The latest information from Recruitment Industry Benchmarking’s RIB Index shows that, across the first five months of 2019, the proportion of new clients billed by all RIB recruiters, as a percentage of total clients, was significantly lower than in the last two years.

According to our monthly JobsOutlook, the proportion of employers that highlight the importance of sharing expertise increased from 70% in July 2018 to a noteworthy 92% in July 2019.

By bringing together different data sources to create the most robust dataset available at a very local level, recruitment businesses can deepen their understanding of labour market dynamics and provide better support to clients and candidates.

At the same time, whether they are looking to diversify, specialise in certain sectors or expand into new territories, the reports will enable recruitment businesses to make better-informed decisions about the direction and growth of their own business.

To find out more on the REC and Emsi’s new Workforce Intelligence series and access this valuable insight on hundreds of industries and occupations at the lowest local levels, visit our website. www.rec.uk.com

Set into historical context for the median RIB recruiter, new clients made up around a third of total clients billed in both Jan-May 2017 and 2018. By JanMay 2019, however, it had dropped to 19%.

Similarly, among those with higher proportions of new clients within the total billed (the upper quartile), the

percentage dropped from around a half in 2017 and 2018 to 37% in 2019. And within the lower quartile of recruiters – those with much lower proportions of new clients as a percentage of the total billed – the percentage halved from 20% in Jan-May 2017 to 10% in the first five months of 2019.

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.

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APPRENTICESHIP LEVY

big talking point

Training for temps The REC has launched a petition to end the scandal of locking temporary workers out of the Apprenticeship Levy system. Here’s why it matters The Apprenticeship Levy was designed with the best of intentions, but everyone knows it is not working as intended. It’s time for reform.”

That’s according to Neil Carberry, chief executive of the REC – and as reported in the July issue of Recruitment Matters, the latest figures from its members back up his concerns.

Although many employment agencies are small businesses, with only a few directly employed staff, they are caught up in the levy system by virtue of the temporary workers they have on their payroll. Yet 95% of respondents to an REC survey revealed they have been unable to use the Apprenticeship Levy to fund training programmes for agency workers. And due to the inflexibility, the 670 REC members who pay the levy already have £104m of unspent Apprenticeship Levy funds between them.

Some agencies have worked out ways to spend their money – on offering their recruiters the opportunities to take REC’s Recruitment Apprenticeships, for example – but it still leaves nearly 1 million temporary workers cut off from development opportunities.

In July, the REC responded by launching a petition calling

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for the Apprenticeship Levy to be broadened into a flexible training levy that better reflects modern working practices, and recognises the role both temporary workers and temporary work play in the economy.

Under this reform, temporary workers could train as forklift truck or LGV drivers, or as healthcare assistants, for example. That wouldn’t only address key shortages, costeffectively, it would also help people grow their careers. And for many workers, it could mean the difference between earning £8.21 an hour on the minimum wage and upwards of £12.50.

“Letting agencies access the levy funds to provide quality training to temps would be transformational for career progression, productivity and inclusion. It would be a win for government, employers and temporary workers themselves,” explains Carberry.

“One of our members told us they would use a reformed levy to enable their staff to ‘secure longer-term sustainable employment and build their personal resilience’. We should be helping these well-intentioned employers unlock productivity in their workforce by using the levy to train temps.”

Agencies frustrated And this is not the only example the REC highlights. In its ‘Training for Temps’ report, it puts a spotlight on a small business specialising in warehousing, drivers and industrial sectors, which has enough money in its levy pot each year

www.rec.uk.com

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APPRENTICESHIP LEVY

WHY TEMPORARY WORKERS CURRENTLY FALL OUTSIDE THE APPRENTICESHIP LEVY An apprenticeship lasts a minimum of 12 months but 960,000 out of 1,020,000 temp and contract workers in 2017/18 were on assignment for less than 12 months.

Even the 2% of workers on contracts for 12 months or more would only be able to undertake an apprenticeship if they knew the length of their contract at the outset and, because of the nature of temporary work, this is rarely the case.

Accredited apprenticeship programmes demand 20% off-the-job training – something that is at odds with the very reasons temp workers are employed: to meet peaks in demand, cover leave or absences and access key skills in the short term.

to train 35 LGV drivers. It would like to train others up as bricklayers, electricians or mechanical engineers too.

“If the government were to introduce a training levy with funds available to be spent on good-quality training, this would benefit the worker, the business and the economy,” they said.

“As skills shortages increase, supporting good-quality skills development is imperative. We must ensure that today’s agency workers are the skilled permanent employees of tomorrow,” said another.

And in a video to support the REC’s campaign, Robyn Holmes, founder and managing director of recruitment agency Prime Appointments, explains that temporary staff are the people who need the training opportunities most, as many need to be upskilled to help them get work. A lot of people approach the agency wanting to be carers, yet they can’t afford to do the training required under their own steam.

“We would be delighted if we could use the Apprenticeship Levy to train them. It would enable people to go out and do a job that is important for society and one they love,” adds Holmes.

Life changing opportunities The video also highlights stories from temporary workers put at a disadvantage in the current system. They include semi-retired Paul Henderson, who can’t afford to renew his counterbalance forklift licence, which he previously held for

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seven years; and Natalie Smith, who does temporary work on top of two other jobs so she can balance work with childcare – she would love to have the relevant certificates to progress in healthcare support.

