Recruiter - Jan/Feb 2022

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INCORPORATING Recruitment Matters

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Business intelligence for recruitment and resourcing professionals

Jan/Feb 2022

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INCORPORATING Recruitment Matters

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VIEWPOINT Right time to ditch HMRC’s CEST?

THE LAST WORD Lynne Peabody: hybrid working for the young

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INSIGHT

www.recruiter.co.uk

Rate rises for contractors

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What’s driving the firms making this year’s list?

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NEWS

05 Labour supply problems to persist later in the decade A behavioural economist warns the biggest constraint on UK growth will be a labour shortage 06 Recruiters search for more flexible arrangements Recruiters are prepared to change jobs for one better fitting their preferred style of working 07 The FIRM members ditch bots for recruiting AI-powered bots are becoming less popular for recruitment purposes 08 Contracts & Deals

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Recruitment Mum Lysha Holmes answers your work dilemmas, and Tara Ricks highlights the struggle of recruiting recruiters Insight New research reveals that most employers have had to raise the rates of pay for their contractors Tech & Tools The latest recruitment technology and services

INCORPORATING Recruitment Matters

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INTERACTION Viewpoint Dave Chaplin, CEO, IR35 Shield Soundbites

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FEATURES

18 THE BIG STORY: HOT 1OO With the recruitment industry hit hard as a result of the Covid pandemic, which recruiters have made herculean efforts to get on the list that measures the highest gross profit per head/employee? Take a look inside

E COMMUNITY 27 Social 29 My Brilliant Recruitment Career: Pete Taylor

32 Movers & Shakers 33 Recruiter contacts 34 The Last Word: Lynne Peabody

34 COV E R I M AG E | S H UTTER STO C K

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UPDATE

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s Covid ravages the workforces of many business sectors in early January, the pace at which the UK is starting the new year is similar to that of the month’s weather: uninspiring, monotonous, cloudy and with little ‘light’.

Good news for the travel industry emerged in the first week of the month, with the easing of requirements for departure from and entry to the UK. But further bad news is staff shortages have stepped up emergency activity across the board in business, and government suggested that the gaps would be filled by retired volunteers and others “We’re suffering with both time on from a ‘have a go’ their hands and a burning desire to approach to serve. Or of course in getting our country social care, the back in order. package of newly Recruiters: what announced visa needs to be done?” opportunities and encouragement abroad for people willing to come to the UK to work is expected to jump-start new appointments in that sector almost immediately… (Not.) Where are all of these civic-minded volunteers and potential care workers going to come from? Where is the well-conceived, organised plan to achieve these solutions? Is anyone thinking about the ‘hows’?

We’re suffering from a ‘have a go’ approach to getting our country back in order. Recruiters: what needs to be done?

DeeDee Doke, Editor

I M AG E | G E T T Y

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Labour supply problems to persist later in the decade

BY RACHEL MASKER

THE BIGGEST CONSTRAINT on growth in the UK is a labour shortage, a behavioural economist has warned.

Britain has lost an estimated 1.3m EU workers since Brexit, Roger Martin-Fagg said. There are 1.8m fewer 15-24-year-olds demographic profiles show and 200,000 55-60-year-olds have taken early retirement. Labour supply has fallen by 3.3m while demand has risen. Health and social care, hospitality, scientific and technical sectors have the largest number of vacancies.

Martin-Fagg suggested Britain has full employment despite the current 1.5m unemployed. He said a “big slab” of the jobless were unlikely to be a good match for vacant posts because of wrong location, skillset and possibly attitude.

Speaking to recruitment membership and networking

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UPDATE

38,844 FOLLOWERS AS OF 6 JAN 2022

organisation Elite Leaders, Martin-Fagg said fewer young people coming into the job market meant labour supply problems will persist.

He predicted significant wage inflation as companies poach from each other, telling his online audience: “You will be instrumental in the poaching game; that isn’t a criticism, it’s inevitable.”

Gen Z, those born between 1997-2012, will continue to be “demanding employees”, he said, and favour hybrid working. As the largest proportion of the workforce, employers will have to learn how to manage them.

Looking ahead to 2022, Martin-Fagg expects average wage growth of 6%, an inflation rate of 4-5%, nominal GDP (spending) up by 8% real growth of 3% and interest rates to rise to 2% by the year end.

He dismissed forecasts of stagflation (weak economic growth and high inflation and high unemployment) as wide of the mark and scare stories.

Martin-Fagg said central bankers hopes that current inflation is a “blip” are wrong. He said $17tn (£12.79tn) of new money had been created by central banks globally in Covid support. This had created an “inflationary gap – too much money chasing too few goods”.

He added: “There is no way supply can rise fast enough to match this, so inflation is not a blip but will remain in the system until purchasing power is eroded and demand slows to match supply.”

The inflationary boom will run for at least another two years as wages grow faster than prices, he added.

Martin-Fagg expects to see the first signs of recession in 2025/26 and suspects it will hit in 2027/28.

Asked for the best way forward, he said low levels of debt on the balance sheet will help protect against future downturns.

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Recruiters search for more flexible arrangements RECRUITERS ARE BECOMING so accustomed to flexible working arrangements that they are prepared to change jobs in search of conditions that suit them more.

This is according to the ‘UK Recruitment Industry Status Report 2020-2021’ by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), which has found recruiters are joining professional colleagues in industries such as life sciences, pharma and tech in looking for new roles that fit in with their choice of working conditions.

Released in December, the report says that the annual churn rate among recruiters working in the UK and profiled on LinkedIn was 27% in the three months to November 2021.

The annual review revealed that the recruitment industry contributed £35.9bn to the UK economy between January and December 2020, falling 11.5% on 2019. However, using additional data up to summer 2021, the REC also provided an indicative forecast that from 2020 to 2021, there will be a 1.2% increase in the direct Gross Value Add of the recruitment industry.

Also included in the status report was a look at important lessons learned during the coronavirus crisis. The top lesson cited by 60% of respondents was to build close relationships with clients and candidates. Other popular lessons mentioned by respondents were having cash reserves to cover expenses for more than six months, reducing office costs and embracing new ways of working (eg. homeworking) and investing in technology.

And nearly two years after the UK first experienced the workplace shake-up brought on by the pandemic, more than a third (36%) of recruitment businesses have continued working fully or partially remote, the research found. Nearly the same percentage (35%) have introduced a hybrid model of work allowing staff to work from home for up to three days a week, with 11% having migrated to a fully remote working pattern. Only 6% have asked all staff to be in the office for five days a week, the report said.

The report’s industry-wide figures were drawn from a survey of 211 REC members and other data sources.

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The FIRM members ditch bots for recruiting

BY DEEDEE DOKE

THE POPULARITY OF AI-powered bots for recruitment purposes is on the wane.

The FIRM’s Annual Membership Survey has found that fewer in-house recruiters are using them for candidate attraction, engagement, screening or scheduling purposes than they did in 2020.

The FIRM is the Forum for InHouse Recruitment Managers.

Losing the most ground in the past year was candidate screening, in which usage dropped from 7%

I M AG E S | I STO C K

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to 2%. In candidate attraction, usage fell from 8% to 4% in the last year, and the bots’ use in candidate engagement decreased from 10% to 6%. Even for scheduling purposes, bot use was cut in more than half, from 11% to 5%.

The research showed that fewer in-house recruiters were considering bot usage in 2021 than they were the year before.

The annual survey, which covers a variety of in-house recruitment work practices, resources and priorities, found that the top five priorities in 2021 were, in order:

diversity & inclusion at the top; candidate experience; employer value proposition and employer brand; recruitment and succession planning; and in fifth place, direct sourcing.

Also covered this year was online testing techniques, tools and methods involved in the selection process. Psychometric tests emerged as the top choice in online testing, with 48% and live video interviewing came in second with 43%.

“All methods have fallen back in popularity,” the report said.

Hybrid assessment was a new category in the latest survey but was being used by only 8% of the 324 respondents. Similarly, virtual assessment centres was a new category in a question about the use of various tools in the selection process, with usage by 22% of respondents.

Telephone interviewing is still done by 78% of respondents, and 76% use competency-based assessments.

“Those with bigger budgets use telephone interviews much more and more methods in general,” the report said. “Those that need to hire more also use more telephone interviews.

But those with bigger functions use telephone interviews less.” And, as might be expected, the smallest companies use the fewest tactics.

Commenting to Recruiter about the survey results, The FIRM’s managing director Emma Mirrington said: “From my point of view, I think it’s very interesting that succession planning has become a top four priority for the first time in 11 years of the survey. Perhaps it’s a direct consequence of the challenges people are finding in recruiting externally at the moment that they are looking to their internal talent pools as one potential solution.”

Asked about the results around AI, Mirrington said: “People are looking at candidate experience and personalising experiences where possible, which could be why these figures have dropped.”

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CONTRACTS

CONTRACTS & DEALS Morgan McKinley Recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley has acquired service provider Abtran. Morgan McKinley has a multinational presence across the UK, Ireland, EMEA, Asia and Australia, while Abtran is one of Ireland’s leading providers of business process management outsourcing.

The combined businesses will employ around 2,500 people, with projected annual revenues of over €300m (£254.6m) and will be run by the current leadership team.

Opus Talent Solutions Graphite Capital, a leading UK mid-market private equity specialist, has acquired Opus Talent Solutions, a global recruitment business specialising in the technology and renewable energy markets, in an off-market management buy-out. Headquartered in Bristol, Opus has more than 1,000 clients in over 50 countries.

It employs 300 staff across eight offices spanning the UK, including Bristol, Manchester and London, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Sydney in Australia and New York, Tampa and Dallas in the US.

Hinterview UK-based technology company Hinterview has raised £3m in Series A funding. This Series A round, led by Calculus Capital, brings the total raised to date to over £6m. The investment will be used to scale the video platform both in the UK and internationally, helping to meet the rapidly growing demand for its video technology in a post-Covid era where job vacancies are at their highest since records began.

PDT Fleet Training PDT Fleet Training, a driving division of Pertemps, has been awarded funding by the Department for Education to support nearly 700 drivers through HGV training. The training will take place at 129 different sites across England with clients like Co-op, Biffa, and CLEAN.

Randstad (Belgium) Randstad Group Belgium has acquired HR firm Hudson Benelux. The acquisition enables Randstad to strengthen its market position by increasing its marketshare in the growing professionals perm, executive search and HR services markets, as well as adding highervalue management consulting capabilities.

Brunel International NV Longacre Group and specialist recruiter Taylor Hopkinson have made a majority sale (72%) to Brunel International NV (Brunel), a global provider of flexible workforce solutions and expertise. Glasgow-based Taylor Hopkinson, a recruitment partner to renewable energy leaders, was founded by Tom Hopkinson in 2009. Today it operates through seven international offices on three continents.

DEAL OF THE MONTH

The MCG Group The MCG Group has welcomed RP International (RPI) into the group as the cornerstone acquisition for its technology division.

RPI provides access to the top leadership and technology talent globally and supports its clients to identify the international leadership and technology talent required to deliver on major strategic initiatives and transformations across Europe, MEA, APAC and ANZ regions.

A company statement said: “Despite numerous approaches over the years, it

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was imperative for RPI owners Stuart Wilson and Julian Frankum to wait for the right fit in a company to take over the business. The MCG Group not only gave the founders an opportunity to play fundamental roles in the future growth of the business, but also proposed that RPI acts as the cornerstone investment for MCG’s ambitious five-year strategic international growth plan in the technology sector.”

The newly enlarged MCG Group is expected to deliver around £150m revenue and roughly £30m NFI in FY22, the company said.

Taylor Martin Recruitment Nationwide insolvency practitioner SFP has successfully completed the sale of Midlands-based Taylor Martin Recruitment’s business and assets after it went into administration in November 2021. The sale secured over 400 contract jobs. The assets of Taylor Martin Recruitment were sold to Recruitment Investments Ltd, a specialist in the acquisition and merger of recruitment operations. This acquisition has been added to their portfolio brand – The Recruitment Group, headed by recruitment industry entrepreneurs Paul Hipkiss and Mark Taylor.

More contract news at recruiter.co.uk/news

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A DV E RTO R I A L

DOUBLE-AWARD WIN CROWNS DIAMOND YEAR FOR PERTEMPS INDEPENDENT, FAMILY-RUN RECRUITMENT SPECIALIST PERTEMPS CELEBRATED A DOUBLE WIN AT THE 2021 REC AWARDS ABIGAIL FARNHAM, DIRECTOR OF PERTEMPS, picked up In-house Recruiter of the Year, while ASAP Pertemps won Recruitment Team of the Year for a second year running. Special mention also went to the company’s Simon Atkins who narrowly missed out on the Permanent Recruiter of the Year, after making the shortlist.

This prestigious awards ceremony, exclusively for Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) members, recognised not only individual achievements, but best team performance and overall company success.

Steve West, CEO of Pertemps Network Group, said: “We are extremely proud of Abigail, ASAP Pertemps and Simon.

“To be recognised and awarded at such a prestigious event within the recruitment world is a testament to the

hard work of our amazing people and teams, who continue to go above and beyond.

“Our people set us apart and I know our winners would be the first to applaud the support of their colleagues.

“Demands can be intense and workloads high, but our teams across the business always work together to overcome any challenges and are continually committed to delivering

“We’ve had an extremely successful year as a business and I look forward to see how we move forward effectively, as we continue to grow and thrive” Carmen Watson

a first-class, professional, efficient and honest service to their clients and candidates.”

