Recruiter Jul/Aug 2024 by Redactive Media Group

Recruiters

HIGH FLYING

A NEWS

05 Industry mourns tragic passing of Odro’s McCabe Ryan McCabe, founder and CEO of video interview platform Odro, dies suddenly

06 Former Rethink CEO launches Fractal Entrepreneur Mark Lee launches a new business to take on transactional recruiting assignments

07 Rebuild economy with workforce strategy James Reed CBE, chair and CEO of recruitment giant Reed, offers his advice

07 Top qualities on the wanted list of recruitment agencies Carrington West and Sanderson MDs on their wishlist for staff

08 Contracts & Deals

B TRENDS

Workplace

A new report reveals the state of mind of workers

Insight Europe is outperforming the UK in key science and tech skills

16 Tech & Tools

The latest recruitment technology and services

C INTERACTION

D FEATURES

20 THE BIG STORY: FAST 5O In the final year of taking the pandemic into account, FAST 5O firms stand head and shoulders above the competition 28 No more unto the (cyber) breach The recruitment sector must take the potential for attacks on payroll data seriously and prepare for the eventuality of a cyber attack

Leader

By the time you read this, the UK’s General Election will have been held, and we should have some idea as to our national direction for a few years. My vagueness there reﬂects the pervasiveness of the major parties’ ‘all over the map’ approach before the election to setting ﬁrm policies and actions should they be successful. Perhaps more now than for some time, we’re called upon to vote for party general attitudes as opposed to being sure that campaign promises will be carried out. Each party probably has some opinion that appeals on the surface to most of us; did you add the pluses and the minuses before you voted?

“Perhaps more now than for some time, we’re called upon to vote for party general attitudes”

For many voters in this election, there will have been no shining light to inspire you to follow at the ballot box and beyond. Tragically, one of recruitment’s own who shone a blindingly bright light in the sector left us recently. Ryan McCabe, founder and CEO of video interview platform Odro, died suddenly in June, leaving not only his wife and children bereft but also a community of recruitment tech innovators and recruiters who are grieving. He was an innovator with high expectations of himself, a person you felt you could call a friend within moments of meeting him. We look forward to hearing how his company and the recruitment community want to channel Ryan’s light, passion and good humour into a continuous beam that stays with the industry forever.

DeeDee Doke, Editor

Industry mourns tragic passing of Odro’s McCabe

BY DEEDEE DOKE

RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY TRIBUTES have poured in for Ryan McCabe, founder and CEO of video interview platform Odro, following his death on 22 June.

He is survived by his wife and three children.

It is understood that he was killed in a one-vehicle motorcycle accident on the A62 road in Glencoe, Scotland, but by press deadlines, Recruiter was unable to obtain official conﬁrmation of the circumstances.

His last posting on his LinkedIn proﬁle, a few days before his death, illustrated his approach to life: “I need to train for my mental health. I’m not ashamed to admit that. If you’re trying to perform at a high level in all aspects of your life it’s important to understand yourself.

“Unfortunately after an injury last week, I’ve made some bad

AS OF 27 JUN 2024

decisions that have set me back much further than I should be.

“I pulled my calf halfway into a 15km run, which left me sitting alone on a wall in the middle of the countryside waiting to be picked up by my wife and kids… slightly emasculating.

“I iced my leg every day since and managed to limp to the gym to lift weights a couple of times in that week. On the Friday, I thought I was good enough to play squash. I was wrong and I walked off after 20 mins.

“I rested it again for a few days and it felt OK on the Monday when I walked into the gym at 6am. I was there to do weights again, but I convinced my PT to do something rounds on the pads as that’s what I love.

“Round three. *PING* I fell to the ﬂoor in pain. I can’t even walk properly now, although it has eased a little since then.

“I couldn’t even get down the stairs, let alone into the office, on Monday.

“A parcel arrived for my son’s birthday and I couldn’t carry it up the stairs to hide it from him.

“Now I know this sounds stupid… But my calf injury has forced me to slow down. And I mean walk slower, climb stairs slower, drive slower etc. which has caused me to mentally slow down.

“It’s been strangely symbolic for me. It’s helping me, I know it is, but I am still craving some serious cardio. It’s like a car revving its engine on the start line at an amber light.

“I’m sure the wise thing to do is to stop and rest, but no one tells you that the engine is still revving when you’re supposed to be sitting in silence!!

“So, as I hobble through London today, the name of the game is slowing down.”

In its announcement of McCabe’s death, Odro said the company would soon reveal its plans to celebrate McCabe’s legacy.

Ex-Rethink CEO launches transactional recruitment firm

BY DEEDEE DOKE

ENTREPRENEUR, RECRUITER AND former Rethink CEO Mark Lee (below) has launched Fractal, a new business that will rely on a global network of fractional, freelance and virtual in-house recruiters to take on transactional recruiting assignments, potentially receiving fees that would typically go to recruitment agencies.