And then there’s Andrew Brown, a 19-year-old factory worker, who likes the work and is keen to learn. He’s identified a food hygiene course, a forklift licence or engineering qualifications for manufacturing management as ways to progress and give him more fulfilment. As a temporary worker, none of them are currently an option.

The time is right for change The REC’s report has a foreword by Matthew Taylor, CEO of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), who wrote the Good Work Plan for the government, which sets out their vision for the future of the labour market.

“As the government continues to evaluate and review the apprenticeship system I hope it will give proper consideration to the well-made argument in this timely report,” he said.

When he was running for the Conservative Party leadership, Sajid Javid spoke of his ambition to broaden the Apprenticeship Levy into a wider skills levy. And in May, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd spoke at the REC’s offices to call for a new government focus on helping people to progress in work, moving to higher-paid and higher-skilled roles.

The recruitment industry has a vital role to play in creating a progression nation, to help generate growth and prosperity for all. But the contribution they could make would be hugely amplified if the government broadened the scope of the training Apprenticeship Levy funds could pay for.

Lend your voice to the campaign, and sign the petition to broaden the Apprenticeship Levy. Find it at change.org.

SEPTEMBER 2019 RECRUITMENT MATTERS 5

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I R 3 5 U P D AT E

legal update

Draft legislation for private sector IR35 reform

By JANE O’SHEA, REC solicitor

O

n 11 July the government unveiled its draft Finance Bill 2019/20, which includes draft legislation for reform of the offpayroll working rules in the private sector.

Despite widespread calls to delay the implementation, the reform is being rolled out and will apply to payments made on and after 6 April 2020.

The new rules will bring the private sector into line with the public sector, which has been working under similar rules since 2017.

The key points to note are:

ARE YOU CYBER-RISK READY? PETER STOLL, JELF

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• Small companies will be exempt from the reforms.

Instead, the existing IR35 rules will apply, ie. where intermediaries make their own status decisions and deductions.

• Small companies do not have any positive obligation to inform agencies that they are exempt from the rules.

• Medium and large companies will be responsible for determining whether the contractors they hire fall within the scope of IR35 legislation and are liable to pay a higher rate of Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

• Clients must provide their Status Determination Statement (SDS) together with the reasons to the worker directly, as well as to the next party in the supply chain, of which there may be many.

The recent fine of £183m imposed on British Airways by Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the largest in the post GDPR era. Previously under the Data Protection Act, fines were limited to £500k.

But however punitive, fines are not the only costs to a company after a breach of data.

If your recruitment business was subject to a cyber-attack, how would you deal with any of the following outcomes: • Adverse publicity?

• Loss of business/business

interruption?

• Forensic costs?

• IT costs/damage of systems?

• Legal costs/libel and slander claims?

• Breach notification costs?

• Time costs in dealing with breaches?

To help prevent or minimise impact of a breach, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to spend time working on a robust cyber-risk management program. That’s especially true for those that rely upon

Each party must then in turn pass the status decision down the chain, and failure to comply with this obligation will render a party liable.

• The client will be liable for tax and NICs where it fails to take reasonable care with the SDS. • An agency that is next to the client in the supply chain will be liable where HMRC cannot recover monies due from the fee-payer, even where that agency has complied with its own obligations under the rules and regardless as to whether or not other parties down the supply chain have complied with theirs.

• Failure to pass the SDS down the supply chain to the worker will result in the client being liable and having fee-payer responsibility.

Similarly, if the next party in the supply chain after the client fails to pass along the SDS they will be presumed to be the fee-payer and liable for any loss of tax.

• The draft legislation introduces a client-led disagreement process which allows individuals and feepayers to challenge determinations.

• Fee-payers will not be required to make deductions for pension contributions.

As the Bill is currently in draft form members are reminded that as it passes through the legislative process there may be further amendments.

A technical consultation on the legislation closes on 5 September. systems and hold any sensitive data. Cyber risk awareness training for staff can help mitigate unnecessary spear phishing incidents too.

It is also advisable to seek out the most appropriate business insurance solution such as cyber and data cover/ cyber liability insurance, which can help shoulder some of the costs, should you be subject to an incident.

Peter Stoll, director, Jelf – Manchester

www.rec.uk.com

05/08/2019 17:48

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

SUZY ASTBURY, managing director

director at Justteachers, on workplace culture

Being a successful small business is less about the bottom line and more about the people.

You’ve been named in the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women and UK’s Best Workplaces, and won an Excellence in Wellbeing award.

What’s behind that?

Recruitment can be stressful.

It’s all the more reason to look after your staff. We take wellness very seriously at Inspired, ensuring that our staff have the head space that they need to remain productive and creative. Being mindful can lead to increased productivity and staff retention.

There’s a world outside work.

We’ve encouraged our employees to focus on their own goals as well as the

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CAROLINE CAFFERTY, operations

at Inspired Selection, on employee engagement

We recently won Best Small Business at the Southwark Business Excellence Awards and one of the judges said it was down to the way we give back to the community and to our staff.

www.rec.uk.com

Q&A

What I know

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE INSTITUTE OF RECRUITMENT PROFESSIONALS

business and professional development ones – whether its education, buying a house, future family plans or travelling.