It was a winning end to a spectacular year for the Warwickshire-based recruiter, which celebrated 60 years in business last summer.

Significant changes have taken place at Pertemps this year, including the announcement that Steve West was taking on the role of Group Chief Executive Officer, while Carmen Watson became Chair of the Group, coinciding with the 60th anniversary celebrations.

Despite passing this milestone, Pertemps is showing no signs of slowing down, cementing its financial strength through a new £100 million invoice finance facility, being named in the Sunday Times Top 100 Employers list for the 16th straight year, being recognised as one of the top 500 Midlands businesses and publishing one of the UKs biggest ever studies into the logistics sector following the HGV driver shortage.

In addition, the PDT Fleet Training division recently secured Government funding to support nearly 700 drivers through HGV training to help ease the shortfall.

It sets up the business perfectly to rise to the challenges of what is likely to be an eventful coming year.

Carmen Watson, Chair of Pertemps Network Group, said: “Pertemps is very much in demand despite the challenges ahead, particularly in this candidate driven market.

“Recent figures from CBI/Pertemps Labour Market Update shown a sharp increase in hiring activity, but businesses will need to work with recruiters to focus on attracting and retaining talent within this highly competitive market, as more people will be looking for new opportunities this coming year.

“But not only that, employers will need to take an inclusive approach to ensure their processes are fairer, more diverse and more inclusive.”

“We’ve had an extremely successful year as a business and I look forward to see how we move forward effectively, as we continue to grow and thrive.”

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WORKPLACE

Recruitment Mum Starting the new year with a recruitment work dilemma? Ask our Recruitment Mum – she’ll answer questions big and small!

Dear Recruitment Mum,

From Jodie

Recruitment Mum says: Thank you for explaining your situation to me, Jodie.

It’s clear that the pandemic has affected your leaders’ levels of trust. You don’t say whether you are based in the office or remotely, so it would be interesting as to whether this shift from an empowered leadership style

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“If your performance has remained the same, yet you are now feeling micromanaged, it is definitely the time to request a review” whether, as suspected, it is a case of ‘leader in panic mode’.

By suggesting this level of candour (ideally face-to-face, if not video call), then I believe you can relay back the reasons why you are loyal, why you enjoy working there and why you have remained successful when others have not. In addition, are there opportunities for you to support these more junior recruiters, with their coaching and mentoring delegated to you so that you can champion them to success?

This could be a win-win for both of you: you feel highly regarded for your loyalty and knowledge, and your leader is less time-restrained and

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I wonder if you could help me?

I’ve been with my current company for over f ive years now and I feel stuck in a rut.

I joined as a newbie to recruitment and have had great success over the years.

I don’t know what to do: what I originally bought into at the company in terms of values and practice, has now totally changed. Basically, I feel they are no longer the same company!

I feel like the loyalty and commitment I have shown to them over the years just isn’t appreciated anymore.

By that, I mean, I’m constantly micromanaged; I feel like I’m not trusted to be senior consultant and it’s getting me down. I am being treated the same way as the trainees! This has been really signif icant since Covid began, as before that I was left alone to bill, which is why I am their top biller and continue to be, which is why this change is making me feel so undervalued.

Please help!!

to an overbearing one is because they feel that you not being in the office 24-7 means you won’t get the results.

If your results are the same as before, it is possible you are being used as the ‘fall guy’ ie. perhaps others in the business haven’t performed as well; the impact on companies’ profits since Covid have been monumental and this could be a case of your leaders panicking.

If your performance has remained the same, yet you are now feeling micromanaged and bulked into the same cohort as the trainees, then it is definitely the time to request a review/ appraisal with your leader.

In advance of this, ask for the data on your performance, or better still, prepare it yourself – to show your activity and outcomes.

This will be your armour for when you broach the subject in hand, which is ‘expectations management’.

During this conversation, ask your leader what their expectations are of you. Are you meeting them? Have you met them up to that point?

In response, what do you expect of them? How are they performing in terms of your expectations? This is your opportunity to present your concerns over their shift in leadership style to see whether it is their perception of you, or

LYSHA HOLMES of Qui Recruitment is Recruiter’s Recruitment Mum

can have a better succession plan in place.

I hope this advice helps – and well done on committing to this company through this challenging time. I hope your loyalty is repaid. ●

Need a dilemma answering? Put ‘Recruitment Mum’ in the subject line and send your workplace problem in confidence to: recruiter.editorial@ redactive.co.uk

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06/01/2022 12:05

T R E N DS

BUSINESS ADVICE

INSIGHT

WE ARE RECRUITERS – AND WE’RE STRUGGLING TO RECRUIT!

Tara Ricks COO of Elite Leaders reputation make a huge difference as candidates assess their options. They want to feel connected, proud and aligned with the company’s mission. ● Direct sourcing – whilst you may have the luxury of a dedicated internal recruiter, it should be part of all the management team’s focus (and targets) to directly source talent for their teams and business. Recruit all the time! ● Culture – so important, and high on the list of any Gen Z candidate. This is a great opportunity to understand and potentially reboot culture in your business. ● Awards – hand-in-hand with enhancing your brand in the recruitment market, entering industry awards will boost your external (and internal) PR. Being able to showcase a win, or a shortlist, immediately becomes a beneficial differentiator that you can use extensively when communicating to the hiring market. ● Diversity & Inclusion – whether that be age, disability, gender, ethnicity or education level. The economic cost alone of not stamping out bias is evidenced in research. ● Flexibility – a byword for our times and surely present in all your businesses now. However, consider also work hours, style, tech employed, autonomy given.

Hiring successfully in today’s competitive market means building a culture that engages and entices your employees to stay around. As you plan your recruiting strategy for 2022, be sure to take an honest look at your current company culture and brand. Any time invested in improving these areas, if necessary, will reap rewards in attracting the talent you need. ●

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WITHIN THE MAJORITY of the businesses I work with, a perennial problem is the ability to consistently hire staff.

Hiring at the right level, quality and volume is, rightly, top of the agenda. The ability to meet and beat this challenge will dictate whether your business creates the right structure and environment to take advantage of the significant market demand we are experiencing.

We grow headcount via two routes: hiring experienced recruiters and/or growing our own talent via a robust onboarding and Learning & Development programme.

The option to recruit experienced recruiters who will bring a wealth of experience of the sector, a specific niche market and a proven track record is a very welcome one – but I think we can all agree that the hunt for these elusive unicorns may take too long to satisfy the scale and rate of growth you seek.

Therefore, giving your business the ability to hire those with little or no experience of the sector and developing them through skills training and a high-performance culture has become a no brainer. Many of us have entered the world of ‘growing our own’ with little or no success, and this tends to be, in my experience, because of flaws in the sourcing, screening and onboarding process. The talent is out there!

When it comes to sourcing inexperienced candidates for your business, in a noisy market there are several key things to be really aware of and on top of: ● Employee value proposition – does your business know its EVP, and is it being communicated regularly? During the pandemic, employees focused less on how the crisis developed and more on how their organisations responded to it. ● Advertising – finesse your role descriptions wherever you may advertise. Ensure they are descriptive, showcase your differentiators, and be honest and human. ● Consider using a recruitment partner who can demonstrate their expertise in this area of the market. ● Use video technology – a fantastic way to speak authentically to your potential hires and communicate your coaching culture. ● Ensure that your in-house staff are well set up to process applications speedily, with an impressive turnaround time.

Communicate what the process will look like, what the timelines are and what the candidate can expect next. ● It is entirely within your control to make sure that every applicant, whether they are progressed through the process or not, has a great experience of your brand. ● Brand – jobseekers are thinking about much more than just compensation and benefits. An employer’s brand and

TARA RICKS is NED to the recruitment sector and also COO of Elite Leaders, an advisory and consultancy organisation.

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INSIGHT

RISE IN CONTRACTOR RATES Few will be surprised that one effect of updated IR35 legislation is that most employers have had to increase the rates of pay for their contractors, according to new research

BY DEEDEE DOKE

ince April 2021, when it became the responsibility of end-hirers to determine the employment status of their contractors and ensure correct taxes are paid, a massive percentage of employers have been forced to increase their contractor pay rates, new research by Brookson Legal has found.

Construction businesses have seen the highest volume (32.3%) of contractor rate increases of more than 20%, and information & communications services the highest volume (58.7%) of rate increases of 11-19%, according to the report, ‘Reassessing IR35: The

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Unspoken Opportunity for Growth’.

With 87% of employers reporting that they have had to increase the rates, 22% say they have increased their contractor pay rates by 0-10%, 47% have had to increase the rates by 11-19% and 18% report a 20%+ increase. Of employers who have not increased their contractor pay rates, 10% say they have not hiked them yet, 2% say they don’t plan to increase their rates and 1% don’t know.

“When the off-payroll working rules were first announced in the private sector, many businesses worried that they would not have time to fully manage their new responsibilities,” the

report says, “and 57% of HR decision makers we spoke to in 2019 were considering a blanket approach to determining the status of their contractors to meet the deadline. In the same survey, 41% feared they would lose contractors if they were incorrectly assessed.”

The fears were rooted into high-profile mismanagement of the changes to off-payroll working rules governing the public sector in 2017, “which resulted in a contractor talent drain disrupting the delivery of major projects”, the report points out. “More recently, we have seen a series of high-profile tax bills that have revealed just how significant the financial penalties of getting IR35 wrong can be,” with even government departments facing millions of pounds in tax liabilities for mismanagement of the IR35 rules imposed on the public sector (see Viewpoint on p16).

At the same time, the Brookson research (conducted by market research agency 3GEM) found that potential HM Revenue & Customs liabilities worried private sector decision-makers less than other fallout from the new private sector rules. Commercial risks topped their concerns, including contractor costs (53%), talent attraction (42%) and project delays (42%). A comparatively small 31% had concerns about unforeseen tax bills that would stem from IR35 issues.

But with the seeming optimism – 88% believe that they understand the guidelines as to what is ‘reasonable care’ in making IR35 status determinations for their contractors – comes a caveat of “false optimism”, the report says, given the practices that are occurring in the businesses surveyed: 47% relied on the government’s Check Employment Status Tool (CEST) to make status determinations 42% relied on another automated tool to make status determinations 34.6% asked contractors to assess their own status, while 31.4% delegated to agencies

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INSIGHT

“If we wanted CEST to determine 100% of all cases, we would have to make it quite complicated” 25% applied a blanket “inside IR35” approach to status determinations.

Relying on automated tools alone to make the status determination is a tax risk, the report said. As the House of Lords Finance Bill Sub-Committee heard in a 13 December 2021 session, CEST was designed to give a clear determination in only 80% of cases.

“If we wanted it [CEST] to determine 100% of cases, we would have to make it quite complicated,” said Lucy Frazer MP, financial secretary to the Treasury, who was questioned along with HMRC representatives yesterday by the sub-committee for over an hour.

“So HMRC has made a decision that in order for it to be easy to use, not expensive, not take up too much time, it’s going to deal with 80% not 100%.”

The remaining 20% could obtain telephone support to work out their status, Frazer said.

The sub-committee chair, Lord Bridges of Headley, countered by quoting the CBI as describing the CEST tool as “oversimplified. This is the problem now we’ve got to, which is it’s now oversimplified, and specifically on mutuality of obligation. It’s not in there because it’s so difficult.

Therefore, it’s a tool that really is not worth it for many people”.

Recruiters will be relieved with the inclusion of a warning against end-hirers relying on them for status determinations. “Asking the recruitment agent to conduct the IR35 assessment or relying on one provided by them is a red flag,” the report said.

“The agent is the party least aware of the working practices and intentions of the parties, but this approach can remove visibility of your flexible workforce and bury risk in the supply chain – putting both agents and end-hirers at risk of IR35 fines and tax bills.”

For the 25% using a blanket approach, the report said, 89.5% have sent an

increase in contractor costs, and 30.6% had “lost visibility” of contractors. But, the report warned, “blanket inside IR35 status determinations are not a sustainable approach to managing the IR35 changes… a blanket approach blocks access to skilled contractors who are required for in-demand outside roles. To attract talent, pay increases are commonplace to balance out income lost to employment taxes”.

Also pointed out are the compliance risks to demonstrate ‘reasonable care’ when determining the IR35 status of the personal service company, or contractor, employers engage. “It remains the ultimate responsibility of the end-hirer to ensure the correct amounts are paid to manage associated debt transfer or Criminal Finance Act risk,” the report said.

“Encouragingly, 90% of [employers] plan to increase their use of contractors in the next 18 months,” the report said.

“However, one thing is clear: businesses that want to grow in this environment need to present the most attractive, compliant and competitive package to the flexible talent they need. Those that don’t risk being left behind.” ●

WHO OWNS END-HIRER ORGANISATIONS' IR35 STRATEGY *Multiple choice question

24% 56% 34% 14% 19% 22% 30% 0% Board

CEO

Finance

Tax

S O URC E : ' R E A S SESSIN G IR 35: TH E UN SP O K EN O P P O RTUN ITY FO R G ROWT H', BROOKSON LEGAL

Trends_RECRUITER JAN FEB 2022_Recruiter.indd 13

Legal & compliance

Procurement

HR

Other

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 13

06/01/2022 12:06

ADV E RTO RIAL

RIP TO THE TRADITIONAL CV Video is a game changer in the world of work. So why waste time with written CVs when a 60-second film says so much more You’ve heard the saying a picture is worth 1,000 words? Well, a one-minute video is worth 1.8 million words according to Forrester Research. And in the world of recruitment those 60 seconds now add up to staggering savings in terms of time and costs, thanks to an innovative new app that’s set to revolutionise the way recruiters work forever.

