Recruitment Matters - August 2016

Issue 40 AUGUST 2016

RECRUITMENT MATTERS The View and The Intelligence

The Big Talking Point

The REC’s response to Brexit p p2-3 p2 3

Indeed’s Mariano Mamertino on Brexit

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Legal update and the IRP

Events and Training

Labour law and Brexit

TREC 2016

FIVE THINGS TO CONSIDER IN THE AFTERMATH OF BREXIT The vote to leave t e EU th the will likely usher in a challenging period f r British business and for the fo for l b k t in i particular. ti l UK labour market But recruiters will have an important role to play in the post-Brexit economy. Here are five things you should bear in mind.

1) NOTHING WILL CHANGE IMMEDIATELY The UK remains a member of the EU for now and nothing will change overnight. The world of work will carry on, businesses still need staff and will continue to rely on recruiters to help them find the people they need. The best thing for business right now is clear and

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calm leadership and as much clarity as possible on what the post-EU future will look like.

We have won the economic argument that a dynamic and responsive recruitment industry is critical in building the best jobs market in the world. Our ‘Jobs transform lives’ initiative takes the next step and shows the positive impact the industry has on individuals and businesses.

for recruiters to use when marketing their services, including facts and statistics about the recruitment industry, a promotional film, social media content, presentation emplates, slides, case study templates, website banners, printable wibbon collateral and a Twibbon [a bumper sticker for your e image] social media profile to enable recruiterss to raise the profile of their business, mprove while also helping to improve he wider w the reputation of the it iss available industry. The toolkit bstrransform at rec.uk.com/jobstransform

3) YOU HAVE THE TOOLS TO PROMOTE THE WORK YOU DO

4) THE REC’S WORLD-CLASS RLD D-CLASS INSIGHT ON THE JOB JOBS BS MARKET WILL CONTINUE ONT TINUE

In June we launched the ‘Jobs transform lives’ toolkit. The toolkit contains resources

The REC is now working orking g re esearch with award-winning research p company ComRes to produce

2) RECRUITMENT WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE A BIG EFFECT ON THE ECONOMY

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p6-7 a new and improved version of its popular ‘JobsOutlook’ report. The new JobsOutlook features the same in-depth analysis and insight of the UK’s labour market you’re used to, but with new and improved features, including detailed responses from employers about workforce planning. Having access to as much market information as possible is crucial, particularly in times of uncertainty. The improved JobsOutlook will be an important guide in the postBrexit economy.

5)) WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU The REC wants to hear how Brexit is affecting every aspect of your business.

We will continue presenting your views to stakeholders in Westminster and pushing for a diverse and fl flexible exible jobs market. We encourage all members to email any questions, concerns and insights to our dedicated EU address euyourview@rec.uk.com

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Leading the Industry

THE VIEW

We’re already thinking ahead, says Tom Hadley, REC director of policy and professional services

Recruiters will play a vital role in a postEU UK, says Kevin Green, REC chief executive

As I write this the EU Referendum result is still fresh in my mind. The British people have spoken and the UK will be leaving the EU. In the short term the uncertainty we saw before the vote is likely to remain, but the jobs market has nonetheless continued to perform well: every sector (bar oil & gas) and all regions of the UK are in growth. The economic fundamentals remain strong and the stance of the Prime Minister and the Governor of the Bank of England to support the banks and liquidity reassure the markets will help to ensure business as usual prevails in the short term.

At the REC we are capturing members’ views and concerns, while also analysing the huge amount of employment and agency regulation we have on the statute book to see what we think should change for the benefit of the UK jobs market and our members. There will be a lot of negotiating and planning before the UK government decides what to change. Once they have done this it will involve

EU REFERENDUM TAKING STOCK & LOOKING FORWARD extensive consultations. Rest assured that the REC will be representing, influencing and on occasions fighting on behalf of the recruitment industry.

To this end we need to talk up the impact our industry has on the economy, jobs market and individuals. We know that jobs transforms lives and that we make a huge difference to businesses and individuals every day. We have designed and developed a new set of tools so that you, our members, can help amplify all that’s great about our industry, promote professional standards and spread the word about the difference we make collectively. So take advantage of the toolkit and help improve the perception of our wonderful industry.

Together, let’s make the UK the best jobs market in the world.