It’s important to be part of the community you represent.

We have 14 members of staff and we encourage them to go to as many networking and educational events within publishing as they can. We strongly feel that being a part of the conversation with our clients, understanding their key challenges and opportunities, allows us to remain agile, current and supportive to our client’s needs.

Our local communities are just as important.

Volunteering has always been high on the agenda at Inspired. We go out twice a year within our local communities. We also partner with and fundraise for charities associated with publishing.

What do you offer employees to help with their wellbeing?

Justteachers has always had a healthy workplace culture, helped by the fact the entire senior leadership team are working mums – and they’ve all developed through the ranks. And 50% of our staff have been with us for four years or more – we refer to ourselves internally as the JT family. But we wanted to know what more we could do. It’s why we engaged with Great Places to Work – it was a way to test ourselves, get honest employee feedback and an audit of our policies.

And importantly, we’ve listened to feedback; we expect high standards from our staff but also believe in supporting them.

We have introduced a wellbeing hub and partnered with MetLife to provide a platform for advice on financial, mental and physical wellbeing.

Alongside introducing a weekly extended wellbeing lunch, for staff to go the gym or catch up on personal chores, we offer flexible working hours in the school holidays and an extra day off for their birthday.

How do you think it benefits your business?

Retention is one thing. But the consistency of staff has huge benefits for clients and candidates. Our culture has extended into the services we offer too. Last year we launched Flexi, building on the growing demand for flexible working. We’ve now got a growing bank of candidates who will partner up to fill a full-time position.

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TRAINING & EVENTS

Upcoming training School’s back, so now it’s time for you to focus on your professional development September 10 Essential Skills for Temporary Recruiters (Aberdeen) 11 Essential Skills for Permanent Recruiters (Aberdeen), Perfect Client Meeting (Manchester) 12 Interviewing Skills (Leeds), Telephone Sales (Belfast) 15 Essential Skills for Temporary Recruiters (Newcastle) 16 Essential Skills for Permanent Recruiters (Newcastle) 17 Social Media Recruiting – Mastering LinkedIn (London), Introduction to Recruitment Practice (Leeds) 18 Balancing Act (Birmingham) 19 Successful Account Management (Leeds), Recruitment Law: Understanding the Essentials (London) 24 Business Development

Planning (Manchester), Management Essentials (London) 25 Recruitment Law: Understanding the Essentials (Cambridge) 26 Candidate Sourcing & Management (Bristol), Recruitment Law: Supplying Limited Company Contractors (Edinburgh) 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 6 Recruitment Law: Supplying Limited Company Contractors (London) 7 Recruitment Law:

Upcoming events 17-19 September – REC Masterclass with Greg Savage and Chris Savage (Glasgow, Manchester and London) The latest ‘insider’ consulting, negotiating and selling tactics

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.

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Understanding the Essentials (London) Business Development Planning (Edinburgh), Introduction to Recruitment Practice (London) Essential Skills for Temporary Recruiters (Birmingham) Essential Skills for Permanent Recruiters (Birmingham), Successful Account Management (Bristol) Telephone Sales (London) Candidate Sourcing & Management (London) Balancing Act (London), Customer Service for Recruiters (London) Social Media Recruiting – Mastering LinkedIn (Glasgow) Advanced Management Skills (London)

SEMINARS Preparing for IR35 series… in Glasgow (10 Sep), Edinburgh (11 Sep), Bristol (24 Sep), Cardiff (25 Sep), Newcastle (2 Oct), Aberdeen (3 Oct), London (8 Oct), Belfast (13 Nov) and Cambridge (20 Nov) Talking recruitment webinars: 9 October

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 SEPTEMBER 2019

RM September 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.

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05/08/2019 17:48

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08/07/2019 12:56

E UPSTART EARPIECE CO M M UNITY

DEVELOPING FEMALE TALENT

BY COLIN COTTELL

he representation of women at senior levels within organisations continues to be a hot topic, with research showing that 85% of FTSE 350 companies do not have a female board member in an executive role.

In July, Dame Inga Beale, the first female boss of Lloyd’s of London, effectively said ‘Enough is enough’ as she called for targets and quotas for gender balance in senior leadership roles, “with repercussions for those that don’t achieve it”. She was joined by Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, who used to run Virgin Money, who advocated “some sort of levy for non-compliant firms that could be used for further research into achieving better gender balance, or to fund specific programmes for female talent development”.

She may be on the other side of the globe in Hong Kong, but such rumblings of discontent and calls for radical action will come as music to the ears of Kirti Lad, executive director of Meraki Executive Search & Consulting. If the lack of progress towards more women in British boardrooms means that business leaders in the UK are losing patience, a new study shows that in Hong Kong too, gender parity at senior levels within organisations still has a long way to go.

T

Slow changes Hong Kong’s Female Talent Pipeline Study, developed by the Faculty of Business and Economics and Meraki Executive Search & Consulting, found that the proportion of women in the workforce drops from 53% at entry level to 42% at middle management level before falling further to just 29% at senior level. Larger

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organisations, above 500 staff, face an even greater risk of losing female talent, with the figure falling from 52% at entry level to just 22% at senior level.

And like business leaders in the UK, Lad, who spends lot of her time working with clients in Asia to help them develop their female talent pipeline, is calling time on what she says is an unacceptable situation.