“I’m particularly interested in people who are employed by other companies but only work, say, three or four days a week; recruiters that are unemployed – and unfortunately there are quite a lot of those at the moment; and recruiters that are fully employed, who have an employment contract that enables them to work on side hustles and gigs,” Lee told Recruiter.

An example would be the assignment Lee has to find recruiters to recruit inside sales staff for a US software company. He identifies some skilled, high-calibre in-house recruiters to do the job. “Moving forward, hopefully, I won’t need to find them because I’ll have attracted them to the brand, and I look into

our database of recruiters. I ﬁnd two who can do the job,” he says of the recruiters, “and they go off and do the work – the client gets a discount versus their agency costs, and I give the two recruiters half the money I make.

“What I want to be able to do,” he says, is “really incentivise the recruiters in a way that you ﬁll a role for me and that will probably be a month’s salary or more that I’m going to send to you.

“Inside recruiting agencies right now, there’s a lot of inefficiency. You hire a load of people that you think are going to be able to sell; you’re not really hiring them for their recruiting skills. They fail a lot. Some agencies are really good at [providing] learning and development, but most of them just are not. So, there’s a lot of failure and because of that failure, prices are probably higher for customers.”

The “in-house quality” recruiters will be engaged when matched by skills, domain expertise, market knowledge and language capabilities to a client role. “Companies get a fully ﬂexible ‘add-on’ to their in-house team through deployment of in-house quality resources on demand,” Lee said. “The Fractal team manages recruiter onboarding and role delivery for our customers, meaning clients get not only the beneﬁt of higher quality and lower-cost delivery, but a concierge service in delivery of often highly specialised, business critical roles.”

Lee left recruiter Rethink in January this year.

Rebuild economy with workforce strategy, says Reed

THE NEWLY-ELECTED UK GOVERNMENT should set out to create and deliver a workforce strategy instead of an industrial strategy if the country’s economy is to rebuild and success, said James Reed CBE (above), chairman and CEO of the Reed recruitment giant.

Speaking to recruiters and suppliers to the industry at the REC Live 24 conference in London, 25 June, Reed said that a workforce strategy would have to be “really well thought-out”, as he underscored that there are fewer people working in the UK than there were before the global pandemic, which began in 2020. “We’ll certainly want to reach out to our neighbours,” Reed said about maximising economic development once more. He added: “The next prime minister will be as good as the people around them.”

Addressing a question about the values of the Reed family in contrast to the values of the Reed business, the chairman and CEO said: “We’re very clear about it in our business. Our family values are our business

values. Our values are simple… and our purpose is ‘Improving lives through work’,” which is also the ﬁrm’s strapline. The company also has an adventurous, entrepreneurial aspect, Reed said: “If a bus comes along and the destination looks interesting, we’ll get on. The problem is, sometimes you ﬁnd yourself walking home.” However, he added, shifting metaphors, “I’d rather eat myself than let someone else do it!”

Other highlights of Reed’s comments were:

“The word ‘trust’ has been badly devalued.”

As with exchanges of information between humans, when AI in its different incarnations – as candidate, as interviewer, etc –communicates with AI, “the quality of the conversation is what makes the difference”.

The recruitment industry still has “a bit of PR to do” in showing the public and government the good it does and revealing itself as “a social good. We need to tell stories”.

Be ‘hungry, humble and smart’

BY DEEDEE DOKE

Bravery, reliability, commitment, conscientiousness, orderliness, taking pride in what they do, and being “hungry, humble and smart”.

Those characteristics and qualities top the “wanted” list for newcomers to recruitment businesses Carrington West and Sanderson, managing directors at the firms told an audience on 24 June at the REC Live 24 conference.

James Fernandes (above, left) of Carrington West and Donal O’Donoghue (right) of Sanderson outlined necessities of contributing to outstanding teams in the world of now in a session focusing on team dynamics and success in a panel discussion led by Heather Salway of Jump Advisory Group. And at both companies, the skill and attitude of collaboration are essential, the two MDs said.

At Sanderson, O’Donoghue said, the company’s approach is “outwardly competitive”, meaning that their consultants are keenly competitive external to the business, but “internally collaborative”.

At Carrington West, ‘trust’ is key to its foundation. For instance, Fernandes said: “The number one thing people want from their employers is, they [the employer] has their backs.” Behaviours must be evangelised and modelled from the top, he went on to say. Continued and purposeful learning and development is one such line of behaviour that leaders at Carrington West consistently model by taking courses and undergoing training for their own growth and knowledge expansion, he explained.

CONTRACTS & DEALS

Ciphr

HR and payroll software provider Ciphr has acquired Shape, a cloud-based payroll platform used by 1,500 UK businesses. The acquisition will accelerate the development of Ciphr’s payroll technology and help ensure that Ciphr can deliver a better experience for its new and existing payroll customers and people. Shape’s founders, husband and wife team Alex and Cheri Bartlett, and the rest of their team, will also join Ciphr.

