The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released the latest UK employment stats earlier today. The number of people in work has dipped slightly from the three months to February 2015, to 73.3%. However, it’s good news for those of us in work, with wages up 3.2% (including bonuses).
But what does this mean for businesses?
Comparing this to a song by Notorious B.I.G. might be a strange one, but it really is a case of “mo’ money, mo’ problems” for a lot of UK companies.
Employers are having to raise salaries due to the lack of talent currently available, while also having to compromise on the quality of candidates – a double whammy.
From our unique position at Hiring Hub, where we have a view of the entire UK recruitment industry through our online recruitment marketplace, we believe this is particularly true in the IT and Engineering sectors.
Top talent is in high demand and here at Hiring Hub, we’re even starting to see businesses gazump others in an attempt to get the best talent onboard.
(A case recently saw a blue chip firm gazump a startup to hire a Software Developer by offering the candidate a 30% hike in salary.)
This puts the cream of the talent crop in a strong position, pushing up wages, while forcing some companies to compromise and hire “second best”.
Hence, we believe this culture of compromising on candidate quality at UK firms is having a dramatic impact on business growth, productivity, and therefore wider economy.
Download our independent research report on the “culture of compromise”, which explores why it’s happening, what the real implications for your company are, and how you can take steps to avoid compromising on candidate quality in the future.
