As more than a quarter of a million students receive A-level results this morning, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) claims too much attention is focused on the annual ritual of exam results and too little on the skills young people need to succeed at work.

Adam Marshall, director of policy at the BCC, said: "Companies up and down the country tell us too many young people are still leaving school, college or university without the tools needed to get into work. So rather than focus on A-level pass rates, councils, colleges and local businesses need to form a closer partnership - ensuring employers can recruit locally and young people get the training they need to get ahead."

This year more than one in four A-level entrants (26.7%) achieved the top grade and the overall pass rate rose to 97.5%, an increase of 0.3% from last year. There are also 60,000 more applications for university places than last year - putting pressure on the graduate recruitment market.

And, regardless of results, thousands of school leavers will begin their hunt for job vacancies while the country is in the grip of recession.

The Forum of Private Business is encouraging small firms to implement apprenticeship schemes, internships and work experience programmes to help "creative and driven" young recruits learn what employers need from their staff.

Phil Orford, the Forum of Private Business's chief executive, said: "Our members value young people who can bring fresh ideas and enthusiasm to the workplace. It is important that young people leave school, college of university with the skills and confidence they need to enter their first job and do well."

But research from jobsite.co.uk shows 53% of firms are still hiring and, of these, 80% are looking for full-time permanent staff. Jobsite also reports 15% companies are also recruiting full-time junior HR roles.

eRecruit Solutions are online recruitment specialists that allow companies to recruit their next employee for £499.

Although 71% of employers rate staff with vocational qualifications as essential in improving the competitiveness of their business, only 29% of adults declare their training on CVs.

Research from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) found 37% of employees with vocational qualifications were being awarded a higher salary than those without who were doing a similar job. And 71% of the workforce thought those with vocational qualifications were better suited to the workplace than degree graduates.

In recession, 72% of employees with vocational training think it is of more benefit to them now than ever before. But 18% of them do not remember which certificates they own.

Des Hancox, a director of the CIEH, comments: "Jobseekers who can see the value of vocational qualifications are one step ahead in today's employment market. The research demonstrates that businesses are placing more value in vocational qualifications, particularly in the current climate and are already recognising that this sort of investment will be a key facet in helping the UK economy in the long-term. We have therefore launched this initiative to help the UK unemployed add value to their jobseeking prospects and realise their full potential."

eRecruit Solutions are helping companies to continue recruiting by offering online recruitment campaigns for a single flat fee of £499.

Totaljobs.com is gearing up for the largest piece of international labour market research ever conducted, it was announced last week.

More than 50,000 jobseekers are expected to participate in a global research project which will explore what motivates people to choose specific countries and cities to live and work, and why they choose to pursue international careers in general.

The project is a joint venture between Totaljobs.com, market researchers Intelligence Group and The Network - an alliance of 36 leading recruitment job boards from in more than 100 countries. The study will be conducted across 40 participating Network countries, representing every continent on the globe.

Full results are expected towards the end of the year answering questions like “How can employers reach and move labour market potential in one country to apply, work and move to another country?” The study could prove invaluable to employers who are considering expanding or relocating to another county, helping them to adapt their recruitment strategy for maximum effect.

“The insights derived from 55,000 plus respondents will enable Totaljobs to become the authority in this area for the benefit of its global clients,” said Steven Lewis, managing director of The Network and international sales director of Totaljobs.com.

“Will Germans relocate? What do Canadians want in an employer? Do you need the salary in a UK job posting? The Totaljobs/Network Survey will provide the answers!"

This is the second collaboration between Totaljobs.com, The Network and Intelligence Group; in 2006 the same trio produced a very influential piece of European research which revealed how different occupational groups had different motives in choosing specific international employers or countries. Five times more countries will be participating in the latest piece of research.

eRecruit Solutions run recruitment campaigns on Totaljobs and up to 800 other job boards for a single flat fee of £499.

Online Recruitment is a new phenomenon, but as with most new age technologies, it is rapidly growing. Hundreds of businesses across the UK are taking full advantage of the gold mine of potential employees that the internet offers. However, as with any form of recruitment, there are issues to contemplate. There are two main issues where online recruitment is concerned. The first issue is how do you attract the passive job seekers: that is, the job seeker who is not actively using job boards to look for jobs? In order to dominate the online recruitment market and gain the best employees, companies need to have an edge over their competition when it comes to attracting employees.

