August finally saw some excellent news for UK job seekers as unemployment figures fell by 4,000 in the three months to June. The bad news, however, is that the ONS are still reporting that 2.51 million people remain out of work.
The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in July fell more sharply, however, with 29,000 fewer claimants. Overall, the number of people in employment has risen to 29.78 million and compared with the same time last year, an extra 307,000 people are now working.
This is excellent news for employers as it means that businesses across the UK are expanding and growing at a healthy rate. As well as this, Companies House reports that there are still over 3,000,000 businesses in the UK and only 2,486 were liquidated in July. So, if you’re just starting your business the outlook appears broadly positive- although there’s still a lot of hard work to do!
If you are hiring and firing at present, however, you need to consider the skill of your workforce. With over 2.5 million people unemployed in the UK, it is clear that there are a number of skilled workers who remain out of work.
For this reason, when you are offering positions you should consider the skills of each applicant. This is true no matter what your business and skilled members of staff will always enhance your workforce.
Be sure to question applicants about any previous experiences in your line of trade. Although experience isn’t always required, it is often desirable and you need to consider how much time it will take to train any new and untrained staff!
As well as this, consider how you market your positions. As was stated earlier, there are 2.51 million people out of work and this means that you have a talent pool of over 2 million people! Obviously, this is hypothetical and you’ll never get this many applicants but, if you’re only getting a few for your positions then you may need to widen your search. Consider advertisements in local newspapers to appeal to a wider audience.
It may not be possible to recruit the ideal candidate and you may have to ‘train somebody up’ for the position. This is an incredibly time consuming task and can take a lengthy period of time.
For this reason you should consider using cloud based talent management software like the one offered by Cornerstone On Demand. Software such as this can help you manage your clients throughout their time with the company so you don’t need to be a HR expert.
To summarise, over 2.5 million people remain unemployed in the UK. So, if you’re hiring and firing then you have to make sure that you consider all of your options. The right candidates are out there, you just have to make sure that you find them!
Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.