If you want to keep abreast of all that’s new about employment and recruitment why not follow me on twitter at @kevingreenrec

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The vote to leave the EU result has ushered in a challenging period for British business, which may have a significant impact on the UK jobs market and our industry.

The REC’s priority has been to call for calm and clarity from government to ensure that any impact is as limited as possible. Other immediate aims have been to capture the concerns of recruiters and to engage with the wider business community on both short and longer-term implications.

Nothing in our current relationship with the EU will change overnight. There will be a prolonged period of renegotiation and readjustment; during this time government needs to do everything possible to help businesses to grow and create jobs. As well as taking this message forward and collating initial member feedback and questions, immediate actions since the referendum have included: • Liaising with other business organisations to take stock of how employers across different sectors are planning to respond • Calling on government to provide as much clarity as possible on what the post-EU world will look like (including plans for reviewing EU regulations like the Agency Workers Directive, which are now embedded in UK law) • Maintaining a clear focus on the skills agenda, as we will need to develop new ways over the coming years of ensuring that UK businesses can fill the jobs available (including a radical step-change in the way we prepare UK nationals to fill vacancies available) • Using our data to monitor any immediate impact of on hiring intentions and on both temporary and permanent placements.

Before the referendum the majority of REC members indicated that remaining in the EU was in the best interests of the UK economy, the jobs market and of their own recruitment business. Now that the decision has been made to leave the EU, our goal is to work with members, government and business community to forge a new business landscape that drives growth and jobs.

You can follow Tom on Twitterr ment @hadleyscomment

www.rec.uk.com

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THE INTELLIGENCE DIANA BEECH, REC SENIOR RESEARCHER, REFLECTS ON THE ‘UBERISATION’ OF WORK The world of work is changing. The notion of a ‘job for life’ and a ‘9-5’ workday is rapidly diminishing in our increasingly flexible labour market. Today the trend that is gaining traction is that of the ‘gig economy’ – this is when workers opt to assume temporary, often ad-hoc, work contracts (or ‘gigs’), sourced through cloud-based marketplaces.

The recent growth of online platforms such as Uber and Airbnb has given rise to a ‘sharing’ economy where it is commonplace to buy and sell services and jobs. Digital work platforms like Upwork,

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PeoplePerHour and Freelancer.com allow firms to contract with workers for short-term engagements.

The idea of the ‘gig economy’ has its origins in the 2009 financial crisis, when people turned to ‘gig working’ – often doing several jobs at a time – as a means of making ends meet.

Today, however, many people are actively choosing to work ‘gigs’: young people building a portfolio of experience, retirees who aren’t yet ready to give up work, and people simply looking for more flexibility and choice over what they do and when they do it. An Intuit study predicted that by 2020 40% of US workers will be independent contractors.

The latest REC research nevertheless finds reluctance amongst UK employers to use digital work platforms as part of their staffing strategies. A survey of 614 businesses reveals that only

6% OUR SURVEY SHOWS A SURVEY OF 614 BUSINESSES REVEALS THAT ONLY 6% OF EMPLOYERS ARE PRESENTLY USING DIGITAL WORK PLATFORMS

26%

OF HIRERS ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE ROBUSTNESS OF THE ‘GIGGING’ PROCESS JOBS

6% of employers are presently using digital work platforms to recruit talent into permanent or temporary positions. One in five businesses say the risks of using these platforms outweigh the potential benefits.

Specifically, our survey shows 26% of hirers are concerned about the robustness of the ‘gigging’ process – highlighting the risk that candidates may lie about their qualifications or experience; 14% of employers are also worried that the use of digital work platforms could open up their businesses to legal complications.

Yet the ‘gig economy’ is growing: 29% of employers

14%

OF EMPLOYERS ARE ALSO WORRIED THAT THE USE OF DIGITAL WORK PLATFORMS COULD OPEN UP THEIR BUSINESSES TO LEGAL COMPLICATIONS

acknowledge it is likely that digital work platforms will become more important to their businesses in the next five years.

The latest REC research compares what employers are telling us with what the people behind the ‘gig economy’ infrastructure are doing to ensure the robustness and efficiency of this new way of working. Next week we will publish our full report, looking at what the trend towards these platforms means for the recruitment industry and for work more generally.