“Yes, it is changing but it’s not changing fast enough. If we continue down the same pathway, if we carry on the same pattern it is going to take at least 150 years before we achieve anything that is considered parity. I don’t think that is acceptable,” says Lad. Not only is this a waste of individuals’ talent, hopes and aspirations, but the study says that with so many women leaving the workforce, organisations are also hit hard. It estimates that the average cost of replacing a senior leader is $500k (£446k).

Over and above the more obvious reasons that women leave

“When it comes to hiring and promotions, a lot of women are not even being considered”

IM AGE | SHUTTER STOCK

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CO M M U N I T Y

UPSTART

organisations, such as wanting to have a family and seeking a less pressurised job, Lad says “when it comes to hiring and promotions, a lot of women are not even being considered”. The way many companies hire and promote is “still very archaic in their approach”.

Instead of hiring and promoting for potential, Lad says “many look for someone that ticks every box”.

Other barriers to women achieving their potential are ‘presenteeism’, and the lack of flexible working, with many women choosing to leave the corporate world to set up their own businesses, work as consultants or to join start-ups, all of which facilitate agile working.

The inevitable result is the stark outcome of the study, she says. “We already know anecdotally that companies need to think about addressing their female talent pipeline, and the study confirms this in black and white that there is a real drop-off from mid-management level to senior level,” says Lad. However, while the focus of much of the discussion about female representation at senior levels within organisations is often about representation at board level, Lad says what is often ignored is the lack of women who are ready to take up those roles.

As she explains: “It is all well and good appointing women onto boards, or taking women out of executive roles and putting them onto boards, but you are not really addressing the real issue, which is there aren’t enough women coming up through the ranks.”

Directing women Rather than accepting the situation, however, Meraki has devised a new programme – The Women’s Development Programme – in conjunction with the University of Hong Kong, with the aim of enabling organisations to develop, retain and motivate their high-potential female talent. As an extension of Meraki and the University of Hong Kong’s existing Women’s Directorship Programme, the new programme that is due to begin in September targets the need for more women at the management level below the C-Suite, with the aim of building a talent pipeline of women, who are eventually ready to progress to the boardroom.

Utilising a mixture of academics, executive coaches and involving guest speakers and female role models from corporates in Hong Kong, the six-day course costing HK$50k (£5,120) covers subjects such as strategic leadership and strategies, negotiation and collaboration.

However, beyond the more technical aspects of the programme, Lad says changing the mindset of the attendees is a vital aspect. She explains that the aim is to combat the prevailing culture in Hong Kong, which holds women back in particular. “You are taught not to put your

“The good news is that there are already plenty of men out there who believe that this is something that has to happen, but we want companies to be more ambitious.

If everyone is involved in trying to create a culture of inclusion, some of these barriers that exist will disappear, and that’s the goal” Kirti Lad, executive director of Meraki Executive Search & Consulting

E

head above the parapet; you are not encouraged to put your hand up, to ask for what you rightfully deserve, or should even want, and certainly not expected to lean in in the way you are expected to in Europe and the US,” says Lad. And though she acknowledges that this culture of not wanting to stand out affects both genders, “it is more prevalent with women”, she says. “So there is a kind of rewiring of how girls think, and giving them permission to be able to do things that I think boys do naturally.”

It is for this reason, explains Lad, that one of the modules is about managing self. Lad says that high-potential women in their early to mid-30s face a cocktail of competing demands and pressures.

Not only is their job becoming more pressured, but they have family responsibilities, many are doing community work, some might be school governors, while some also want time to participate in marathons and triathlons or other activities. “So there is being effective at work and there’s being effective in your personal life, and we want to give them strategies where the two can co-exist, and how they can do all these things.”

Lad says a lot of the programme is about learning how to prioritise. “It’s about being able to manage ourselves and being confident enough to be able to say, ‘I will take that on, but it won’t get done for another two weeks’, or ‘I will do this, but it will be another 48 hours before you get any action out of me’.”

Corridors of power Alongside the personal, the programme is also designed to help women understand and navigate the corridors of power, so that they feel comfortable in this environment and can exert influence as a member of a minority. “Because that is the

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CO M M U N I T Y

UPSTART

other thing,” says Lad. “You are a young leader, you are dealing with very experienced stakeholders, and actually understanding how to be around power is a skill in itself.

That is something these women have to learn, because some of the people they will be dealing with could be board directors or CEOs, and therefore could be potentially intimidating, so how do you back yourself and have influence around that?

“There are some technical aspects to the programme but the real value is getting women to think about themselves and their purpose and their values and how they want to show up as a leader. Unless you really think about what you want to represent you can’t project forward, so it’s really important for us to do that part.”

Lad says the Women’s Development Programme must be seen in conjunction with Meraki’s existing Women’s Directorship Programme, also run with The University of Hong Kong, now in its eighth year. The women on the Directorship Programme will be mentors for women on the new programme. “This will give them a chance to ask questions, and give them a framework and a mindset to challenge the status quo and not just accept things because that is what everybody else is doing. And as soon as more women are doing that, change will happen.”

Augmenting this will be a series of webinars, keynote presentations,

“So there is being effective at work and there’s being effective in your personal life, and we want to give them strategies where the two can co-exist”

85%

of FTSE 350 companies DO NOT have a female board member in an executive role.

