Insights from UK on Global Talent Recruiting

We have been tracking developments related to the formation of the global workforce. Here is one you might find of interest. It says there are jobs in the UK available, but newly added EU member countries are not likely to supply the workers for language, training, and other issues. Read on.

For the fourth quarter in a row there has been growth in the number of UK organizations looking to increase the size of their workforce, claim new figures today, with over half looking to take on more staff.

The latest Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) from Cranfield University suggests that 52% of employers are looking to increase workforce size but around a quarter (23%) worry about how they will fill vacancies.

While 23% say the number of unfilled vacancies will go up over the next six months, the majority of employers plan to keep recruitment spend the same. Without investment, the question is whether the talent will be there to meet demand.

All the indicators this quarter point to increasing demand for labour. The question is will the supply of labour be readily available, especially in the hot spots of the South East of England? The imminent expansion of the European Union does have the potential to fill some of these jobs, but it is unlikely to have a dramatic impact immediately.

Although talent from EU accession countries may have the potential to ease skills issues, new figures from Barkers today suggest that only 39% of employers plan to fish from this particular pool.

The survey of HR professionals suggests that the majority feel that recruits from countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic will only stay in the UK for 18-24 months, not allowing the country to tackle its skills shortages.

Recruitment costs, language barriers and time to hire were all reasons cited by respondents for not recruiting from accession countries, however, only 15% said there was no requirement for them as all vacancies were filled from within the UK. The enlargement of the EU offers employers a new pool of talent from which to recruit. But our survey suggests that unless organisations have a particular skills shortage to fill they are unlikely to proactively seek applications from accession countries.

Here to read more.