The second issue is the secrecy offered by the internet. Through the internet, people have a much easier time of embellishing certain character traits, and hiding others. Essentially, there is an increased chance of recruiting someone who does not fit your criteria for the job than there is if s/he were to be recruited through traditional methods. To avoid this, companies should make sure they interview every potential employee before proceeding to hire.

The advantages of using online recruitment far outweigh the disadvantages, and online recruitment is increasingly becoming the industry leader for recruitment. The online recruitment services provided by recruiters give companies the ability to cover a much larger number of job seekers. An online recruitment service also guarantees that graduates have an increased chance of securing suitable roles. With around 80% of job seekers now using the online job boards, can companies really afford to miss out on this form of recruitment???

eRecruit Solutions are online recruitment specialists that allow companies to recruit their next employee for £499.

Large scale redundancies, high numbers of job applications for scarce vacancies and pressure to recruit at the lowest possible cost are all challenges our industry faces over the next 12 months. How the human resources industry reacts to these pressures and what it will look like after the recession remains uncertain. Yet despite the lack of clarity there are some things we can count on, argues Dave Morgan (Managing Director, eRecruit Solutions, UK).

Challenges: internal verses external

The human resources industry is currently facing a testing time. The past six months have seen thousands of redundancies, reduced wages, new working practices and shorter working weeks, in almost every industry throughout the UK economy. These changes have dramatically affected the HR function and have had a lasting effect on the industry.

The current internal challenges faced by HR professionals are monumental, and a glance into the future shows the external issues facing us all during the next six months will not be any easier.

The current economic crisis has had a number of external affects; the two most direct are:

1. fewer employment opportunities for job seekers to apply for, and,
2. an increased number of high quality jobseekers on the market applying for vacancies.

These two issues are accompanied by internal pressure to use low cost recruitment methods in order to keep to ever-tightening budgets, and have resulted in large numbers of HR teams seeking a more time- and cost-effective recruitment source.

Although direct advertising appears to immediately reduce costs, the indirect cost is often much higher with companies paying higher advertisement fees due to one-off placements and HR teams struggling to cope with the volume of applications in terms of CV acknowledgement, CV sifting and screening, while other internal HR challenges remain.

The' traditional' recruitment agency model is, and always will, offer a time-saving alternative, although the high costs remain the same. This has meant that many organisations are cleverly switching to cutting-edge alternative recruitment companies and RPO.

2009: The Road Ahead

The next 12 months will have a profound effect upon the human resources industry. Research carried out with corporate human resources managers has shown a number of trends that point towards significant medium/long term changes in how the industry operates.

The most significant changes facing the industry during the next 12 months include:

• Cost-cutting recruitment methods: this is likely to be one of the major 2009 trends as organisations are forced to tighten their belts in all areas
• Overwhelming candidate choice: is an issue that will face almost every human resources department in the UK as high numbers of redundancies has flooded the market with jobseekers
• Communicating changes in internal corporate strategy: implementing and communicating internal changes within organisations will become a key task as corporate strategy continues to adapt and respond to market conditions
• Low levels of staff motivation: are likely to be another issue caused by dealing with the traditional repercussions following corporate redundancies
• Increasing speculative approaches from recruitment agencies: all of which are searching for scarce new business opportunities, and keen to obtain placement fees

HR departments are facing a greater range of internal and external challenges than ever before. While the next 12 months looks set to offer little optimism, organisations who are looking forwards and are beginning to recruit must consider where and how they do so. Organisations recruiting may believe that direct advertising is easier than ever, however, the quantity and quality of job hunters on the market provides human resources professionals with a double edged sword.

Despite the obstacles the industry faces, the positive side is to look at the quality of HR professionals within the industry. Our discipline is not immune from redundancy and a recession that reduces the number of employees within a sector can often leave the market with the best professionals in the business.

Source: Online Recruitment Magazine (March 2009)

The role of outsourcing within HR continues to evolve. As some outsourced services diminish, such as recruitment agencies, another one rises: the flat-fee recruitment model.