The proportion of women in the workforce DROPS FROM

53% 42% at entry level to

at middle management level before falling further to just

29% at senior level

E

panel discussion and social drinks that will bring these women together with alumni from the directorship programme. “It is not something that happens overnight, but the more you are among women that think this way, the more it becomes the way,” Lad explains.

Lad doesn’t expect many of the women on the programme to go into directorship roles straight away, but says it is an important stepping stone. The problem, she says, is that board appointments are made on the basis of having “P&L (profit and loss) experience”, which is precisely what women tend to lack. Where the course comes in is “to help women progress in that direction, so there is a bigger pool of women to consider”.

On its own, a six-day programme won’t change the world, Lad recognises. But it can make a real difference, especially as part of a wider shift in attitude and approach.

“The good news is that there are already plenty of men out there who believe that this is something that has to happen, but we want companies to be more ambitious. If everyone is involved in trying to create a culture of inclusion, some of these barriers that exist will disappear, and that’s the goal.” ●

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»

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CO M M U N I T Y

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

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From 50th anniversary celebrations, helping the next generation and high hopes thanks to aviation, you’ve been busy since the last Recruiter…

L-r: Manchester United legend Bryan Robson with his former manager Sir Alex Ferguson enjoying the festivities

MORSON CELEBRATES ITS 50TH IN STYLE Manchester-based technical and engineering recruitment specialist Morson turned 50 in July and held a star-studded event for 800 past and present employees at Gawsworth Hall in Cheshire. With a guest list that included former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and long-time Man Utd player Bryan Robson, and Mancunian boxing legend Ricky Hatton, employees from throughout Morson’s 50 years in business were entertained by live music from Hatty Keane, Totally Take That, the ‘People’s Tenor’ Russell Watson and Heather Small of M People.

TWI TTER Bright Purple @BrightPurpleR We’re loving the August cover of @RecruiterMag! Cracking illustration + article. #Recruitment #Influencers

I NSTAGR AM

, The voice of M People, Heather Small d entertained guests at the star-studde 50th birthday party for Morson

db dbcharlesrecruitment As always, each monthly edition from @recruitermagazine provides invaluable @ in and market information on everything intel im impacting the recruitment industry # #hatsofft oyou #recruitment #recruiters re recruitermagazine W thank you, @dbcharlesrecruitment!

Why We’re rather chuffed with it as well – glad W yo you like what’s inside too! ;-) @RecruiterMag instagram.com/recruitermagazine/ recruitermagazine.tumblr.com/

GATENBYSANDERSON HAS HIGH HOPES FOR MHF As well as adopting the Mental Health Foundation as its chosen charity, executive search firm GatenbySanderson has partnered with mental health charity Mind to train 10 colleagues as mental health first-aiders. CEO Kevin Gordon proved his commitment to MHF by flinging himself out of a plane for the charity (pictured above).

BRIGHTWORK HELPS STUDENTS GET CAREER READY Scotland-based recruiter Brightwork, partnering with charity Career Ready, has given three Glasgow secondary school students experience in the world of recruitment.

Front, l-r: Abbie Warren, Meera Singh and John MacInnes spent four weeks with Brightwork

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E CAREERS CO M M UNITY

The Workplace

BY GUY HAYWARD

34 RECRUITER

I guess it then becomes all about the continued experience of feeling wanted.

There really is so much that we can do. And it’s more than just a fruit basket once a week.

Every day at Goodman Masson we supply cereal for breakfast and on Friday we add in hot bacon rolls to complement the daily fruit delivery – we are told it’s one of our best perks.

I also like what boutique florist Appleyard London does.

Every pay-day the business picks up the lunch tab for everyone and doubles the length of the lunch break.

Estate agency Paramount Properties offers its employees complementary monthly reflexology sessions and massages throughout the year; the fact its people don’t pay for it must make a difference.

We subsidise our masseuse; maybe we need to take Paramount’s lead. We also bring in the office barber and beauty therapist once a month. And what’s better?

Free tea or coffee or the welcome addition of a Nespresso machine?

And then there is the world of unexpected rewards and the impact they make – Easter eggs on people’s desks; chocolate advent calendars on

“In a world where businesses are becoming increasingly creative in their approach, we shouldn’t forget that it is maybe the small things that matter most” 1 December. Recruiter Opus Professional Services sends their people to a villa in Italy, free of charge.

Dunelm, Affiliate Window, Shoosmiths and many more firms offer their people the day off on their birthday.

Surely everyone should!

Swinton Insurance gives its people a free day off at Christmas to go shopping… I love it! Gaming firm Jagex offers free bicycle repairs in the office and Keller Williams has a free-to-use chiropractor.

The list is endless. But is it as good as a Saturday morning phone call to say thank you – or in today’s world, a Saturday morning text? You decide! ●

↗

IT’S OFTEN THE small things that make a difference.

Before the glorious invention of the text message – just showing my age! – I remember receiving a call at home on a Saturday morning. It must have lasted all of 30 seconds. It was my then boss calling to say thank you and well done on a great week at work. I still remember how it made me feel… it felt good, really good!

And in a world where businesses are becoming increasingly creative in their approach to how they look after their people, we shouldn’t forget that it is maybe the small things that matter most.