1 Minute CV harnesses the power of video to provide recruiters with a platform to create job postings that are sent to candidate app users based on their preferences and skill set. Applicants can create video CVs answering the questions posed, which recruiters can view, rate and save to a shortlist.

If you’ve ever been wowed by an amazing written CV, then left underwhelmed when meeting the applicant in person, a 1 Minute CV will give you a far more holistic view of the person behind the pdf. Reducing the average 40 days’ searching for the perfect candidate to just 10, and cutting the average £4,000 cost by up to 700%.1

Built to disrupt The 1 Minute CV app’s inventor Kevin Barry has spent his working life thinking and looking at business challenges in a different way.

Helping to successfully transform the fortunes of operations from the North Sea to Colombia via Japan then Kuwait.

When he was at a turning point in his own career and found the experience of having a professionally written CV

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JAN/FEB 2022

7 reasons to use 1 Minute CV Find top applicants 4x faster Make informed decisions Avoid unconscious bias Rate and shortlist with ease View instant video references Arrange interviews in the app’s calendar Share your shortlist with clients uninspiring – and expensive – his mantra “there must be a better way of doing this” came into play.

Supported by some of the best technical and creative minds in the business, Kevin set himself the task of developing an app “deliberately berately built to tdated disrupt” age-old and outdated recruitment practices. arity of Leveraging the popularity n obvious route. short-form video was an ople person”, And as a committed “people top of his mind throughout the app’s development was that 1 Minute CV should put

people first and allow each candidate’s personality to shine through.

“It’s built to put the applicant to the forefront,” he emphasises. Free and simple for them to use, and enabling employers to see the person as well as their achievements.

Recruiters are compelled to reply (albeit with the minimum of effort) when videos are submitted, giving applicants the recognition that Kevin believes is essential to inject greater respect into the recruitment process.

1 Minute CV recently launched in Apple's App store and Google play store.

And the next step in its evolution will be a 1 Minute CV Doctor consultation to ensure candidates are putting their best face forward.

Join the revolution Watching video is the top choice for consuming information in 2021.2 With consumers predicted to spend $6.78bn via social apps and 548bn hours live streaming this year.3 In the recruitment world, all current tech trends indicate that video CVs are the inevitable next step in the job application process, with 1 Minute CV leading the way.

So why rely on paper CVs? Join 1 Minute CV today and be part of the recruitment revolution.

Find out more at www.1mincv.com Sources: 1 Statista; 2 Hubspot; 3 App Annie

89% of employers would 8 watch a video CV (Source: Vault Inc)

W W W. 1 M I N C V.CO M

04/01/2022 11:31

T R E N DS

TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES A new model for recruitment?

AI helps to ask the right questions Video-interviewing and assessment platform Modern Hire has enhanced its on-demand Automated Interview Scoring (AIS) functionality.

Clients receive Modern Hire’s proprietary Question Sets verified across industries and jobs, plus AI-generated ranked candidate recommendations. The features are designed to mitigate bias, speed up time-to-hire and drive best-fit hiring outcomes. Question Sets have been developed for several job families, including financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, call centre, professional and sales.

Responses to individual questions are scored and combined into a single candidate score with AIS outputting ranked recommendations to drive consistency and lighten the load for hiring teams. AIS launched last year to help interviewers avoid unconscious bias by providing a consistent and objective selection methodology that focuses only on the job-relevant aspects of candidate responses. https://modernhire.com/

The aim behind the Inbeta recruitment platform is to build a new model for recruitment “that fights unfairness and inefficiency at scale”, said founder James Nash. Inbeta seeks to overcome unconscious and institutional bias within the recruitment process, making use of advanced aggregation of data and human science to surface diverse, high-calibre candidates, with the “objective potential” to perform in a specific role. As well as technology and data, Inbeta draws on specialist executive coaches. Candidates undertake a tailored programme beyond their start date to ensure a successful transition into the company.

This process is informed by measuring the cultural affinities and drivers of the candidate, headhunter and hiring manager to address bias that might have previously been undetected. https://www.inbeta.io/

TECH & TOOLS

BY SUE WEEKES

A look at some AI services with recruiters and employers in mind

Integration bolsters international contingent offering Recruitment technology provider Pixid Group, whose vendor management system (VMS) incorporates 30% of all French contingent workers, has formed an international partnership with Bullhorn. The two-way integration with Bullhorn’s cloud-based platform will mean that agencies benefit from connected applicant tracking and VM systems. The companies claim that the integration will enable recruitment suppliers to receive requests and identify, select and supply suitable candidates for contingent work assignments directly via the Bullhorn system within seconds. It will be of particular benefit to temporary staffing agencies, MSPs and master vendors, enabling them to expand their ability to provide rapid contingent recruitment services to clients. Bullhorn is actively seeking partnerships for its Marketplace. In November 2021, it announced it had acquired longstanding Marketplace partner Cube19, the analytics and reporting specialist. www.bullhorn.com

I M AG E S | SH UT T E R STO C K

Tech_RECRUITER JAN FEB 2022_Recruiter.indd 15

Video interviewing continues its rise Access Recruitment has integrated video interviewing technology within its CRM system. It claims to offer agencies the functionality at an affordable cost within their existing platform without the need to invest in further technology or build a relationship with a new partner. Access Recruitment reported that embedded video technology was placed high on the product roadmap following market and customer insights about what would help them in the hybrid world of work and in the light of Covid-19. The video functionality can also be used by consultants to create video content about open roles. https://www.theaccessgroup.com/

Increasing intelligence in the hiring process Hiring intelligence start-up Screenloop has raised $2.5m (£1.8m) in funding to progress its plans to bring intelligence, performance and automation to the recruitment process. Screenloop offers sourcing, interviewing, referencing and analytics components. Source helps recruiters to discover a new channel and network of potential candidates through their existing and future hires; Interview helps to bring intelligence to the interviewing process by giving access to recordings, transcriptions, real-time prompts and facilitates collaboration with global teams; Reference automates the reference process and claims to reduce time spent by 90%; Analytics helps recruiters to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate and matches key attributes for a role. Screenloop was founded by a team of senior operators from unicorn companies who believe existing recruitment processes are inefficient, outdated and unfair. www.screenloop.com

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06/01/2022 12:07

C VIEWPOINT INTE R AC TIO N

The party is over Surely it’s time to ditch HMRC’s CEST tool?

BY DAVE CHAPLIN

he Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are two of the latest government casualties of HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool, jointly facing tax bills of at least £120m due to HMRC claiming they incorrectly determined the status of their contracting workforce.

Perversely, the same government organisation responsible for educating and training all government bodies and enforcing the rules is now issuing two of its ‘customers’ with tax bills of £72.1m and £48m, respectively. Furthermore, the MoJ and Defra committed to using CEST and followed HMRC’s guidance, which should trigger HMRC’s non-statutory promise to ‘stand by’ the results. But instead, both bodies are now being charged extra fines for ‘carelessness’, ie. not meeting reasonable care. Surely it is time to ditch CEST? The penalty for carelessness the MoJ faces amounts to £15m, and the one for Defra is pending. Carelessness is based on negligence, and assessing it requires knowing what was in the person’s mind at the time. HMRC provided the advice and guidance and populated the minds of those conducting the assessments, yet HMRC is now claiming its ‘customers’ are effectively negligent. It’s like the police training people how to

T

DAVE CHAPLIN is CEO of IR35 compliance solution IR35 Shield and author of IR35 & Off-Payroll Explained

16 RECRUITER

drive correctly, then fining all the trainees for reckless driving when they get out on the road.

These cases follow previous government bodies who became casualties of CEST: the Department for Work and Pensions (£87.9m), the Home Office (£29.5m), and HM Courts and Tribunal Service (£12.5m). Fortunately, the Treasury can fund the extra tax by using the combined £250m collected by HMRC – akin to filling up a swimming pool’s shallow end by taking water from the deep end.

This clear departure from HMRC’s promise to ‘stand by’ the results is contrary to claims made a few weeks previously in evidence provided to the House of Lords sub-committee inquiry into off-payroll working, where they stated: “It [CEST] is the only tool in respect of which HMRC will always stand by the result produced, provided the information entered remains accurate, and the tool is used in accordance with our guidance. In any compliance check, HMRC will not dispute an employment status determination that is in line with a correctly obtained CEST tool result.”

The new financial secretary for the Treasury, Lucy Frazer, along with representatives from HMRC, faced the Lords sub-committee in December. Frazer appeared oblivious to the damage done to the freelance sector, instead referring to irrelevant research data from the public sector over three years ago to bolster their success.

One slight crack emerged regarding the widely criticised CEST tool. HMRC finally admitted that they had purposefully chosen not to include all the case law relating to mutuality of obligation into CEST, a longstanding charge, for which they have finally admitted defeat.

As Covid-19 still lingered, many accused the incumbent prime minister of being more focused on protecting his political reputation than the public's health, leading many to ignore government announcements and instead engage in voluntary self-protection.

With HMRC and the Treasury unlikely to admit CEST has been an abject failure, it may be prudent for firms to do the same by opting out of the absurd situation where those supposed to be educating and protecting them are instead issuing them with fines.

For CEST, the party has happened, it was a flop, and now it should be over. ●

JAN/FEB 2022

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I M AG E | I KO N

06/01/2022 12:14

I N T E R AC T I O N

SOUNDBITES

WEBCHAT LEADERS NEED TO ENGAGE MORE WITH EMPLOYEES IN NEW HYBRID WORLD I completely agree with your story from 20 December 2021 (‘O.C.Tanner report claims work output is better metric than employee engagement’, recruiter. co.uk).

Leaders will need to be more intentional about engaging their employees in the new hybrid world.

The ad-hoc discussions whilst making coffee and spontaneous opportunities to invite employees to join a meeting need to be planned. Leaders need to gain a better understanding of their employees, what their strengths are and how they want to develop.

The blurred line between work and home life that occurred during Covid lockdowns needs to be redrawn. Leaders need to model positive work behaviours, as well as checking in on their staff.

By having open discussions about what good wellbeing looks like for their direct reports, what makes them feel stressed and how that shows up in their behaviour, leaders can prevent burnout or spot early warning signs.

A focus on outcomes enables you to create a truly hybrid working environment – where you allow employees to work in a way that plays to their strengths.

It’s a very challenging but exciting new world for leaders.

Debbie Denyer, executive coach, Coachthedifference.com

“With all the uncertainty surrounding new Covid variants, what would your advice be to recruiters for the year ahead?”

M A X H O RTON S EN I OR MA N AG ER – COMMERCE & IN D UST RY, OA K L EA F PA RT N ERS H I P

“Ensuring we continue to build relationships and truly consult with clients will be key. Gone are the days of just sending four carbon copy CVs and expecting four interview requests to bounce back. Take the time to truly understand your clients’ businesses, provide value market analysis and then contribute creative solutions to fit their needs. What about part-time options? Would an interim solution with a specific skill set ease the immediate difficulty? This level of consultation demands true relationship building. But by providing a better and more complete service, we will all be able to meet the upcoming uncertainty head on.”

JOHN LAYCOCK MA N AG I N G PA RT N ER , A N D ERS ON QUI G L EY

“At the beginning of the pandemic, there was considerable uncertainty about the future. My advice to all recruiters would be to continue to build a degree of ambiguity into preparations for the year ahead. Help your clients prepare for the unknown so they can be flexible in their strategy.

The pandemic has also caused a lot of people to make significant life changes and seek new opportunities, and this trend should continue in 2022. The candidate pool across various sectors has broadened significantly as a result of the Great Resignation, and we should all be looking closely at how our clients might benefit.”

STEVE PIKETT D I REC TOR , G LOBA L S A L ES OP ER AT I ON S , OR A MA S OL UT ION S

“Recruitment is a challenging industry and will always carry a level of uncertainty, my advice to any recruiter in good or bad times is to ‘trust in the process that you have been taught’ and ‘focus on what you are good at’.

With changing situations you may need to adapt and be agile to different ways of working but if you are obsessive in perfecting your craft, show a high level of integrity and are truly passionate about what you do, then with uncertainty comes a huge amount of opportunity!”

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06/01/2022 12:07

RECRUITER HOT 100 COMPANIES 2021

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06/01/2022 14:36

RECRUITER HOT 100 COMPANIES 2021

021 has seen a sea change in recruitment fortunes. On the back of a brutal year in 2020, as evidenced in this report, the recruitment market turned from a lack of vacancies to a lack of candidates across several large sectors – for many in the space of just a few weeks during Q1 2021.

This rebound has continued until late 2021 and should be well reflected in these columns next year. The ability to adapt to new working practices was a learning curve through 2020 and finely honed by this year, enabling full benefit from such a market turnaround. However, a word of caution – it has also become a race to resource experienced consultants and, anecdotally, capacity is now holding back so many companies.

This situation should partly improve as trainees mature so, if economic challenges do not de-rail the labour market recovery in the UK, a strong outcome is anticipated not only for next year’s HOT 100 but in years to come. But any future success of these recruiters is the direct result of their good decision-making during the depth of this pandemic and still now, together with the foundations of these past years.