Dave Morgan, Managing Director, eRecruit Solutions

The rise of outsourcing

The UK human resources industry began outsourcing HR systems and processes in the mid 1980’s and since then outsourcing, as an industry in its own right, has developed at a steady pace.

Outsourcing within HR has traditionally been associated with recruitment agencies. However the development of the industry has lead to a number of new services being offered, such as online advertising and CV sifting, training and development, redundancy planning and numerous others.
 

The development of the internet has played a large part in the progress of the HR industry throughout the past few years and has helped develop the outsourcing industry. Online access has allowed many previously time consuming HR tasks, such as recruitment advertising and candidate response management, to be completed either automatically, or outsourced.

HR and the internet

Developments in technology continue to save human resources managers a great deal of time as many HR tasks can be completed more efficiently.

Efficiency within HR departments has also improved as the speed of delivery of HR services increases.

Arguably one of the most interesting areas of the HR outsourcing industry to develop has been recruitment. Up until recently, many recruitment agencies would charge a fee of around 20% of a candidate’s salary for successfully filling a vacancy.

With the development of the internet the recruitment agency market is quickly declining. With several well known recruitment agencies having gone out of business within the past six-to-twelve months, many experts predict that others will follow as the industry looks for lower cost and higher returns, in order to fill vacancies.

The pros and cons of outsourcing

Despite the time and cost savings associated with outsourcing, the industry does have its critics. Research has shown that the primary concern raised by HR managers against outsourcing is ‘a lack of control’.

While in some respects this argument carries a significant amount of weight, many outsourcing experts counter this with a belief that human resources managers should focus on the areas they add greatest value to within an organisation, such as training and mentoring staff, focusing on employee retention and internal communications, and by releasing control of non-essential tasks, will increase departmental productivity.

By focusing on non-essential tasks, such as recruitment advertising and first stage CV sifting, many HR professionals are using valuable time carrying out tasks that could be outsourced to a specialist, saving overstretched HR teams’ valuable time and effort.

Outsourcing recruitment advertising

Although numerous other areas of human resources management have also been outsourced, the development of a ‘flat fee recruitment’ model whereby the recruiter will advertise an employer’s role on a number of online job boards, filter the response through and provide a selection of suitable candidates to choose from for a low-cost fixed fee, has been by far the most popular and successful.

The popularity of the ‘flat fee recruitment’ model has proven popular due to a number of reasons, such as the removal of highly administrative tasks from HR departments.

Countering the ‘lack of control’ argument is the fact that the employer retains control of the process, i.e. they still look after the interview/start process for all new staff. This allows the employer to gain many of the benefits of using a traditional agency, whilst facing only a fraction of the typical cost.

Outsourcing as a valuable solution

Outsourcing is deeply engrained within the UK human resources market. As the industry has grown and new media technology has developed, innovative and modern outsourcing solutions have emerged and older business models have faded.

Current market conditions have left many HR departments facing unprecedented challenges, such as dealing with the quantity of applications for vacancies, while struggling to meet the internal challenges their own organisations face.

As the UK economy heads further into recession and many companies halt investment in new services, outsourcing must continue to prove itself as a valuable solution capable of delivering a return-on-investment as well as adding specialist skills/experience to HR departments during times of need.

Source: Changeboard.com

Innovative new recruitment service creates new market niche

eRecruit Solutions, an innovative new flat-fee online recruitment business helping companies slash their recruitment costs, has been launched by leading UK employment specialists Dave Morgan, Jon Druitt and Sean Curtis.

eRecruit Solutions will work with a variety of industries throughout the UK to offer a cost effective alternative to traditional recruitment models. The new service will source candidates for clients’ roles by advertising vacancies across a wide range of job boards such as Monster, Jobsite, TotalJobs and fish4jobs. Each application received will be managed and will provide the client with the maximum exposure for each vacancy and the widest choice of applicants.

Dave Morgan, UK Managing Director of eRecruit Solutions comments,

  The launch of eRecruit Solutions is not only the launch of a new business, but an exciting new niche within the UK recruitment industry. Over 80% of jobseekers now look online when searching for a new job, so eRecruit Solutions reach an optimum target audience. This allows our clients to gain the maximum exposure for their vacancy and provides the widest selection of relevant candidates for them to choose from. The days of having to use a traditional agency and pay extortionate fees are gone.  

