INTERVIEW
You make the changes, you consult with your clients accordingly and at the end of the day, people still need a temporary workforce to enable them to have the flexibility, arguably now more than ever, to bring in the skills they need to cover opportunities.” The UK’s most recent recession hit hard with a sharp fall
in employment across the country. It’s logical to think that the recruitment industry would have been hit particularly hard, given the scarcity of job opportunities, especially in the private sector. And while significant challenges certainly occurred,
Emma offers a fascinating insight as to how the flexibility of the recruitment sector enables it to deal with times of upheaval. “In 2009 I was working in an office where we looked
after the construction and property business and actually, from a job creation perspective, they went the year before. You could see our colleagues working in that sector and almost overnight their permanent jobs dried up. “I remember my director coming to me and saying that
this was going to hit us in our sector soon. Construction and property was the first to suffer but it was the first to come out the other side too. It was strange seeing one side of the office booming and then a ripple effect happening across the rest of the office as we came out of the recession. “During the recession the permanent business dried up
but people were still recruiting temporary hires, so there were still interim opportunities, so we focused on that. Equally, at that point, the public sector was more resilient with the private sector struggling so we reinvested in the education arm of our business. I had consultants no longer busy in finance who went to work in the education space – a school always needs a teacher after all – so there were, and are, ways in which our business model works that enables us to be flexible.” While the jobs market is generally robust, the so-called
skills gap that continues to exist in certain parts of the market remains a hot potato for both the Government and business. It’s an issue not lost on Emma. “We publish a salary guide every year and the biggest
uplift in salaries were across the construction and property sector, with an average increase just shy of three per cent. We’re seeing the skills demand in construction driving the salary increases because if you meet a good quantity surveyor or a qualified architect they can have three or four interviews really quickly and get a choice of jobs. Therefore that demand is driving salaries in that particular area. “There’s also a lot of demand out there for qualified engineers. We hear from some companies that come to us and say that if we could find them 40 experienced engineers they would take them tomorrow.
“There are definitely skills gaps, particularly in
construction, and, I would say, education too across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, especially in primary education. “Even on the finance side, the people that are coming up
as newly-qualified accountants with salary requirements of £35,000 to £40,000 are always in demand. However, time and time again in the East Midlands it is engineering. Skilled engineers we are crying out for.” With addressing the skills gap such a priority, Emma
believes the recruitment sector is well placed to offer guidance and advice on ways to tackle the issue, with data at its heart. “We publish a Global Skills Index, which gives countries a
scoring based on what they’re doing and ways to tackle skills issues. “If you think about our business, the data we have
coming through day-to-day is immense. At Hays we place 60 people in jobs per hour so every minute someone finds a job through Hays. If you think of the salary data that goes through our systems, for example, nationally, that’s really powerful.” And what of Brexit? As with the recession, Emma is
equally stoic about the industry’s ability to deal with uncertain times and believes this is thanks, in part, to the business community’s attitude post-EU Referendum. “I think initially there was a state of shock but British
business is pretty resilient and after a short time – there was maybe a two week lull - we saw businesses just getting on with things. “Every client I go and see asks me about it and asks
what others are doing, particularly clients that have a European workforce, and the problem is that nobody really knows what’s going to happen, so in the end everyone has just carried on as normal. “In fact, our findings have shown that nine out ten
businesses across the UK – and 93% of businesses in the East Midlands - expect business activity to either remain the same or increase.” So what of the future? While political and cultural shifts
will undoubtedly throw up challenges for the recruitment agency and cause it to evolve accordingly, its prominence and significance looks continue to grow, as Emma concludes. “Businesses will always need people and always need
talent. I don’t believe we’re fixing the skills gap and until there’s a solution businesses are always going to need to work with somebody to help them find skilled people for their business, otherwise it is going to hold them back. “People are at the heart of everything we do and people are at the heart of businesses.”
Emma Kwiatkowski, Hay’s Director for Nottingham and Derby
‘I don’t believe we’re fixing the skills gap and until there’s a solution businesses are always going to need to work with somebody to help them find skilled people’
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