As usual, this 2021 HOT 100 reflects past performance, either in 2020 or early 2021, and most companies’ accounts are mainly affected by the Covid-impacted

2

IMAG E | SH UTTER STO C K

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period. The HOT 100 could have been changed or even abandoned for the year but the results prove the decision to carry on was vindicated.

Yes, there was a sharp drop, a step change, in the entry level and no, we could not easily account for headcount on furlough (and we explored all options) but the best companies still rose to the top. Once again, best practice and ethics have shone through – all good for the stature of the recruitment industry on the national stage.

Despite the clear impact of Covid during 2020 on most recruiters’ financial results, specific sectors such as IT, logistics, food and life sciences – with STEM and IT especially taking a materially increased share in the HOT 100 – have made significant gains.

Evidence also suggests in the following analysis that the smaller companies making up the bulk of the HOT 100 have moderately out-performed their larger peers during this period, making measurable progress certainly.

So, despite the unprecedented restrictions on trade and loss of activity precipitated by the Covid pandemic during 2020 and beyond, just how well did this ‘best in class’ excel? To answer this, here is the 2021 HOT 100.

Key findings 2021 HOT 100 group sales turnover declined by 12%, closely in line with the wider UK recruitment industry sales turnover drop of 12.7% reported for calendar 2020 by the Office of National Statistics. Like for like, comparing this group against their own figures for the previous year: ● The 2021 HOT 100 companies collectively reported a sales decline from their previous year in latest available accounts of 12% to around £19.6bn. ● HOT 100 combined gross profit (GP) reached £3.7bn, a decline of 17% versus their prior year. ● HOT 100 companies’ in-house headcount fell 10.3% to total 39,791 employees. Important to note that furloughed employees remained on the headcount (and payroll) but may have been stood down for several weeks or months, thus inevitably reducing overall company productivity. ● Productivity (GP per employee) for this group of HOT 100 companies fell by 7.4% over the year to an aggregated average of £93,984. A simple average of each of the GP/ head figures, neutralising the heavily weighted skew of the larger employers across both years, stood at £107,570, nevertheless still 5.1% below their 2019 level.

Covid impact and its limitations on this HOT 100 Whilst many companies resumed their previous filing timetable with Companies House, some companies appeared still to have a three month extension. So last year’s challenges for the HOT 100 production team have not entirely disappeared. Inevitably, some accounts were not yet filed when this report went to press, meaning a handful of companies are excluded from the ranking. Despite examining a variety of methods to mitigate for furloughed employees and sharply reduced business levels, none were sufficiently rigourous so we have proceeded as normal, measuring gross profit (GP) per head to provide consistent comparison.

Thus, while a downward step change has been seen through a much lower entry threshold, the integrity of the HOT 100 is preserved. We are grateful to the wider recruitment community that helps to make this possible, often by providing advance copies of accounts.

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06/01/2022 14:36

GGrro osss s prpofroit fi t lateteststyeye la ar ar (£m(£) m)

Gross prof it prev ious ye ar (£m)

245,026

236,870

People Source Consulting

ManpowerGroup

11.5

9.9

Technology/IT

–

222,496

195,220

LA International Computer Consultants

23.6

22.1

ICT professionals; national security & defence, public sector, international sector

190,286

192,755

SSQ - Shilton Sharpe Quarry

17.9

24.5

Legal: broad range international & domestic law firms, companies & banks

N

175,925

182,148

Sheffield Haworth

12.8

13.3

Financial services, digital & technology, professional services; perm, exec search, interims

172,625

115,147

GCS Recruitment Specialists

151,919

133,625

Levy Associates

7

146,783

106,476

Proactive Technical Recruitment

3.4

4.5

STEM: engineering into automation, aviation and logistics

8

144,239

130,772

SystemsAccountants

8.2

8.6

Finance systems, finance transformation, EPM, BI, ERP

9

142,000

145,154

Marlin Green

6.4

6.2

IT: SAP, business intelligence and big data

10

137,461

128,634

WA Consultants

3.2

3.5

Technology/IT

137,323

163,917

Green Park Interim & Executive

8.9

11.8

Public sector, retail, HR, charity, finance, IT, transformation, interims, exec search, diversity & inclusion consulting

12

136,957

128,175

NRL

9.3

9.6

Engineering, construction, oil & gas, renewable, nuclear, petroleum & energy, technical

13

135,032

146,000

Odgers Group

63.1

78.8

Interim management, exec search

3 4 5 6

11

N

▼

nGAGE Specialist Recruitment

nGAGE Specialist Recruitment

SSeeccttoorr cove verarage ge

PPaarreen nt gr t gourop up (w he (w her re edidffiferfe enre t nt me)e) nnaam

–

2

e CCoommpapny an/y/ trad adining gnanmam e

1

GGrro osss s prpofroit fipe trper hheea add/e/emm ploy ploeeyee lateteststyeye ar ar (£)(£) Gross pr head/emoGrfit ospserprofit per /employee previous plheoyadee yeprar ev io(£us) ye ar (£)

Rank

Change

RECRUITER HOT 100 COMPANIES 2021

5.5

8.6

Software engineering, infrastructure (cloud, networks & data), change (PM & BA) and CRM/ERP

5.6

5.3

IT: C-level, programme/project manager, analysis, design & development, testing, support

14

N

134,050

128,846

Orama Solutions

2.4

2.2

IT: software startups – software sales & technology/IT, sales engineer & professional services teams

15

▼

128,899

120,615

Red Global

28.1

29.4

Technology/IT, SAP, contract, perm, exec search

16

▼

127,273

106,579

Parity Group

5.6

8.1

Technology/IT, professional resources – especially in government, utilities, health

17

▼

123,359

151,232

Falcon Green

5.1

6.5

Construction & engineering

18

N

122,908

107,489

Baltimore Consulting

2.2

1.8

Specialists in public & third sector across education, health & social care, property, corporate services

19

121,260

119,439

Cornwallis Elt

5.2

5.5

IT, change, transformation & digital skills into financial services, digital & media, legal & professional sectors

20

119,909

120,351

Intellectual Capital Resources

7.6

7.6

Technology/IT: software, semiconductors, electronics, engineering, sales & marketing, executive, creative

21

119,721

126,299

Eximius Group

4.8

5.1

Law, finance, operations, risk, technology, secretarial

22

118,389

124,421

Resourcing Group

10.7

13.3

Leading specialists in built environment

118,238

149,198

Investigo

25.4

30.6

Accounting/finance, risk/compliance, BI/data analytics, change, ERP, life sciences, procurement, HR

23

▼

nGAGE Specialist Recruitment Ltd

24

118,153

126,985

Next Ventures Group

11.2

13.3

IT: SAP, data, business apps, development & integration, cloud & infrastructure

25

116,872

125,500

Morgan Law

4.4

5.5

Healthcare, central & local government, charities/NPF, education, housing associations Accountancy/finance, actuarial/risk/compliance, transformation/change management, engineering

26

N

115,791

98,117

Oliver James Associates Group

48.5

42.9

27

N

114,605

129,274

Airswift Holdings

75.2

96.2

Engineering, technical & business support staff into oil & gas/energy, process, infrastructure industries

114,138

112,140

EWI Recruitment

nGAGE Specialist Recruitment

3.3

4.8

Technical staff into engineering & infrastructure sectors

ManpowerGroup Inc.

28 29

▼

30 31

N

113,840

132,979

Experis

34.2

44.8

IT, finance & engineering professionals

113,634

99,520

Venturi

6.2

6.9

IT: design & development, business intelligence, big data, data science, infrastructure Technology & change: data, digital, cloud, security; contract & permanent

112,317

109,455

Empiric Solutions

7.1

9.5

32

111,583

116,517

Harvey Nash Group

95.9

107.5

Technology, board level, IT outsourcing, recruitment solutions

33

111,308

119,374

CD Recruitment (CD Sales Recruitment)

6.3

7.3

IT: software sales, sales engineers, professional services Technical/engineering into energy, construction, chemical, life sciences, manufacturing, mining, IT

34

▼

111,232

167,683

NES Global Talent

129.7

160.3

35

N

110,377

118,726

La Fosse Associates

24.0

26.2

Full stack services: technology, digital & change, key focus SBD industries for tech, change, devOps

36

N

110,320

88,030

Twenty Recruitment

5.5

7.0

Technology & change, risk & governance, finance & ops into financial services, commodities, digital

37

109,912

107,256

Orbis Consultants

2.6

2.8

Technology candidates in digital, technology, data & financial services

38

109,230

106,068

The Oyster Partnership

6.8

6.5

Development & regeneration, real estate finance, FM, M&E, general practice, housing services, surveying IT development & operating systems; engineering, banking/finance, life sciences, energy

39

▼

108,808

121,585

Amoria Bond

14.6

17.4

40

107,730

103,140

First Call Contract Services

9.8

9.4

Industrial & driving labour solutions, delivered from localised branch and onsite solutions

41

107,706

92,947

Hyper Recruitment Solutions

4.0

3.6

Science & technology skillsets primarily into pharma, life sciences and biotechnology

42 43

▼

106,270

107,565

SmartSourcing

2.7

2.8

IT, project management, business change, digital, cyber security & related areas

105,378

142,609

Walker Hamill

3.9

6.6

Accountancy & finance, private equity, debt & structured finance, corporate strategy and M&A

44

104,465

106,682

Caritas Recruitment

4.5

4.7

Social care into public, voluntary & private sectors

45

103,924

159,872

Trinnovo Group UK division

5.4

5.9

Digital, life sciences, manufacturing, medical, banking & insurance Software development & embedded, net, dev ops, life sciences

46

nGAGE Specialist Recruitment

103,563

97,062

Optimus Search

4.2

5.6

47

N

103,490

112,676

Shorterm Group

14.8

16.3

Engineering: aerospace, automotive, construction, rail, electronics, power

48

▼

103,422

134,705

PSD Group

11.3

17.4

Exec & management/accountancy, finance, risk, audit, customer contact, digital & marketing, HR, tech

49

▼

103,139

125,864

Dartmouth Partners

7.4

9.6

M&A, private equity, graduate, strategy, corporate banking, corporate finance advisory

50

–

103,128

138,009

Signify Technology Group

2.4

2.6

IT: Scala language & functional programming: placing data and software engineers with Scala

20 RECRUITER

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HOT 100_RECRUITER JAN FEB 2022_Recruiter.indd 20

Key:

Up

▼

Down

– Unchanged

N New

06/01/2022 14:37

PPaarreen nt tgrgou (where dropup if name) ferent

Gross prof it prev ious ye ar (£m)

SSeeccttoorr cove verarage ge

Eden Brown

nGAGE Specialist Recruitment

7.7

11.6

Built environment, public sector

108,124

Technical Resources

3.2

4.3

Technical staff into telecoms & construction

99,543

104,786

Eames Consulting Group

11.2

13.9

Insurance, financial services, front office, governance and tech professionals in the UK & Asia

101,501

53

GGrroosss s prpofroitfit lateteststyeye la ar ar (£m(£) m)

CCoommpapan ny/y/ trad adining gnanmam e e

95,320

102,520 ▼

Gross pr t pserprofit per head/emoGrfios adee /employ previous plheoy prev ye ario(£us) yearee(£ )

51 52

GGrroosss s prpofroitfipe t rper hheea add/e/emm ploy ploeeyee lateteststyeye la ar ar (£)(£)

Change

Rank

RECRUITER HOT 100 COMPANIES 2021

54

▼

98,649

109,971

ERSG

11.0

10.7

Energy sector: offshore and onshore wind, power generation, marine and the built environment

55

▼

97,432

129,714

Stott and May

7.8

9.9

IT & finance: cyber, sales, data/analytics, infrastructure/cloud, software dev & architecture, change

56

N

Drivers, logistics

57

96,625

96,878

PPF

8.4

9.2

96,325

89,456

Cognitive Group

Pertemps Network Group

3.5

3.8

Technology/IT; Microsoft intelligent cloud and business apps

Orion Electrotech

7.0

7.1

Technical services: professional engineering/technical, gas, manufacturing, construction

58

▼

96,277

106,282

59

▼

96,116

107,845

G2V Recruitment Group

26.3

27.0

Technology/IT, engineering, construction, life sciences, energy, public sector including town planning.