Does it start with the offer letter? A note written by a line manager, not a mail merge from a central HR system, sets the tone perfectly for what is ahead – an on-boarding period littered with detail, detail that is so often overlooked. A welcome booklet, business cards (and stationery) waiting for you on your first day; your Outlook calendar already filled with meetings with the senior management team and other key stakeholders; and my favourite, a day one team lunch.

GUY HAYWARD – redefining the modern workplace CEO, Goodman Masson

SEPTEMBER 2019

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WORKPLACE INNOVATION

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BRING ON THE BRILLIANCE The importance of agility in a dynamic business landscape ↗ DR DANE POBOKA is a talent solutions director at Morgan Philips Talent Consulting and works with clients to make data-driven talent decisions and understand the potential of their people

A new global study

by Morgan Philips found that 86% of organisations believe agility is central to business success, yet only 28% measure agility when assessing existing or potential employees

BY DR DANE POBOKA

IN BUSINESS, AGILITY is critical. Organisations People Agility involves understanding face unprecedented challenges to established yourself and others, acting with empathy and operating models, through market harnessing interpersonal insight. It is being globalisation, economic conditions, work intrigued by who you are, how you work and attitudes and consumer expectations. deepening your self-awareness. Only then can However, let’s move the discussion forward. you respond with a style that adapts and fits to How do you understand the levels of agility in the needs of others – not because it’s ‘nice to your people to operate in this fluid and be nice’, but because it develops effective disruptive environment? relationships that gets things done.

A new global study by Morgan Philips found that 86% of organisations believe agility is Performance Agility involves dealing with central to business success, ess, yet only pressure, being resilient and adapting to 28% measure agility when en meet objectives. Resilience is mostly assessing existing or a mental challenge; your potential employees. So thoughts are either supporting what’s the problem here? e? your resolve or eroding your PEOPLE Insight Respond Perhaps a definition is confidence. However, a required. mind that is focused on At Morgan Philips building resolve is more we define agility as able to flex in approach Resilience PERFORMANCE Flex the ability to work when required. with insight, flexibility and Growth Agility involves confidence in response an openness to learn from GROWTH Learn Stretch to challenging and experience and drive for changing circumstances. s. improvements. By seeking to Applying your skills in this his find the learning points from manner strongly indicates tes the any situation, both good and bad, pace at which full potential can be you can stretch yourself further; unlocked, with higher levels of agility embracing curiosity, being less resistant, enabling individuals to move more swiftly striving for more audacious goals and acting towards success. From this perspective, agility without fear of failure. is a broad attribute containing several moving parts. So, let’s break it down.

Our definition applies to individuals and teams, and helps fortify businesses with levels Agility has an inner component – how we of agility to deliver results in uncertain, think about business, and an outer dynamic times. Physicist Stephen Hawking component – how we behave in response to said “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to that thinking. It is informed by three key change” – and that can be learnt, which is an elements: intelligent thing to do! ● IMAG ES | ISTO C K

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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 1

The fundamentals of building a recruitment company (hard work, good decision making, robust planning, efficient execution) are the same, whether or not your ultimate objective is to sell. However, owners wanting to sell do have additional considerations if they want to maximise the value they realise on exit. They include: • consider probable buyers when planning and executing • accelerate growth through maximising reinvestment • document every aspect of the business • demonstrate scalability.

Sales do not happen overnight and owners should start considering the following advice at least two and possibly even five years before they want to exit.

How a buyer will value the business Investors often calculate the value of the business based on recent historical and anticipated future performance, ie. expected returns and the risk of the investment. Unless the business is listed on the stock exchange, typically the basis of the valuation will be the average of three years EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Tax). A multiple will be applied to this average – typically between 2.5x and 6x but in some exceptional cases sellers can potentially achieve 10x plus. Other financial factors that can affect value include items such as debt and cash in bank. The multiple will depend on the size of your business, the sector(s)/geographies it operates in, the speed and consistency of growth, synergies with the buyer’s existing operations and potential for scalability among other factors.

However, the key thing to note is that every risk to the investor’s predicted return will erode the multiple.

Having a buyer in mind

36 RECRUITER

The SME Coach Reinvesting for growth Owners running a ‘lifestyle’ business often decide how much money to take out of the business and how much to reinvest. When planning for a future sale, typically the objective is to reinvest as much money as sensibly possible, often accessing cash available at the earliest opportunity (for example, through invoice factoring or discounting), thereby generating a virtuous circle of accelerated growth. After all, the more (good) recruiters the business has billing, the more revenue is generated.

Accelerating hiring cycles means that when you go to market, most of your recruiters will have been in place for some time and the business will thus be more profitable at the point of transaction, achieving the biggest return.

Given the importance of security of returns to prospective owners, growth shouldn’t be reckless – steady growth and margins are better than yo-yoing returns.

Steady returns Executing consistently against a strong plan based on ratios is important to deliver steady returns. If recruiters make the same number of calls every month, they will generate a consistent number of roles every quarter, resulting in the same number of interviews and the same number of placements.

A temp or contractor desk will help make revenue even more predictable. They can be hard to build but once established the rolling revenue gives a great baseline, making a business more attractive to prospective buyers.