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The Big Talking Point

BREXIT

BREXIT: UK JOBSEEKERS REACT MARIANO MAMERTINO, ECONOMIST FOR EMEA AT GLOBAL JOB SITE INDEED In what has turned out to be a momentous period in UK politics, last month the majority of British citizens voted to leave the European Union. Quickly thereafter, many UK-based jobseekers started a vote of their own: they jumped online to look for work elsewhere. Job search out of the UK doubled in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum results.

Where were UK jobseekers looking to for work in those first few hours following the news?

IRELAND, CANADA AND THE US PIQUE BRITS’ JOB INTEREST Most looked to the very countries of the European Union that Britain will be leaving, with Ireland attracting the largest spike in searches from UK to EU. But job search didn’t just stay in Europe; search rose 73% for the rest of the world too, to countries like the US, Canada and Australia.

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Indeed’s top 50 searches in the days that followed; none of these terms were in the top 50 in the days leading up to the referendum.

CHANGING DYNAMICS OF EU JOB SEARCH

Mariano Mamertino

It stands to reason that these countries increasingly become talent magnets to EU jobseekers. They host great cities, offering a good quality of life and, crucially, at a lower cost of living when compared with the likes of London.

Ireland will now become one of the only countries with access to the common market where English is spoken as a first language by the majority of its citizens (Malta being another) – a major draw for top talent.

Equally, interest also increased from EU countries to Ireland, at the expense of usual EU to UK job search traffic. So it seems the UK’s loss could be Ireland’s gain:

in the immediate aftermath of the referendum, Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs asked UK citizens seeking passports to slow down as they were in danger of overwhelming the system.

SECTORS AT RISK? Which sectors should take note of the surge? Top searches from the UK to Ireland were for roles in Marketing, HR, Engineering, Transport and Retail.

Outbound search to other European countries such as Germany saw spikes for roles in the Hospitality and Finance sectors. Keywords including ‘finance’, ‘analyst’, ‘data analyst’ and ‘c# programmers’ made

‘The Brexit effect’ on job search saw a decline in the attractiveness of the UK and significant surge of interest in Ireland, in the hours and days following the referendum.

While we should keep in mind that these trends may be the result of short-term volatility, they could also be a first signal of a change in the dynamics that underpin inbound and outbound job search in the UK. Unless the UK acts quickly to reassure EU jobseekers of long-term employment rights and renegotiate its position outside the EU – without disrupting cross-border workers’ flows – these changed search dynamics could continue. The repercussions of which are likely to benefit employers across both the Irish Sea and the other side of the Atlantic.

www.rec.uk.com

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“WE SHOULD KEEP IN MIND THAT THESE TRENDS MAY BE THE RESULT OF SHORTTERM VOLATILITY”

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Legal update

BREXIT What does Brexit mean for the European employment laws we have implemented in the UK? By Chris Cuckney Since the UK voted for Brexit, we have all heard many reports on the possible impact this will have on us.

The REC Legal Team have already received questions on what the consequences will be on the UK legislation that we have implemented as a result of European Directives.

Many of the employment laws we have in the UK are a result of European Directives, such as the Working Time Regulations 1998, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (or TUPE as it is more commonly known) and the Equality Act 2010.

The short answer is that at this stage it is difficult to know – there is no set precedent to follow and we do not know the precise details of what

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the UK’s relationship with the EU will look like after we have formally left. At the time of writing we have not begun the legal process of leaving the EU, which requires the UK to enact Article 50 of the Treaty of European Union.

Until we do this all of the European employment laws we have implemented in the UK will remain in place and consequently all recruitment companies must continue to comply with them.

Once the UK has begun the process of formally leaving the EU, in theory there will come a point where the UK is no longer bound by our obligation to implement these European Directives. At that stage the UK government could (if they so wished) repeal any legislation that gives effect to these Directives.

It is worth noting that even

if the UK government was inclined to repeal/amend some of the employment laws implemented as a result of European Directives, some of these laws have been in place in the UK for a long time and any decision to change them will have political consequences and could impact the morale of the British workforce. Any changes will not happen overnight; it is likely to be a lengthy process with all the usual government consultations taking place.

The UK courts currently have an obligation to read our domestic legislation in light of the wording and purpose of the Directive; leaving the EU will presumably have an impact on this obligation and it will be interesting to see what importance the UK courts place on European case law going forward.

As undesirable as it is, we are in for a period of uncertainty because we do not know what our relationship with the EU will look like post-Brexit.