60

N

95,220

92,480

Opus Talent Solutions

19.4

24.8

Technology: digital/design, SAP, infrastructure, engineering, energy

94,279

96,708

SThree Group

308.6

338.0

STEM specialists covering technology, banking & finance, energy, engineering and life sciences

94,264

133,869

The SR Group

29.2

47.9

Legal, compliance, risk, HR, marketing, digital, tax, treasury & senior finance

93,446

92,865

Futureheads Recruitment

3.0

3.9

Digital, design/UX, creative, technology/IT, engineering, project management with deep specialisation

61 62

▼

63 64

▼

93,436

113,292

Prime People

10.9

15.5

Real estate & built environment, energy; technology, digital & data analytics, construction & engineering

65

▼

92,009

122,588

Petroplan

6.9

9.9

Oil & Gas, Energy professionals

66

N

91,489

88,564

Morson Group

83.1

92.3

Engineering/technical – all major sectors plus IT and scientific

67

N

91,488

112,655

Retinue Solutions

3.9

3.3

Workforce solutions in health & sare, social housing, built environment, automation & med tech

68

N

91,467

83,441

IDPP Holdings

2.0

2.3

IT & telecoms, executive, technical sales, project management

69

90,378

92,985

Gravitas Recruitment Group

10.9

10.9

Technology, pubic sector, insurance & actuarial, across Asia and the UK

70

90,045

84,612

Quest Employment

9.5

7.2

Industrial, commercial, drivers

71

nGAGE Specialist Recruitment

89,975

87,563

Hays

918.1

996.2

Finance & accounting, construction, IT, health/social care, life sciences, education, legal, marketing, HR

72

▼

89,939

102,679

CMA Recruitment Group

3.3

4.5

Accounting & finance, executive, HR and financial services

73

▼

89,325

111,379

GatenbySanderson

12.2

14.9

Executives in health, education, housing, central & local government, NFP, technology/change, regulation

88,292

84,075

InterQuest

18.7

23.5

Information security, analytics, digital, telecoms & technology

74 75

N

88,150

118,205

Redrock Consulting

4.3

6.5

IT & telecoms

76

▼

88,093

96,801

The Portfolio Group

4.1

5.1

Payroll, procurement, HR & reward and credit control

77

▼

88,059

109,743

PageGroup

610.2

855.5

Accountancy, finance, legal, engineering, IT, retail, sales & marketing, energy, HR, procurement, construction

78

N

88,047

99,211

Marks Sattin (UK)

7.5

11.3

Financial, accounting, business change and technology

79

▼

87,882

100,684

Forrest Recruitment

4.1

5.3

Office, accounts & commercial staff

80

N

87,122

79,332

Gattaca

42.1

52.8

Engineering & engineering technology, IT, telecoms, professional, skills training

81

▼

86,957

101,891

Source Group International

6.0

6.3

Life sciences, technology

82

▼

86,858

119,184

William Alexander Recruitment

2.4

3.4

Specialist technology and business change

83

▼

86,667

96,321

Spencer Ogden

31.5

36.7

Technical engineering professionals into oil & gas, power & utilities, built environment & renewables

84

N

86,400

80,422

Premier Group UK

10.4

8.8

Technology, creative, engineering & manufacturing – permanent & contract Finance & accountancy, legal, HR, transformation, ICT, property, actuarial, senior & execs

85

86,073

86,431

Sellick Partnership

8.0

8.7

86

N

85,754

74,555

Montash

3.5

5.3

IT: business intelligence, data & analytics, information security, ERP, CRM

87

N

85,353

82,806

Daniel Owen

6.5

6.8

Construction, maintenance & facilities management, rail, gas, design & consultancy, commercial property

88

▼

84,187

116,448

Goodman Masson

15.0

23.2

Accounting & Finance, NHS hospitals & public sector, banking

89

▼

84,047

95,569

Robert Walters

302.4

405.5

Accounting, finance, banking, engineering, legal, HR, IT, sales, marketing, support, supply chain, procurement

90

▼

83,936

103,073

Oscar Associates (UK)

7.1

7.1

Technology, energy, construction, life sciences & digital across UK, Europe, the US

83,157

87,488

Impellam Group

228.1

274.1

Multi-sector professional & STEM; education, office, industrial, catering, logistics, managed services

91 92

N

82,351

82,627

Square One Resources

9.1

9.8

IT, digital & creative, digital & tech, MS dynamics, ERP, infrastructure, pharma, telecoms

93

N

82,244

81,947

The Rethink Group

13.5

20.0

Digital and IT into technology and retail sectors; talent management across broad range of business sectors

94

▼

81,328

87,276

Hydrogen Group

21.3

29.4

Technology, financial crime & compliance, business transformation, legal, energy, life sciences

95

▼

77,805

89,662

Darwin Recruitment

7.3

9.8

Digital and data

96

N

77,586

91,566

Claremont Consulting

2.9

3.2

Technology, HR, financial services & engineering - perm & contract to start-ups, SMEs & global corporates

97

N

77,109

80,477

Tangent International Group

5.9

6.4

Professionals into telecoms, technology and engineering

98

▼

75,441

105,688

Orion Engineering Services

15.9

23.4

Energy including oil & gas, life sciences, construction & infrastructure, mining, marine, rail, IT, finance, office

99

▼

75,083

89,443

Coyle Personnel

11.6

14.4

Construction, medical, rail, power & energy, technology, public sector, hospitality, office, industrial, logistics

100 N

74,825

74,891

X4 Group

10.4

11.6

Technology, life sciences, engineering, construction

Key:

Up

▼

Down

– Unchanged

N New

HOT 100_RECRUITER JAN FEB 2022_Recruiter.indd 21

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 21

06/01/2022 14:37

RECRUITER HOT 100 COMPANIES 2021

H O T 1 0 0 C O M P A N I E S B Y G R O S S M A R G I N B A N D (in accounting year)

30 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2017 2019 2020

25

20

15

10

5

0 less than 10%

10% to 15%

15% to 20%

20% to 30%

30% to 40%

40% to 50%

more than 50%

Gross market band range Source: Company accounts

Margin trends Gross margin is the gross profit (or net fees) as a percentage of sales turnover. Gross profit is a combination of permanent fees (at virtually 100% margin) plus the profit on temporary supply after subtracting payroll and

22 RECRUITER

other ‘temp’ employment costs. The mix of business between temporary and permanent placements influences the level of gross margin as does the trend in temporary pricing and employment related costs. With larger contract

business notoriously competitive compared with SME or ad hoc placements, the type of business and delivery model / cost structure play a crucial part both in determining temporary margin and also bottom-line profitability.

● If all seven recruiters with GP exceeding or approaching £100m are excluded, the headcount percentage reduction is steeper whilst the GP shortfall slightly improved at 16.1%. This equated to a less severe drop in productivity of 5.3%. It is difficult to determine whether this was due to a speedier, flexible, more agile response from the smaller recruiters as the Covid impact unfolded or an intentional ‘hold tight’ approach from those very large companies. However, the latter would arguably have been better equipped to take more immediate advantage of government support programmes and initial preservation of their workforce. ● HOT 100 average gross margin eroded by 110 basis points versus their prior year to 19.1% versus 20.2%, mainly attributed to the near cessation of recruitment during the first lockdown in Q2 2020 and a significant shift in the relative mix towards temporary and contract placements within the context of overall reduced business levels.

Excluding those seven largest recruiters – which together incorporate substantial overseas operations – the remaining 93 averaged just a 30 basis point drop in gross margin albeit already a full step below their larger peers at a much lower 16.9% versus 17.2% prior year. By contrast those seven large companies posted an average 160 basis point drop to 20.3%. Ample evidence points to a change in business mix, led by lockdowns and Covid uncertainty, which very substantially reduced permanent recruitment volumes and fees across much of 2020. ● Incremental business loss analysis: This HOT 100 group in their past financial year shed £764m in net fees and 4,563 in staff at an incremental gross margin of 28.6%, losing an incremental £167,390 incremental GP per head. This is the

JAN/FEB 2022

HOT 100_RECRUITER JAN FEB 2022_Recruiter.indd 22

06/01/2022 14:37

Gross prof it prev ious ye ar (£m)

SSeeccttoorr cove verarage ge Finance & accountancy and professional services

4.6

Built environment: design, maintenance, highways, town planning, utilities, rail & buildings

74,463

76,070

Extrastaff

8.9

7.5

Driving & industrial: supply of temporary drivers and industrial workers

104 N

74,113

104,805

Randstad CPE

20.4

32.3

Construction, property, engineering

105 N

73,992

80,582

EU-Recruit

2.7

3.1

Technology/IT: AI, creative, Cyber security, healthcare, engineering, data science, fintech Healthcare

N

74,807

102

▼

74,480

103 N

CCoommpapan ny/y/ trad adining gnanmam e e

8.7

4.4

101

Gross pr t pserprofit per head/emoGrfios adee /employ previous plheoy prev ye ario(£us) yearee(£ )

5.5

GGrroosss s prpofroitfipe t rper hheea add/e/emm ploy ploeeyee lateteststyeye la ar ar (£)(£)

SF Recruitment Carrington West

Change

100,637

94,868

Rank

GGrroosss s prpofroitfit lateteststyeye la ar ar (£m(£) m)

PPaarreen nt tgrgou (where dropup if name) ferent

RECRUITER HOT 100 COMPANIES 2021

Randstad NV

106 N

73,628

71,963

Your World Recruitment Group

16.9

19.6

107 N

73,068

69,674

Sanctuary Personnel

15.2

14.0

Social care, healthcare

▼

72,307

57,751

Outsource UK

5.9

6.5

Technology, change and engineering

109 N

72,023

79,903

Nicoll Curtin

4.2

6.4

Technology: fintech, change

110

71,773

73,927

Berry Recruitment Group

11.1

14.1

Office & professional, technical, rail, construction, driving, industrial, catering, hospitality

108

N

clearest evidence possible that the industry’s mix has shifted significantly away from permanent towards temporary business. This accentuates the trend seen in 2019; it cannot be too much emphasised just how unusual are these past two years – 2019 and 2020. Excluding those seven largest earners – the incremental margin of the remaining 93 averages 19% and their GP/head drops almost to £155,000, still signalling a lowered permanent to temporary ratio of fees even across the smaller companies.

Nevertheless, a push-back towards more permanent business is widely expected to be evidenced in next year’s HOT 100. ● Entry level GP/head (ranked 100) to the 2021 HOT 100 dropped very sharply to £74,825, the lowest for almost a decade and £9,250 below the prior year threshold for the ‘cut’ at £84,075. Amongst the pursuing companies GP/head falls away

much quicker than in prior years (below £70,000) at the 117th ranked with very many IT, engineering and professional role recruiters below this level. ● Individual productivity growth ranged from +49.9% to -35% with 37 companies out of the 100 reporting some growth compared with 55 last year. This seems to be a very robust outcome given the circumstances, furlough of some staff and general market conditions for much of 2020. ● 15 companies saw individual growth in net fees versus last year’s 71 companies. ● 6% of HOT 100 companies achieved the dream combination of expanding productivity whilst simultaneously increasing their internal headcount. Comparisons are unfair against last year’s 33% given the pandemic impact upon the market and the furlough scheme which kept staff on the

payroll when they were purposely not engaged in the business. These six companies were skewed towards smaller employee size bands with very large employers not represented.

Size profile

12% was the decline in sales turnover of 2021 HOT 100 companies

Agile Intelligence Agile Intelligence has compiled the HOT 100 Report on behalf of Recruiter to determine which companies are best at leveraging their intellectual assets. By rigorously measuring the gross profit (net fees) per employee this indicates how effectively an organisation uses the skills of all its own people to generate a profitable return for stakeholders. All in-house employees (excludes temporary workers or contractors) are included in the calculation – not just fee-earners; this is a standard senior management Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Notwithstanding wild cards, companies emerging strongly from this analysis, especially if featuring regularly, are primarily those that operate the most productive organisation, balancing the need for good, well-trained, directed and motivated staff against the need to minimise costs.

I M AG E | SH UT T E R STO C K

HOT 100_RECRUITER JAN FEB 2022_Recruiter.indd 23

● Overall, 23 of HOT 100 companies employ at least 200 staff, a rise of two versus last year. A further 16 employ between 100 and 200 staff.

Once again there are 10 very small firms between 20 and 30 staff. The 30-49 band remained at 23 and the employee band 50-99 eased back to 28. This offers a fairly similar profile by employee size bands across this HOT 100 relative to recent years. ● The average size of the 2021 HOT 100 dropped by 6% to 398 employees, like-for-like vs last year. Excluding those same seven largest, where group accounts have been used, the average size is only marginally down on last year at 110 staff. ● Amongst the large corporate groups in the HOT 100 with standalone subsidiaries, Manpower’s Experis and People Source Consulting are highlighted, whilst the nGage stable now has seven companies making the cut.

Pertemps’ driving operation, PPF, is also included whilst just below the HOT 100, Randstad returns with its CPE business. Rullion consolidated accounts were used instead of its separate Engineering and IT businesses.

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 23

06/01/2022 14:37

RECRUITER HOT 100 COMPANIES 2021

Sector profile ● Across the HOT 100 there are 49 IT companies, 21 Professionals, 17 Technical recruiters, nine Public Sector and four in the category of Office/Industrial/Trades. ● In the top 20, representation stands at just three Professionals listed, of which two made the HOT 10. Twelve IT staffing companies are listed in the top 20, with seven of these ranked in the HOT 10 while the top 20 balance comprises two Professional Executive/Public Sector firms and three Technical recruiters (one in the HOT 10). Again, there were no Office or Industrial specialists this year. ● Drilling down to the HOT 10 by sector, all the constituents are highly specialised recruiters.

Technology/IT has further gained share, dominating now with seven constituents. In addition, there are two professional and one technical company. Timing absences this year would more likely include even more IT or technical companies.

The constituents are mainly small to medium in size (all but LA International employs below 100 staff ). The big technical engineering firms have dropped out of the HOT 10 with much smaller NRL the only one making it into the HOT 20 of the ranks.

Any lockdown early in 2022 will show us how we have learned to work through Covid Outlook When we repeat this exercise at the end of 2022, analysing 2021 company performances, hopefully Covid will have had reduced impact on people and economies.

2021 has proved to be a year of enormously diverse outcomes.