Next month I will focus on minimising perceived risk, the importance of scalability and the earn-out process. ●

↗

Recruitment company owners have four principal exit routes: management buyout; trade sale; private equity; and listing on the stock market. Each has pros and cons, and can impact the time it takes to sell, the value realised, how long shareholders are tied in to the business, the levels of due diligence etc.

What type of buyer to target and how to market the business depends on the owner’s situation and numerous variables relating to the company. Speak with an experienced non-exec or other expert to understand what will suit you best.

Alex Arnot

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

SEPTEMBER 2019

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E CAREERS CO M M UNITY

“I recently had the best interview ever when a candidate brought his Pug along and throughout the whole interview, the Pug sat on my knee wanting strokes” MY BRILLIANT RECRUITMENT CAREER What was your earliest dream job?

What was your first job in recruitment and how did you come into it?

This is my first job in recruitment. I started here as a business admin apprentice back in 2013. I then went on to do different roles within the business, including marketing, and gained my marketing diploma. About two years ago I joined our talent team as a candidate resourcer, which meant understanding the candidate process and getting to grips with knowing how to keep the best candidates. And this has led to me doing the full recruitment consultant role.

Who is your role model – in life or in recruitment?

In recruitment it would be June Crossley. She worked in CJUK for 26 years and recently retired. The approach she had was always really positive.

Something I am still learning is that recruitment is a real emotional rollercoaster and you have to learn to take things in your stride. That is exactly what June did all the time – always motivating the team, keeping morale high during tough situations.

She is really someone that I aspire to be.

What do you love most about your current role?

The autonomy – being able to make my own decisions about billing, candidates

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↗

A criminal psychologist. I’ve always loved anything to do with criminal investigation and the way the mind works. I have always found it interesting why criminals do the things they do.

ANYA RYAN, chef recruitment specialist, CJUK

ANYA RYAN and clients that I want to work with.

Also, the potential for growth within myself and within my career is really exciting. I love that I am now, as cheesy as it sounds, in charge of my own destiny. The hard work I put in means that it will pay off in the future.

What would you consider to be the most brilliant moment of your career?

In my first quarter as a recruitment consultant I won sales achiever of the quarter – smashing my target by 128%. It stood me in really good stead for where I’m going and where I want to be.

What’s your top job to fill at the moment?

A really obscure role – a chef in the Lake District. However, it’s at a campsite and the only accommodation that they have is within a tent. Finding a skilled chef to do that role and also expecting them to live in a tent all summer makes it very hard to find someone – however, I have just filled it today!

What is your signature dish?

My homemade parkin that I make every Halloween.

Laugh or cry, what did your most memorable candidate make you want to do and why?

It isn’t just related to one individual candidate. One of my biggest bugbears is when a candidate disappears off the face of the Earth. I can’t get why people can’t say ‘I don’t want to go there for work – there’s something not quite right about this job’, but instead they just completely disappear.

What’s the best or worst interview question you’ve ever heard?

I recently had the best interview ever when a candidate brought his Pug along with him and throughout the whole interview, which was an hour and a half long, the Pug proceeded to sit on my knee wanting strokes.

What would you regard as your theme tune?

Flowers by Sweet Female Attitude.

I M AG E S | I STO C K

07/08/2019 16:24

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E CAREERS CO M M UNITY

3R

ENCORE PERSONNEL

The recruitment start-up services provider has appointed Ric Piper as a board adviser.

The blue collar recruiter has announced a new senior structure, which sees current managing director and co-founder Greg Latham continue to serve in a strategic capacity in a newly created role – group CEO. He will be supported in this role

by Pete Taylor, promoted from operations director to MD.

ALEXANDER MANN SOLUTIONS The global talent acquisition and management solutions provider welcomes David Swanz and Susan Cooksey as heads of sales (Americas), and Mike Drolet as head of Americas contingent workforce solutions and Americas global client service centre.

NHS Professionals, a UK organisation that supplies temporary staff to the National Health Service, has appointed Nicola McQueen as its new CEO from 2 September 2019. Her appointment comes at a pivotal time, said an NHSP statement, as it contributes to the delivery of the recently published Interim NHS People Plan.

Before working with NHSP, McQueen had a career as a CEO delivering flexible staffing solutions to a variety of private and public sector clients, including the DWP, BBC, and the healthcare and nuclear sectors.

McQueen said: “I am both delighted and honoured to be taking up the CEO post at a time when workforce strategy within the NHS is arguably more important than it has ever been. I am hugely passionate about workforce business issues – I have spent the past 20 years supporting workforce strategies in various public and private sectors.”

BRABNERS The independent commercial law firm has appointed employment solicitor Kate Venables as partner.

FOUNDATION RECRUITMENT Charlotte Murdoch has joined the multi-sector recruiter as a director in its London office.

FOUR SEASONS RECRUITMENT

EDEN SEARCH & SELECT The specialist food and drink supply chain executive search consultancy welcomes George Christoudias as associate director.

40 RECRUITER

The London-based luxury retail and fashion recruitment specialist has appointed Chloe Skipper as director.

FRIISBERG & PARTNERS

LORIEN

The executive search firm hires Lorri Lowe as partner.

The Impellam Group firm has made Jo Fagbadegun sales director.

