TRAINING, RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION


FOCUS FEATURE


There is a heavy emphasis on how a potential employee will fit into an organisation and how their role can be developed


It’s a widely held belief that a company’s biggest asset is its people. From an on-the-ground, practical perspective, employees are essential to the day-to-day running of operations at all levels of an organisation. Perhaps equally as important is that employees are


custodians of a company’s values. Staff must embrace and be an embodiment of a company’s mission statement, customer charter, set of visions and corporate goals. Without buy-in, such statements, no matter how good they may sound, can lack credibility. After all, it was Steve Jobs who once said ‘you need to


have a collaborative hiring process’, and he was right. As companies compete for business, market share and


reputation, it follows that they must compete for the best recruits. It’s little wonder then that the world of recruitment is such big business. Put this in a modern-day


context, and it’s clear how high the stakes are. Commenting on the


Of course the recruitment agency route isn’t for everyone


but there is universal commonality irrespective of the routes taken, and that’s that businesses need to have the right person, in the right place, at the right time and failure to do so can have significant consequences. Getting that right person doesn’t necessarily mean finding


‘With near-full employment in the UK and candidate availability tightening, recruiters will play an even more important role in 2017’


recent 2016 Q4 Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) results, the Chamber noted that businesses across the East Midlands are accelerating into 2017, with 62% of QES respondents stating that they expected turnover to increase in the next 12 months, with 50% stating that they anticipated profitability would increase. As far as recruitment is concerned, ONS employment


figures from the end of 2016 suggest that businesses continued to expand in terms of employee numbers, with 29% increasing the size of their workforce and only ten per cent decreasing staff levels. Looking forwards, 32% said they expected to increase


their workforce in Q1 2017 and only six per cent expected staff numbers to decrease. It’s a view shared by the Recruitment and Employment


Confederation, a not-for-profit professional body for UK recruitment businesses, with its Chief Executive, Kevin Green, stating that: “The recruitment industry is bigger than ever before and contributes more to the UK economy (£35.1bn per year) than advertising, arts and recreation, and the food and beverage industry. Our industry is the engine that drives the UK jobs market, enabling people to find the right job and businesses to find the talent they need to succeed. “With near-full employment in the UK and candidate


availability tightening, recruiters will play an even more important role in 2017. We predict that the industry will grow by between 2.9% and 6.9%.’’


someone that ticks all the right boxes from a qualification perspective. Of course, holding necessary academic and/or industry-specific qualifications is always likely to provide, at the very least, a useful benchmark in ensuring a prospective candidate has the necessary skills and, if applicable, experience to perform to a high standard in a certain role. However skill-sets and qualifications do not always go hand-in-hand and, particularly in certain sectors, there is a skills shortage in the UK. It’s an issue that has been,


and continues to be, high on the Chamber’s agenda, with Chief Executive Scott Knowles calling for the Government to “invest more today in closing the skills


gap. The jobs are out there, but employers are reluctant in uncertain times to invest in long-term training.” Equally, Chris Hobson, the Chamber’s Director of Policy,


has argued that “accessing suitably-skilled staff continues to be a distinct difficulty for employers, with managerial/technical roles being the hardest to fill.” So, with a Forbes article by David K. Williams suggesting


the cost of a bad recruit can range anywhere from £20,000 to £50,000 what are the key, tangible components that maximise the chances of employing the right person? Alan Hall, an American-based entrepreneur and Forbes


contributor, identifies seven ‘Cs’ that can help identify the best person for the job with these Cs defined as: competent, capable, compatible, committed, character, culture and compensation. There are, of course, many ways of looking at how


companies can go about the process of effective recruitment. However, the above demonstrates that there is now a heavy emphasis on how potential employees will fit in an organisation, how they can be developed and, ultimately, stay loyal. In short, there’s a long-term vision when recruiting which


aims to hire, train and retain staff, in turn minimising the regularity and necessity of going out to recruit which, as we have seen, can be a dangerous business. The rise in prominence of HR professionals is evidence of


this. Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) - which provides free and impartial


business network February 2017 29


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