It is only really possible to theorise what our position will be when we leave. Over the next two years or so the UK will be negotiating the terms under which we will leave the EU. These negotiations will include an agreement on what the UK’s obligations will be going forward with regard to European Directives, including the possibility that we may have to continue implementing European employment law in the UK. Recruiters should therefore hold off celebrating the end of the Agency Workers Regulation 2010 – the laws recruitment companies were bound by the day before the referendum are just as binding today.

www.rec.uk.com

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Inspiration

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE INSTITUTE OF RECRUITMENT PROFESSIONALS

The View

Jennifer Button n is a sultant recruitment consultant at Health Recruitt Network and wass the ay’s top student in May’s Cert RP exam

Sonny Pithiya is the or of managing director ms Bluecross Locums

TOP STUDENT

AUDITED MEMBER

How did you get into recruitment?

I’m from New Zealand and I’ve worked as a registered nurse in paediatrics for five years. While doing that I completed a science degree and majored in psychology, and I’ve always found industrial psychology really interesting. When I moved to the UK, recruitment was where I wanted to be.

How long has Bluecross been REC Audited members?

I set the company up in late 2003, and within a year we became Audited members, which we’ve been for almost 11 years now.

What is your role at HRN? HRN covers both temp and permanent recruitment for the private medical sector, so nursing homes, private hospitals and other medical services. I cover the permanent recruitment end at the moment.

What are some of your biggest challenges?

Registered nurses are like gold dust in the UK. It’s difficult to get hold of them and there are so many clients in need of good nurses. It’s a very candidate-driven market.

What prompted you to take the Level 3 Certificate in Recruitment Practice?

We’ve got a good internal programme at HRN where after six months they give every permanent recruiter a chance to be enrolled in the certificate. The company has seen the benefits of the certificate and have really encouraged us into taking it.

How did you find the course?

It was great – I found it very interesting. Having come from a registered nurse background, I know the industry quite well. But knowing how the recruitment side of things works has been really beneficial. It has given me techniques and knowledge that help me every day. My colleagues and I still refer back to the content quite regularly – there’s a lot more to recruitment than what you first assume.

Would you recommend the course?

I definitely would.

What does being an REC Audited member offer?

The intention was always to work at a good standard and Audited provided the platform to do that. It was about getting the right guidance and steps together to ensure we were in the right place. Sometimes when you’re a new business, you’re left unsure about things. What I quickly realised is that the REC Audited process wasn’t about catching us out, but giving us guidance and helping us minimise risk and mistakes.

Would you recommend REC Audited?

Absolutely, I would recommend it to anyone taking it up. The guidance it offers is invaluable. I think members would find that the audit process exists to make them better. We have a lot of companies in the health sector who aren’t Audited, and that surprises me. The Audited process has allowed us to keep on top of all the big legal changes, and it shows your intention to work to a good practice and utilise all the assistance the REC offers.

What does Bluecross Locums specialise in?

We deal with doctors only, but we cover all spectrums, grades and specialities. We’re looking to branch out even further – just in the last two years we’ve moved offices twice because of growth. I started the business out of my office at home; in fact, the first two REC Audited visits took place there. But even with that growth, we’re never going to know everything. Some of the things we come across we’ve never seen before, but going through the process, an REC audit helps us keep track of where we’re going.

To keep up to date with everything the Institute of Recruitment Professionals is doing, please visit www.rec-irp.uk.com

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Events and training

TREC 2016 HUNDREDS OF HR AND RECRUITMENT DELEGATES JOINED THE REC AT TREC 2016. HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CONFERENCE

REC chief executive Kevin Green

Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith

Charu Malhotra from Ferrero, Dominic Redfearn from Diageo and Kevin Hough from LV

Matthew Syed, sports journalist at The Times

RECRUITMENT MATTERS

Membership Department: Membership: 020 7009 2100, Customer Services: 020 7009 2100 Publishers: Redactive Publishing Ltd, 17 Britton Street, London EC1M 5TP. Tel: 020 7880 6200. www.redactive.co.uk Editorial: Editor Michael Oliver michael.oliver@redactive.co.uk. Production Editor: Vanessa Townsend Production: Production Executive: Rachel Young rachel.young@redactive.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 6209 Printing: Printed by Precision Colour Printing

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

© 2016 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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