THE INSTITUTE OF STUDENT EMPLOYERS (ISE) The organisation has appointed Alison Heron, global head of employer brand at GSK, and Bob Athwal, senior talent manager at Skyscanner, as fellows.

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

MORGAN HUNT The public sector recruiter has appointed Gillies MacDonald to the board of directors with specific

SEPTEMBER 2019

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responsibility for developing the brand in Scotland.

Morgan Hunt’s team in Scotland also welcomes Fraser Young, who will lead the IT business; Louise Rees, who will head up construction; and Kirsty Stoddart, who will lead its social housing division.

PARASOL The umbrella company has appointed several new members of staff to strengthen its team to help clients manage upcoming changes to IR35 regulation.

These are: business development managers Hannah Carver, Kristina Gomez, Paul Moody, Amy Harries and Byron Madden; account manager Courtney Maguire; and client relationship manager Nicola Gray.

PEDERSEN & PARTNERS Patrick Koffi Placktor joins the international executive search firm as a new client partner in its Paris office. Richard Kampmann joins as a client partner in its US team.

PERTEMPS: The multi-sector recruiter has appointed Linzi Murphy as head of HR recruitment for its specialist professional services recruitment team in Scotland.

Cutter from senior business manager to vice-president of its US business.

SAMUEL KNIGHT INTERNATIONAL The global energy and rail recruitment specialist has promoted Joshua Bayliss to power generation & nuclear divisional manager from principal recruitment consultant and appointed Sam Forrest as renewables divisional manager.

EDITORIAL +44 (0)20 7880 7603 Editor DeeDee Doke Reporters Colin Cottell, Graham Simons colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk graham.simons@recruiter.co.uk

Art editor Sarah Auld Picture editor Akin Falope

STAFFLINE Julie Burnside has taken over as director of Scotland for Staffline brands Brightwork and Staffline Scotland following an organisational restructure.

YOUR NEXT MOVE A selection of vacancies from recruiter.co.uk Atlantis Medical Recruitment consultant Healthcare London Competitive salary Barnett Waddingham Recruitment adviser (Apprenticeships) HR/Personnel Bristol, Cheltenham Competitive salary

● 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

vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk

For more jobs, people moves and career advice go to

The tech and engineering recruiter has promoted Jonny

CONTACTS

Contributing writers Sue Weekes, Roisin Woolnough Production editor Vanessa Townsend

Travel and Transport Statesman Recruitment consultant London (Greater) Negotiable

ROC SEARCH

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

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

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+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

Total average net circulation between 1 July 2017 & 30 June 2018 – 14,837. is also sent to all REC members

Recycle your magazine’s plastic wrap – check your local LDPE facilities to find out how.

Scan here to get your own copy of

p48-49_Recruiter_MoversShakers sep.indd 49

07/08/2019 16:25

E THE LAST WORD CO M M UNITY

To reflect a truly progressive society Boris’ cabinet will need to extend well beyond gender and ethnicity quotas

Hephzi Pemberton Diversity goes beyond gender and ethnicity

oris Johnson appointed his cabinet within a day after becoming prime minister – and it quickly became regarded as the cabinet that finally reflected diversity of modern Britain. Eight out of 33 positions were given to women and a record number of BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) cabinet members were appointed.

However, to reflect a truly progressive society Boris’ cabinet will need to extend well beyond gender and ethnicity quotas.

While the cabinet is diverse on the surface, diversity is not just ethnicity and gender, but includes other factors such as class and academic elitism – and experience, which provides diverse candidates with a unique experience and therefore perception of the social world.

B

42 RECRUITER

It has come to light that 64% of Boris’ cabinet attended fee-paying schools and 48% attended Oxford or Cambridge; that’s a far cry from accurate representation within the general population of the number of students who graduate from Oxbridge as compared with those graduating from other universities or institutions or professionals who do not attend higher education.

It is also highly removed from the 93% of the UK population who attend/ attended state run schools.

Should we begin to question and re-define our own definitions of true diversity before Boris’ cabinet sets a precedence for what makes an organisation diverse?

London stands at the forefront of global diversity.

Professionals descend on the city from all around the world seeking organisations that represent London’s

cultural mix at all levels.

However, the actuality of this aspiration is not transpiring.

Highly-educated white women are a classic example of the kind of candidate that many businesses are focusing their attention on hiring and retaining. The risk of hiring ‘more women’ – which often just means privileged white women – is that it limits the benefits of greater diversity.

It’s hard to tell whether this focus is because it seems like the easiest first step to take or because so much of the diversity agenda has focused on this group.

However, if our industries are going to truly diversify, businesses need to be more open-minded about what they want from a candidate and how broader diversity can benefit their company.

This is especially important as not only do companies miss out on other diverse perspectives (different ages,

ethnicities, degrees of mobility and sexualities), but also the broader point about diversity of thought.

The cabinet and large corporations alike bear a significant and critical responsibility to set a precedent for smaller businesses with regards to diversity & inclusion.

This requires, in the case of Boris’ cabinet, advancement beyond surface level diversity and an understanding of the benefits that diversity of experience and thought can provide.

Therefore, ensuring the morals and values that are required to create a truly diverse and inclusive working culture extend beyond mission statements is vitally important. ●

HEPHZI PEMBERTON is the founder of recruitment consultancy The Equality Group.

SEPTEMBER 2019

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