Covid has ebbed and flowed but never lain down, whilst geopolitically huge stresses and challenges remain ranging from climate change, energy pricing and supply chain issues to military muscle flexing from the major powers. Economically and financially there are many question marks and few answers.

Finally, however, recruitment appears to have reached the top table of decision-makers.

Workforce skills and talent resourcing are now central to the decision-making and strategy of

6% of HOT 100 firms both expanded productivity and increased their headcount

virtually all companies with even governments taking note.

Despite the difficulties in 2021, the recruitment industry has experienced strong recovery back to and beyond 2019 sales levels. It is expected that the permanent market has finally started to rebound, and the impact upon the 2022 HOT 100, based upon this past year, will be quite profound. In 2022, even a slowdown in economic growth could be mitigated by continuing significant skill shortages. Any lockdown early in 2022 will show us how we have learned to work through Covid – how much remote working, improved productivity metrics, a better work-life balance and technology shifts have now permanently changed the profile of the labour market itself whilst no longer harming the economy in the way that was seen back in Q2 2020.

Recruitment is at the forefront and has now reached a watershed opportunity to cement that seat at the top table and drive strategies which put people at the centre of future economic development. The professionalism of the UK recruitment industry and those companies which strive to reach the HOT 100 are ideally suited to succeed. ●

Methodology The data has been rigorously filtered by turnover, gross profit and employee numbers.

The companies featured in this edition employ over 42,000 in-house staff and generate above £20.6bn of industry sales revenue, while very many more were evaluated as part of the overall analysis. Latest available accounts have been used – dated 2019 or 2020 – several companies are normally excluded due to filed accounts timing.

24 RECRUITER

JAN/FEB 2022

HOT 100_RECRUITER JAN FEB 2022_Recruiter.indd 24

Companies filing abbreviated accounts and not providing their full figures separately are excluded. Increasingly, as the recruitment industry becomes more global, group accounts are now often used for UK corporations — examples would be Hays, Harvey Nash, Robert Walters, Page Group, SThree, Impellam and several IT and technical recruiters.

Companies operating primarily overseas have been excluded, although UK technical specialists placing

talent worldwide are included.

Overseas-based groups eg.

Adecco or Randstad may be included, using either their UK divisional breakdown, or UK operating companies if filed transparently.

Manpower UK and Reed are excluded from the analysis due to different accounting disclosures which invalidate comparisons. Companies combining temporary employees in their employee count are effectively excluded as this grossly

underestimates productivity.

The most specialist of search or ‘headhunters’ are omitted for a variety of reasons – incomplete disclosure, overseas business, incompatibility and a shortage of data for peer group comparison.

Disclaimer: while every effort has been made to ensure accurate reporting and analysis no guarantees are made regarding the information portrayed in this document.

IMAG E | S H U TTE RSTO C K

06/01/2022 14:37

TH E VI E W AN D TH E I N TE LLI G E N CE

The challenges and opportuni es ahead p3 B I G TALKI N G POI N T

How to build resilience in uncertain mes p4 LEGAL U PDATE

Issue 96 Recruitment JanuaryFebruary 2022 Ma ers

Rules on changing employment contracts p6 W H AT I KN OW

REC Award winners share their inspira ons p7

D&I guidance

Improving diversity N

ew Year, new you. A me to take a look at your business and review, find areas to improve upon and gaps that can be filled. Diversity, equality and inclusion has been an important area of focus for the REC and the industry over the past few years, but there is always more to be done.

As we move into 2022, your business might be considering inves ng in new technology to make your processes fairer and more efficient. Ar ficial intelligence (AI), automa on and other data-driven tools are becoming more prevalent in recruitment, and present important opportuni es for recruiters. However, they are not a silver bullet – these tools must be implemented carefully to avoid duplica ng and exacerba ng biases that might already exist in their design.

The REC has worked with the Centre for Data Ethics and Innova on (CDEI) to produce guidance to help recruiters assess what kind of data-driven tools could help them, evaluate their op ons, and deploy them responsibly and effec vely.

Whether you are buying an automa on or AI system or building your own in-house, it’s vital that recruitment companies innovate with care and considera on. These tools have the poten al to greatly improve efficiency and reduce the amount of human bias in the hiring process.

We hope this guidance will help to make that possible.

The REC has also taken part in groups working to support older workers, both through the recruitment process and once they are in work. Guidance produced with the Centre for Ageing Be er and CIPD aims to

@RECPress RM_Jan_Feb_2022 RP-NEW.indd 1

help companies recognise the issues caused by age discrimina on and make sure they are being as inclusive as possible when hiring. As part of the 50 Plus Choices Employer Taskforce, we have also designed a guide for employers to help them support staff who are going through menopause.

As recruitment companies make plans for 2022 and beyond, we hope these guides will help us all to be more inclusive and pass that good prac ce on to clients. All guidance is available at www.rec.uk.com.

Making great work happen

www.rec.uk.com 23/12/2021 12:13

Leading the industry

the view...

Uncertainty is an opportunity for the recruitment industry, explains Neil Carberry, REC Chief Execuঞve

H

appy New Year to you and yours from the REC! When January rolls around, it’s always a good me to take stock of the year just past, and to look at what’s ahead for the business and the industry.

First, the economic climate looks more uncertain than last year. The ini al surge in ac vity is tapering off, and shortages are pu ng capacity constraints on economic growth. For a number of reasons, we expect the labour market to remain ght for several years. And the virus hasn’t gone away. I’m wri ng this just as we are learning about the Omicron variant – I hope the picture is clearer by the me you read it.

Uncertainty is both a problem and an opportunity for recruiters. Employers will need more support to manage their talent pipeline effec vely, not just in terms of finding experienced staff and borrowing skills through temps, but also growing new pools of young talent and retraining older workers. It means giving opportuni es to people more distant from the labour market, and helping clients get the right offer in place to a ract staff and retain their best employees.

Clients will increasingly need this full service from expert recruiters – support to find staff and broad advice on workforce planning and talent management.

That is, first and foremost, a human business. Our use of tech has come on leaps and bounds during the pandemic, and more will be needed to improve the UK’s produc vity. But the great stories from the REC Awards highlight that, at its core, recruitment is about people. It’s vital that we focus on providing the best advice possible and building a true partnership with clients.

Now is the me to show the value of the recruitment industry. There will be hurdles, but also opportuni es.

The REC will be here to help firms and professionals make the most of these, and will con nue to highlight the importance of the industry to government and client businesses. Let’s make 2022 the most successful,transforma onal year we have ever seen!

If you want to keep up to speed with all things recruitment then follow me on Twi er @RECNeil 2

C A MPA I GN S

Our path to a greener future Shazia Ejaz, Director of Campaigns at the REC

C

OP26, the latest UN climate conference, felt different to those in previous years, and not just because of Covid. This COP moved beyond rulemaking and focused on implementa on – and everyone was interested in the results, not just policymakers. Progress on finance fell short, but the Glasgow Climate Pact, which called for renewed efforts to cut emissions, was a step in the right direc on. It was also the first COP ac on to target fossil fuels explicitly, although some argue the meline is too long.

Tackling climate change is more important than ever and we are all responsible for it. As Sir David A enborough said: “We must use this opportunity to create a more equal world and our mo va on should not be fear but hope.”

So, what can business do to make a change, and why does it ma er? To meet the UK government’s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050, employers must adjust their business models and ensure they play their part.

Encouragingly, business voices were much more audible at COP26. Many companies have made it clear that they are commi ed to reducing their carbon footprint.

This will be par cularly important as more employees choose to work for companies with strong environmental policies. The Prince’s Trust’s 2021 Future of Work report found that 77% of young people in countries across the world would consider the environmental impact of the company or sector when choosing a job. A clear and concise sustainability strategy is a vital a rac on and reten on tool now and for the future.

The recruitment industry also has a role. The REC recently set up a staff-led Environmental Commi ee which will review and enhance our environmental policies, ensuring they are robust and fit for the future. We’re also making “green” a campaign priority this year. We will look at how our sector can be more sustainable and use our voice to advocate for clear and ambi ous policies that will help us achieve our 2050 targets. We would love to hear your thoughts on this – get in touch.

Recruitment Ma ers January-February 2022

RM_Jan_Feb_2022 RP-NEW.indd 2

23/12/2021 12:14

Leading the industry

the intelligence...

Recruiters prove their worth during challenging mes

By Atanas Nikolaev, Research Manager

It’s almost two years since the first coronavirus case was recorded in the UK. As we all know, the period that followed has been characterised by massive uncertainty and social and economic disrup on. But the REC’s new report on the state of the UK recruitment industry for 2020/21 shows that the sector con nued to prove its resilience and value to the UK economy throughout one of the most challenging periods in living memory.

Ask any recruiter and they will say that helping people to find a fulfilling job, while suppor ng clients to grow and succeed, is the most important and rewarding aspect of what they do. The value of the jobs that recruiters secure for people cannot be underes mated, especially during such difficult mes.

In 2020, through the worst of the pandemic, UK recruiters placed almost a million temporary workers into assignments every day. They also placed over 450,000 people into permanent posi ons, despite the Covid restric ons and lockdowns that were in place. The industry itself

1.2% increase in the

£35.9 billion

added to the economy by the recruitment industry – around 1.8% of UK direct GVA in 2020.

recruitment industry’s direct GVA between 2020 and 2021.

supported 110,000 employees in just over 30,000 businesses.

Despite the challenges created by the pandemic and severe skills shortages in many sectors, the industry has con nued to supply skilled workers to businesses in the UK. This was instrumental to the economy’s resilience, as recruiters played a significant part in keeping vital services running – keeping food on supermarket shelves, caring for the sick and vulnerable, and helping companies to bounce back as restric ons li ed.

All this successful recruitment ac vity resulted in the industry adding £35.9 billion to the economy – around 1.8% of UK direct Gross Value Added (GVA).

Business confidence started to recover at the end of 2020 a er falling drama cally, and it has been gradually rising throughout 2021. Fuelled by the reopening of the economy, recruiters have experienced a steady increase in demand for workers. This caused an increase in recruitment

450,000

people placed in permanent posi ons in 2020, despite Covid restric ons and lockdowns.

ac vity, higher revenues and greater economic contribu on by the industry.

The REC es mates that the number of permanent placements and temporary workers on assignment every day increased by around 16% and 8% respec vely. This would increase the recruitment industry’s direct GVA by 1.2% between 2020 and 2021.

The recruitment industry has bounced back from this crisis and emerged stronger and more resilient than at any me since the last economic downturn.

Agencies have already changed their business prac ces and learnt valuable lessons from the Covid-19 crisis.

More than ever, recruiters are trying to establish closer es with both their clients and candidates. Others are focusing on reducing costs and building up their reserves to cover future business expenses – for example, if the government imposes more Covid restric ons in the next few months.

This is a strong and adaptable industry, and these changes will put the sector in a strong posi on to succeed in 2022.

January-February 2022 Recruitment Ma ers

RM_Jan_Feb_2022 RP-NEW-v2.indd 3

3

04/01/2022 09:26

Resilience

big talking point

Riding the rollercoaster

January is a me for assessing the past and scanning the future.

But the past two years have been a rollercoaster ride. What have we learnt and what will we face in the year ahead – and can the recruitment industry prepare for what happens next?

I

n 2021 most recruiters went from zero to full thro le in a few months.

One moment, employers were pu ng everyone on furlough, with dire predic ons of mass unemployment. The next, everyone wanted candidates when very few were available, and some skills that were nearly impossible to find.

As the profession works fl at out to meet this soaring demand, what should we expect to see in 2022? The most obvious answer is uncertainty. No one knows exactly what the pandemic will throw at us next or what a long term new normal for jobs will look like – offices vs homeworking or hybrid is just one example of that. And the strength of the UK economy depends on many factors, including Covid, repercussions from Brexit, and how we handle the country’s ageing popula on.

One message from those who have prospered through the highs and lows of the past couple of years is that caring for your people – staff and candidates – has never been more important, no ma er how or where they work. This was the key element cited by winners at the REC Awards 2021.

There’s nothing like a crisis to test what you do in prac ce. Staff who are worried or angry about their own posi ons are less likely to go the extra mile to provide superla ve service to

4

customers. This is a home truth that recruiters are telling employers who are struggling to hire people, some mes the same people they laid off last year. But it also applies to recruitment firms if they have taken their teams for granted.

“In the first lockdown vacancies dropped by 90% in two weeks and fees we thought were guaranteed vanished overnight. It was frightening,” recalls John Lynes, Director at Ashdown Group.

However, from the start, Ashdown focused on its team, ramping up internal communica ons and developing a closer rela onship with staff via Microso Teams.

The company was part way through a change programme that included achieving Investors In People

accredita on, moving to cloudbased technology and developing its training and CPD provision. This gave it a head start when it switched to remote working.

Lynes believes it was important that they developed a plan in early 2021 and stuck to it. Everyone in the team had personal goals and was helped to develop their knowledge and skills.

Above all, there was a mantra that customers must never be let down.

The work paid off and Ashdown Group regained its pre-pandemic target financial posi on by the end of November 2021. By then, the challenges had shi ed – demand was soaring and the main concern was to

Challenges for 2022 1. Finding people to grow your own team as well as candidates for customers.

2. Increased compe

on from in-house recruitment teams.