Also commenting on the launch of eRecruit Solutions, Jon Druitt, Sales Director, says,

  With such a broad range of online job boards, all working in very different ways and requiring a lot of administration, HR teams face a daunting challenge of knowing where and how to advertise each vacancy to get the maximum effect. By managing this process and blending in our vast recruitment industry knowledge, eRecruit Solutions are saving HR departments colossal amounts of time as well as money.  

Source: Online Recruitment Magazine (March 2009)

HR professionals should look to build their careers across as many industries as possible rather than ride out the downturn in a recession-proof industry, according to HR recruiters.

Alison Hughes, director at Higher Talent, told Recruiter that candidates with a varied background would benefit from having broader options later on in their career.

  I think it is important for HR professionals to operate across more than one sector. It is more interesting and it gives you broader options later on in your career. I think the are more sectors you have exposure to, the better it will be to get that ultimate HRD (HR Development) job at the end.  

From our perspective, we would still value an HR professional to have as broad an experience as possible. It illustrates that they are able to survive and add value across different environments. You can get type cast. It is all about timing. Somebody in the first half of this year could have found it difficult to get out of the sector but now it is reverting and going the other way around.  

Hugo Tucker, director at Bullet Search

Source: www.recruiter.co.uk

Business Startup Community, one of the largest online networks of start-ups and small business owners in the UK, today launches a new Jobs Board that enables its members to advertise their job vacancies for free.

Business Startup Community is the first business community to offer its members support by advertising their job vacancies for free. It encourages its members to succeed in business by building strong relationships with organisations that add value to the members. Their recent partnership with eRecruit Solutions, a business who specialise in using online channels and CV databases to help clients to fill their vacancies, will help members by saving them money and finding them great new people to help their business become a success.

  eRecruit are really motivated and enthusiastic; they are experienced in the field of online recruitment and we are pleased they are Partnering us with the new Jobs Board on the Business Startup Community website, because they will be able to offer a wealth of knowledge to our members and support them in their quest for new staff.  

The business community is only two years old and boasts almost 30,000 members in the UK.

Katie Moore, Managing Director,Business Startup Community

  We are always looking for new and innovative ways in which to support our members and although the economic climate is difficult, this is a very good time to recruit because now small businesses have access to some very experienced and talented people who are deciding to move away from big business careers either through choice or redundancy.  

  There are hundreds of websites advertising job vacancies on the internet, but we aim to make our Jobs Board the one that not only small business owners will use to advertise their vacancies, but the one that people who are looking to work for small businesses will visit first and foremost to look for their preferred employers………  

Katie Moore, Managing Director,Business Startup Community

  We are truly proud to be Partners with the Business Startup Community. As a company with fond memories of the trials and tribulations of starting up, we are in a strong position to help, and fully understand, any new business to recruit successfully... without breaking the bank  ;

  Our team of consultants will help you through the recruitment process, one which is often not as simple as it may sound, offering step by step professional advice. A triumphant business is built on the people within it, so we are here to guide you all of the way  

Dave Morgan, Managing Director, eRecruit Solutions

For further information about the Business Startup Community go to www.startupcommunity.co.uk or call Katie Moore on 0117 930 4927.

The public sector is being urged to make use of e-recruitment as new research shows how it can be used to attract high-quality job seekers cost-effectively.

It says that, with the demands placed upon public-sector organisations to make cost savings and adhere to targets, employers in this arena would benefit greatly from a cost-effective solution such as e-recruitment.

Such practices would slash costs by reducing organisations reliance on agencies and suppliers, as well as removing the need for paper and administration, according to the report.

It also claims e-recruitment can reduce the time it takes to hire; provide fair and consistent processes for all candidates; improve the candidate experience when applying; and increase the reach of the recruitment advert while engaging with a more diverse group of potential candidates.

  Recruitment has become more problematic and expensive in the UK due to increasing skills shortages and demand for labour,  

Emma Parry, Research Fellow, Cranfield School of Management.

  These issues are exacerbated within the public sector because of the demands to be cost-effective, efficient and transparent in its spend. Our research shows that it’s possible for public-sector organisations to find success with e-recruitment, providing that they approach it in the right way in terms of candidate engagement.  

Source: Human Resources