3. The poten al for labour shortages to s fle business and economic growth.

4. The long-term impact of Brexit.

5. Further waves of Covid-19.

6. Ongoing economic uncertainty.

Recruitment Ma ers January-February 2022

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Statistics 97 million new jobs will be

created by AI and automa on by 2025 (WEF)

48%

of employees will work remotely at least part of the me a er Covid-19 compared with 30% before the pandemic (Gartner)

53%

of people think technological breakthroughs will transform the way people work over the next 5-10 years (PwC)

49%

of employees in the fi ve largest European countries say they prefer working from home – but only 32% of employers are willing to grant this flexibility (Forrester) ensure staff didn’t burn out or feel isolated under the pressure.

This emphasis on people is also central to the “Carrington West Flywheel”, says James Fernandes, Managing Director of Carrington West. “There’s no silver bullet, but every element we do well on the wheel increases momentum,” he explains. “If you focus on employee wellbeing, mo va on and training, that creates a great culture. That helps to a ract clients and please them, which helps to grow your business so you can invest more in your employees.”

A successful business competes against itself, not other companies, he adds. “We start by iden fying what we want our staff strategy to achieve and that leads to how we will grow the business. People are the first part of growth.” It worked for Carrington West, which made no redundancies in lockdown, grew by 6% in the first year of COVID and by 50% year-on-year in 2021.

The company has a learning and development hub and staff were encouraged to take advantage of it during lockdown, as well as a ending wellbeing and virtual social events. www.rec.uk.com

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This meant that when the economy reopened, the company could capitalise on the boom. “We were like a coiled spring – we came out of lockdown stronger than we went in,” Fernandes says. “Almost every month since last summer has been a record month.”

In 2022, his company is priori sing ‘wellness’ as a specific issue, focusing on understanding employees’ needs and how they are coping with the stresses of the past year and current workloads.

In addi on, they are reviewing their technology to ensure that their tools and use of ar ficial intelligence will meet their future needs.

If you are confident about your people and their skills, you can capitalise on the opportuni es that disrup on brings.

Ashdown Group responded to the pandemic by launching a new execu ve search service and this helped the business to grow. It plans to increase its staff by 50% this year and to move into new markets. It also aims to become carbon neutral, which it believes ma ers to its staff and supports its key values.

The REC is encouraging more recruitment companies to start thinking about their environmental

responsibili es if they haven’t already, as this becomes a more urgent issue for jobseekers and the wider public.

Successful teams will be able to add value as consultants and build closer rela onships with clients by offering long-term support and strategic insights.

However, developing rela onships – with staff or customers – is challenging to do well remotely. This will be an issue for firms in the next year.

“Building and maintaining a company culture is one of the biggest things a leader needs to do and it has to be done face to face,” Fernandes says. “How do you keep people engaged if you never meet them? How do you develop social skills without physical mee ngs? Online training is great, but face to face is different and be er.”

Whatever 2022 brings, it’s clear that business resilience will remain of paramount importance and recruitment companies stand and fall by the character and mo va on of their people. “The only reason we’re s ll here in 2022 is because of our team,” Lynes says. “We’re incredibly lucky and, if we hang on to this, I think the future is pre y rosy.”

January-February 2022 Recruitment Ma ers

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23/12/2021 12:14

Employee contracts

legal update

Things employers must consider before amending employment contracts

By Bunmi Adefuye, Legal Advice Manager, REC

A

s most employers conঞnue to deal with the impact of Covid-19 and Brexit, they may need to review and amend employees’ contracts to meet their business’s needs and ensure they are sustainable. The amendments may reflect a permanent switch to hybrid working, moving to new oLce premises, or changing pay rates, working ঞme or even the employees’ duঞes and responsibiliঞes.

A contract of employment sets out the rights and obligaঞons that bind the employer and employee to the contract. The general principle is that an exisঞng contract of employment can be amended only if both parঞes agree, so you must get the consent of the employee to change their contract.

Before doing anything, you should seek advice from a legal or HR professional to avoid making mistakes.

It is also important to consider the nature of the terms you want to change.

6

Recruitment Ma ers January-February 2022

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An employee’s statutory rights cannot be changed unless it is to improve that right – for example, by giving more than the statutory holiday enঞtlement or paying more than the naঞonal minimum wage.

You must also check that you have the right to change the contract. Even where the contract has a variaঞon clause, you should sঞll try to get the express agreement of the employee to make the amendment. If the employee objects to the amendments, this could damage morale and good working relaঞons. It could also lead to legal claims for breach of contract or construcঞve dismissal (if they meet the eligibility criteria). If there is a trade union involved, it could lead to strikes or other industrial acঞon. It is therefore best to consult with the employee and work with them to get their consent before a empঞng to change their contract.

An employer has one month to noঞfy

someone of any changes to their terms of employment. The employee should be fully aware of any detrimental changes so they can decide to accept or reject these. Although the amendment can be agreed orally, it is much be er to put this in wriঞng so that both employer and employee are clear about the changes and when they will take e@ect.

In light of the government’s review of employers’ firing and re-hiring pracঞces, Acas was instructed to publish more guidance to help employers maintain good employment relaঞons and to provide advice on how to reach an agreement with employees before amending their contracts. This guidance can be found on the Acas website.

www.rec.uk.com

23/12/2021 12:14

Core values

Q&A

What I know

Two REC Award winners on the inspira on behind their success

Louise Hewe , Founder, Hewe Recruitment, and winner of the REC Lifeঞme Achievement Award Invest in people.

I started my business in 1980, built on family values and the basic principle that if you look a er your people, the pounds will follow.

We’ve always been immersed in the local community, suppor ng projects, chari es and local educa on establishments.

It’s not just about filling jobs; our success has been built on suppor ng, advising and sharing our accumulated knowledge.

Use your influence.

Recruiters have the opportunity to use their considerable influence to make good things happen.

It’s surprising how far the tentacles of our profession reach and how we can use those connec ons in www.rec.uk.com

RM_Jan_Feb_2022 RP-NEW.indd 7

business and the wider community. When you are generous of spirit, wonderful things can happen.

In difficult mes we have organised roundtables and seminars enabling employers to share common challenges, learn from each other and feel supported.

Our profession is resilient and will rise to the challenges ahead.

Winning the award took me completely by surprise. It is a huge honour to have this na onal recogni on from an industry I’ve always loved. Although I’ve recently re red from recruitment, I’m now enjoying my new role as Deputy Lieutenant of Worcestershire, s ll working with top employers running the Queens Awards.

Tracey Beecham, Assistant

Programme OLcer, ERA, and REC Recruiter of the Year How did Covid affect your work at Ethical Recruitment Agency (ERA)?

I’d just joined when the pandemic started.

All our profits are reinvested in community projects and training. When people come to us, we encourage them to volunteer to help in the community and they build confidence and develop skills. When the first lockdown began we got our volunteer network to distribute leaflets offering support – from collec ng prescrip ons to driving people to appointments, fi ng safe keys or using our digital buddy scheme to reduce isola on.

When people are made redundant they are o en in limbo with no money and low self-confidence.

Helping others offers a sense of purpose,

as well as the chance to develop, share and learn new skills.

Were you busy?

The phone never stopped ringing. We went far beyond what we expected to do. One person fi ed an alarm for a blind man, while others put the hea ng on and food in the fridge for when people came out of hospital.

These were life-saving front-line jobs.

What were the outcomes?

Lots of our volunteers now have jobs and we won new contracts. The publicity was amazing and enabled us to do much more – we’ve just paid for ten people to get HGV licences. One lady said without us she couldn’t have got out of bed. Now she leads digital buddy groups and her confidence has rocketed.

January-February 2022 Recruitment Ma ers

7

23/12/2021 12:14

REC Awards

REC Awards 2021 in pictures The REC Awards were presented at an event last November. We celebrated excellent recruitment pracঞces and outstanding individual achievements by recruiters across the country.

Here are a few highlights from the awards night.

Recruitment Ma ers

8

The oLcial magazine of The Recruitment & Employment Confederaঞon Dorset House, 1st Floor, 27-45 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NT Tel: 020 7009 2100 www.rec.uk.com

Recruitment Ma ers January-February 2022

RM_Jan_Feb_2022 RP-NEW.indd 8

Membership Department: Membership: 020 7009 2100, Customer Services: 020 7009 2100 Publishers: Redac ve Publishing Ltd, Level 5, 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL Tel: 020 7880 6200. www.redac ve.co.uk Editorial: Editor Ruth Pricke . Produc on Editor: Vanessa Townsend Produc on: Produc on Execu ve: Rachel Young rachel.young@redac ve.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 6209 Prin ng: Printed by Precision Colour Prin ng © 2022 Recruitment Ma ers. Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, neither REC, Redac ve Publishing Ltd nor the authors can accept liability for errors or omissions. Views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the REC or Redac ve Publishing Ltd. No responsibility can be accepted for unsolicited manuscripts or transparencies. No reproduc on in whole or part without wri en permission.

www.rec.uk.com

23/12/2021 12:15

Digital Transformation for Recruitment, with Limitless Scalability.

www.mercuryxrm.com

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04/01/2022 11:32

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CO M M U N I T Y

SOCIAL NETWORK

E

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? GET IN TOUCH! The new year kicks off with recruiters and businesses doing their bit to get homeless people back into work

CHEERS TO SUPPORTING HOMELESS LONDONERS BACK TO WORK

Hays employees taking part in Sleep Out events in the East of England

London brewery Pinter is on a mission to support London’s homeless in the wake of Covid-19 by embarking on a major ‘diversity recruitment’ drive, with a focus on hiring homeless jobseekers. In partnership with social enterprise Beam, 17 homeless people have already started work with the brewery.

Beam’s founder and CEO Alex Stephany said: “By preparing hundreds of homeless people for the world of work, we’re tackling one of the biggest inequalities in our society. We’re excited to support Pinter on their ethical recruitment drive, and it’s been incredible to see so many of our beneficiaries finding quality employment in such a short period of time.”

HAYS STAFF SLEEP OUT FOR HOMELESS CHARITY Hays UK staff from across the UK have raised more than £23k for their charity partner End Youth Homelessness by taking part in Sleep Out events across the UK. Employees ffrom 11 regions i l t il spentt a night i ht sleeping l i on th t t or iin th i b k gardens d voluntarily the streets their back at the end of last year to raise awareness of homeless young people in the UK. The money raised will go directly to End Youth Homelessness’ Employability Fund, part of its Independent Futures programme that Hays UK supports with both fundraising and strategic work. The fund will provide homeless young people with individually tailored support to work towards their career goals, whatever their previous education or work experience. Overall, Hays has raised more than £163,700 for End Youth Homelessness since partnering with the charity in July 2019.

I NSTAG R A M

keystreamrec Fantastic news this week as we were shortlisted in not 1, not 2 but 3 categories in the Recruiter Investing in Talent Awards 2021 run by @recruitermagazine

CARE WITH YOUR HAIR And if you’re looking for a fun charity event to get your staff involved in – either in the office or from home Before – take a look at MYTIME Young Carers Hair2Care event on Friday, 18 February. The charity, which supports young carers, is encouraging people across the country to do something wild and whacky with their hair (the bigger the better!).

To get involved, simply share a photo of your hair on 18 February on social media with #hair2care and donate to MYTIME if you can. For more information, visit https://www.mytimeyoungcarers.org/.

Send us photos if you decide to take part and we’ll share them with the rest of the recruitment world!

We’re up for Best Recruitment Company to work for 20-49 employees Best Employee Communications Best Workplace Environment A huge thanks to everyone at Keystream who has given their all to support our customers over the past couple of extremely challenging years. @RecruiterMag instagram.com/recruitermagazine/ recruitermagazine.tumblr.com/

After WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

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06/01/2022 14:15

2022

ENTER NOW Tell us what your business achieved in 2021, and join the winners' circle of gold!

ENTRY DEADLINE 25 MARCH 2022

WINNERS ANNOUNCED THURSDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2022 JW Marriott Grosvenor House London

T: 020 7880 6226

|

L@RecruiterAwards

recruiterawards.co.uk

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CO M M U N I T Y

CAREERS

E

“I always learn something from people with a burning desire to progress and better themselves – it drives you!”

MY BRILLIANT RECRUITMENT CAREER What was your earliest dream m job job?

From a young age, I was star struck uck by Paul Weller of The Jam. I’d daydream eam about writing songs and playing a Rickenbacker [guitar] the way he did on Top of the Pops, not realising he mimed! med!

It was in the catering and banqueting eting division of Blue Arrow Recruitment ent on Buckingham Palace Road in London. don. I’d actually been applying for sales roles, oles, when the consultant told me I’d make a good recruiter. I took their advice, ce, went into Blue Arrow and asked to speak to the manager. She wasn’tt in, but I left my number and she called l d me the next day. I was offered a job and started that afternoon. So began my recruitment career.

Who is your role model – in life or in recruitment?

I’m inspired by anyone who has defied the odds in achieving their goals. Plus, I always learn something from people with a burning desire to progress and better themselves – it drives you!

What do you love most about your current role?

Interacting with staff across all levels and departments of the business. We’re a people business, supplying people to people. Emotional intelligence is crucial to the smooth running and growth of an ambitious organisation, so I invest lots of time and energy getting to know staff properly, listening to their stories and tuning in to what makes them tick. I firmly

I M AG E S | I STO C K /SH UTTER STO C K

My Brilliant Career_RECRUITER JAN FEB 2022_Recruiter.indd 29

↗

What was your first job in recruitment and how did you come into it?

PETE TAYLOR Managing director, Encore Personnel

PETE TAYLOR believe that our success is grounded in how we value and respect our people.

What would you consider to be the most brilliant moment of your career?

When I was told I was to be the next MD, at a time when turnover was growing quickly. It was and still is a real honour to be trusted with steering the business forward and having the opportunity to put my vision in motion.

Laugh or cry, what did your most memorable candidate make you want to do and why?

There was a temp carrying out a long shift and at the end, he felt hot, sticky and in need of freshening up. In the absence of a shower, he decided on a quick wash at the sink in the toilets, but didn’t expect to be interrupted by the poor cleaning lady!

What would you regard as your signature tune?

It’s hard to give one answer. My most played is This is the one by The Stone Roses – uplifting and hugely nostalgic.

What was your sanity go-to during Covid-19 and various lockdowns?

Cinema and film have always been my escapism, so I watched lots of movies and boxsets. We’ve enjoyed Ozark, Queen of the South and I binge watched all of Game of Thrones in three weeks!

What did you learn about yourself during the pandemic?

I’m making a conscious effort to celebrate when I make improvements, however small they happen to be – emotionally banking things that make me feel good. ● Pete Taylor spoke with Roisin Woolnough.

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 29

06/01/2022 15:03

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2021 SHORTLIST BEST CONTRACTOR CARE • • • • •

First Point Group Gravitas Recruitment Group Morgan McKinley Morson Talent STR

BEST EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS • Keystream Group • Greystone

BEST ONBOARDING PROGRAMME • • • • • •

Euro London Appointments Gravitas Recruitment Group Greystone La Fosse Associates Morgan McKinley Projectus

BEST WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT/S • • • • • •

Investigo Keystream Group Leonid Group Operam Education Group Seven Resourcing The Barton Partnership

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION CHAMPION

MOST EFFECTIVE PAY & BENEFITS STRATEGY • • • • •

Camino Partners La Fosse Associates Oakwell Hampton Seven Resourcing Stroud Resourcing

COVID-19 CHAMPION • • • • • • •

Baltimore Consulting Investigo Operam Education Group Pertemps Recruitment Juice Select Offshore Seven Resourcing

MOST INSPIRING NEWCOMER • Darcy Harris: Recruitment Consultant, Darcy Associates • Kayley Savage: Senior Consultant, Oakwell Hampton • Jack Payne: Senior Recruitment Consultant, Rutherford Briant Recruitment

MOST INSPIRING SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL

• Louise Foster: Head of Talent and Development, Baltimore Consulting • Charlotte Drury: Learning and Development Academy Manager, Franklin Fitch • Amy Krone: Operations Manager, Rutherford Briant Recruitment

• Signify Technology • Volt • X4 Group

REC.JanFeb22_038-039.indd 38

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MOST INSPIRING TEAM LEADER/MANAGER

• Ben Woodhouse: Director/Team Leader, Hunter Bond • Duane Cormell: Director, Realm Recruit • Mark Neal: Director and Head of Buisness Services Team, RedLaw • Nicholas Hopkins: Associate Director, VIQU

MOST INSPIRING RECRUITMENT AGENCY LEADER

• Kate McCarthy-Booth: CEO and Founder, McCarthy Recruitment • Indi Pahl: Managing Director, Oakwell Hampton • Raph Mokades: Managing Director, Rare Recruitment • Amy Hambleton: Director, RedLaw • Ryan Adams: CEO/Founder, Signify Technology • Peter Rabey: CEO, X4 Group • Richard Harrison: Managing Director, Xpertise Recruitment

BEST RECRUITMENT COMPANY TO WORK FOR – MICRO (UP TO 19 EMPLOYEES) • • • • • •

Camino Partners Greystone RedLaw Rutherford Briant Recruitment Stephenson Executive Search Stroud Resourcing

BEST RECRUITMENT COMPANY TO WORK FOR – SMALL (20 TO 49 EMPLOYEES) • • • • • •

Baltimore Consulting Forward Role Hunter Bond Keystream Group Smile Education Xpertise Recruitment

BEST RECRUITMENT COMPANY TO WORK FOR – MEDIUM (50 TO 99 EMPLOYEES) • • • • • •

Charlton Morris Cook Recruitment Group Henderson Scott Operam Education Group Seven Resourcing The Barton Partnership

BEST RECRUITMENT COMPANY TO WORK FOR – LARGE (100 + EMPLOYEES) • • • •

Eames Group Goodman Masson Investigo Morson Talent

WINNERS ANNOUNCED 1 February 2022 SECURE YOUR TICKETS AND CELEBRATE THE ELITE OF TALENT INVESTMENT!

L@ RecruiterAwards

| #investingintalent | #RITAshortlist

www.investingintalent.co.uk REC.JanFeb22_038-039.indd 39

04/01/2022 11:39

E CAREERS CO M M UNITY

ANDERSON QUIGLEY The executive search firm has appointed Claire Carter as partner in its interim management team focusing on higher education, healthcare and social housing.

ASTUTE TECHNICAL RECRUITMENT Amarjit Chahal has been appointed CEO at the technical recruiter. Chahal joined in June 2018 as finance director following on from his position as commercial director at Randstad.

COLEMAN JAMES The specialist recruiter to 32 RECRUITER

the built environment and rail sectors has appointed Josh Haggart as director of rail. Haggart will head up the new Doncaster base, where he will lead plans to grow the rail division to 20 consultants over the next three years. He spent over seven years as a specialist rail recruiter at Navartis.

DEDICATE RECRUITMENT Specialist finance and support staff recruiter has appointed Dan Nevitt as operations director. Nevitt joins from his previous role as marketing director of Armourcoat. He has over 25 years of commercial experience with similar roles at Vaillant and Advanta.

HEIDRICK & STRUGGLES Allen Reed joins the executive search firm as principal in its Washington, DC office in the US. He was previously a partner in the life sciences and healthcare practice at executive search firm Odgers Berndtson.

SThree CEO Mark Dorman stepped down as head of the specialist staffing business and from its board at the end of December.

The news was announced in a company trading update for the full financial year ended 30 November 2021.

Moving in as interim CEO from Dorman’s departure will be Timo Lehne, currently the senior managing director of SThree’s largest region, DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). In the interim capacity, Lehne will also join the Board as executive director. Dorman will “continue to assist the Group in facilitating a smooth handover and transition until 1 April 2022”, a company statement said.

In the company statement, Dorman said: “I have agreed with the Board that this is the right time for a change for both SThree and me, due to personal reasons.

It has been a privilege to lead SThree through such extraordinary times, working with talented, dedicated and values-driven people for nearly three years. I wish the business well for the future whilst looking forward to a new personal challenge.”

as well as the global sustainability agenda.

IMPELLAM GROUP The international talent acquisition and workforce management company has appointed Ann Bookout as global head of culture and fulfilment in North America. Bookout joins to drive the company’s equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) strategy,

Email people moves for use online and in print, including a short biography, to recruiter.editorial@redactive.co.uk

ISOURCE GROUP The Leeds-based digital recruiter has hired Shannen Riley and Maariyah Akram as delivery consultants to support the work that the company delivers to clients throughout the UK and across Europe.

JOBADDER The global recruitment software platform has

JAN/FEB 2022

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06/01/2022 12:09

bolstered its team with the hire of two executives.

Heading up the team driving JobAdder’s Partner Marketplace, Skip Hilton joins as vice president of alliances and channels sales, and Regina Dinneen as head of product: partnerships and integrations.

KEYSTREAM The public sector, life sciences and charity recruitment consultancy has appointed its 2022 equality, diversity & inclusion (EDI), corporate social responsibility (CSR), environment champions and social secretary. These positions are rotated every year in the company to allow different team members to get involved.

Rose Harvey and Kelly Toms have been appointed CSR champions; Karima Dakhama and Lily Burr become EDI champions; environment champions are Alexis Kolirin and Julia Dixon; and Natalie Drew and Heather Gordon have been appointed social secretaries.

PETROPLAN The global energy talent solutions firm has appointed a new leadership team and three new team members in Canada.

Following the news that Darci Kruse will lead its office as country manager, she will be supported by senior client relationship manager Mike McKinnon.

Its three new recruitment team members are Gina Peltier, Teri MacInnes and Emma Hignett, comprising a team of six.

The recruitment specialist has appointed Steve Mogano as its new group finance director. Mogano has worked for the Warwickshire-based business, which has a £1bn turnover, since 2004, most recently in the role of finance director of the Pertemps arm of the company.

CONTACTS EDITORIAL +44 (0)20 7880 7603 Editor DeeDee Doke deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

Contributing writers Rachel Masker, Sue Weekes, Roisin Woolnough Production editor Vanessa Townsend vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk

PRODUCTION +44 (0)20 7880 6209 Senior production executive Rachel Young rachel.young@redactive.co.uk

PUBLISHING +44 (0)20 7880 8547 Publishing director Aaron Nicholls

Senior designer Will Williams Picture editor Akin Falope

aaron.nicholls@redactive.co.uk

ADVERTISING +44 (0)20 7880 7661 +44 (0)20 7880 6231

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PROCUREMENT HEADS Two new managers have joined the Hampshire-based recruitment agency. Jack Birch (left) joins as senior manager on the interim recruitment side and Dan Goodson (right) will lead the firm’s industrial practice.

TALENTMARK

PERTEMPS NETWORK GROUP

Redactive Publishing Ltd 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL 020 7880 6200

Ali Nobakht joins the global life sciences recruiter as vice president of its search arm.

Nobakht is a healthcare specialist with a wealth of senior level experience across both private and public sector organisations.

VIQU The IT recruitment agency has taken on Melinda Queck as head of talent with over 15 years’ experience in recruitment, and Nicola Lubbe as delivery consultant in its account management team to support its key accounts with IT job hires.

CIRCULATION and SUBSCRIPTIONS Recruiter is the leading magazine for recruitment and resourcing professionals. To ensure each issue of Recruiter magazine is delivered to your desk or door, subscribe now at https://subs. recruiter.co.uk/subscribe. Annual subscription rate for 12 issues: £35 UK; £45 Europe and £50 Rest of the world • Recruiter is also available to people who meet our terms of control: http://bit.ly/RecruiterCC • To purchase reprints or multiple copies, or any other enquiries, please contact subs@redactive.co.uk or +44 (0)1580 883844 CONTRIBUTIONS Contributions are invited, but when not accepted will be returned only if accompanied by a fully stamped and addressed envelope. Articles should be emailed. No responsibility can be taken for drawings, photographs or literary contributions during delivery, transmission or in the editor’s hands. © 2022 Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. This publication (and any part thereof) may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in print or electronic format (including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet) or in any other format in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of Redactive Media Group.

Redactive Media Group accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. The publishers cannot accept liability for any loss arising from the late appearance or non-publication of any advertisement for any reason whatsoever. ISSN 1475-7478

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06/01/2022 12:10

E THE LAST WORD CO M M UNITY

“Talent and potential must be embraced and developed – not overlooked and ignored”

Lynne Peabody Offer hybrid learning and working to find future young leaders hybrid model can be particularly effective for youth employability programmes and contributes to an essential ‘levelling up’ of opportunity, new research from the Learning & Work Institute into the impact of virtual working during Covid-19 has found.

Commissioned by the EY Foundation, the research revealed that the virtual model introduced during the pandemic as a necessity actually became a lifeline for some, as those from lower socio-economic backgrounds or who live further away from city centres, were given the same change to participate as their better-off peers in programmes and other job opportunities.

It's a win-win for employers too, as the talent pool is deeper, wider and more diverse as a result.

At the EY Foundation, we want to ensure we are achieving measurable impact in support of young people,

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which drove our desire to quickly understand how to deliver virtually in the most effective way – and then help other organisations by sharing our findings.

Two key recommendations: ● Identify when face-to-face matters and incorporate into the programme – for instance, the first day could be an opportunity for people to get to know each other face-to-face, pick up equipment, ask questions, learn to use technology and establish ground rules. ● Use online delivery to improve inclusivity for students who may struggle to attend in person. For instance, let young people communicate in ways that suit them – this might be chat, using a microphone or ‘liking’ other people’s comments. Establish blurred backgrounds and headphone use for staff, volunteers and young people so no one feels uncomfortable about their home environment.

Other learnings that will be useful for providers considering hybrid delivery to young people include: ● Use an initial assessment to get a full picture of every young person’s needs and confidence with digital tools. ● Provide clear instructions, support and encouragement on how to use the digital tools they need. ● Provide all the technology young people need – laptops, WiFi dongles, software and headphones. ● Brief young people on how to behave in an online workplace so they understand what behaviour is expected of them before they start. ● Invest in online teaching and learning for staff and volunteers. ● Invest equal time and money in online delivery – it is not a cheap alternative. ● Avoid using terms like ‘real life’ versus digital. Recognise digital relationships and communications as an integral part of modern working practices.

● Give young people experience of working both online and in a face-to-face environment; gradually build upon the responsibilities they are given. ● Make online work experience tasks real – show them what will happen with the work they have done. ● Use online networks to link young people with, for example, Black or LGBTQIA+ people in their work experience organisation.

Our young people are bright, driven; you could argue they’re already likely to do well. But that misses the point. Talent and potential must be embraced and developed – not overlooked.

They can become future leaders and drive wider change. Hybrid learning and working is one clear route to a more equitable future for the next generation. ●

Lynne Peabody is acting CEO of the EY Foundation

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