Bluestones Group

Bluestones Group, which invests in recruitment and staffing service businesses, has acquired Preston-based legal recruitment specialist Clayton Legal, the seventh brand acquisition this calendar year, according to the firm. Clayton Legal will continue to operate as a standalone business, building on its brand, candidate and client relationships developed over years on the legal sector, according to the company statement.

Keystone Partners

Career and talent management consulting firm

Keystone Partners, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, has acquired Ayers Group, a division of managed service provider KellyOCG. Ayers Group provides outplacement, executive coaching, and leadership development solutions to employers across a wide range of industries. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Randstad Digital

Talent firm Randstad NV has announced that its digital enablement company Randstad Digital has acquired Torc. Torc is an AI-powered talent marketplace platform with more than 25,000 digital talent enrolled worldwide, with a specific current emphasis on Latin America (LATAM), the US and India. Its AI-driven platform enables skill-based matching to connect digital talent to clients globally. According to the company statement, the acquisition allows Randstad Digital to further accelerate clients’ access to digital talent, including global delivery centres, to meet its digital ambitions across cloud, data, digital engineering and customer experience capabilities.

Smart Solutions

DEAL OF THE MONTH

Global talent solutions provider Kelly has completed the acquisition of Motion Recruitment Partners (MRP) from private investment firm Littlejohn & Co for $425m (£332m).

The acquisition of MRP strengthens the scale and capabilities of Kelly’s staffing and consulting solutions across technology, telecoms and government specialities in North America, and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) solutions globally.

Additional cash consideration of up to $60m may be due in Q2 2025 if certain conditions are satisfied during an earnout period ending on 31 March, 2025.

According to a statement from Kelly, MRP fits “exceptionally well” with its strategy to enhance the revenue growth potential of the company.

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, MRP is parent company to global talent solution providers, including Motion Recruitment (IT staffing and managed solutions), Motion Consulting Group (IT consulting), Motion Telco (IT & telecom solutions), Tech in Motion (tech networking and events program), TG Federal (government IT subcontracting) and Sevenstep (RPO, MSP and TA advisory/consulting).

Cardiff-based Smart Solutions (Recruitment) has secured an £18m aggregated confidential invoice discounting facility from Cynergy Business Finance (CBF). The facility provided to Smart Solutions and its associated entities, Heat Recruitment and Bridgestone Group, will provide working capital across the three businesses and support the group as it continues to expand its presence across the UK market. Smart Solutions is a temporary recruitment agency, with specialists working across a number of sectors, including a division dedicated to waste and recycling.

Now is the workplace of our discontent

A new report reveals the state of mind of workers...

BY DEEDEE DOKE

While ‘quiet quitting’, ‘quiet hiring’ and ‘quiet ﬁring’ have all become part of the day-to-day office jargon in the UK over the last year or so, a new ‘quiet’ practice is making its presence known in the workplace to corporate alarm: ‘Quiet vacationing’ is the new kid on the block, referring to workers who take time off without telling their boss.

This latest evolution in workplace moodiness is yet another facet of employee disengagement at their jobs and that, with some notable national exceptions, there is both ambivalence and dark cloudiness hovering in the office and remote workplace air.

In June, US bank Wells Fargo ﬁred a

number of employees following claims that staff were faking keyboard activity to give the impression of working when they were not. Business news service Bloomberg ﬁrst reported the move, based on a ﬁling Wells Fargo made to the US’s Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, saying that more than a dozen people had been affected.

Technology such as ‘mouse jigglers’, which simulate keyboard activity, are widely used by workers to avoid their absence being picked up by sophisticated tools that can track keystrokes and eye movements and log which websites are being visited.

At the same time, a new global workplace report from analytics and advisory ﬁrm Gallup warns that the UK has a high percentage of workers who

could be vulnerable to quiet vacationing. ‘The State of the Global Workplace: 2024 Report’ states that only 10% of the UK workforce is engaged and ranks at number 33, with number 1 having the greatest engagement, amongst 38 European countries. At only 7%, France has the lowest percentage of engaged workers within the 38. Romania’s 36% engaged workforce holds the top slot for engagement.

Under ‘life evaluation’, the UK fares better, with a rank of 15 amongst the 38 countries. According to the results, 48% of UK workers believe they are thriving and will still be doing so in ﬁve years. At number 1 is Finland, with 83% believing that they are and will be thriving. The Nordic countries and the Netherlands take the most optimistic

views, with Denmark at number 2, Iceland at 3, the Netherlands at 4, Sweden at 5 and Norway at 6. But Northern Cyprus, also known as the Territory of the Republic of Cyprus, is the most pessimistic workforce of the 38 with only 18% believing that they are and will be thriving.

It is not surprising then that Northern Cyprus’s workforce has the largest percentage of workers feeling stress much of the day, with 65% saying that they did. Again, the UK placed at 15 within the 38, reporting that 40% of its workforce felt stress a lot during the day. The Baltics and Denmark were the least stressed, ranking 35 through 38 on the scale, with Denmark scoring the least and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania at 35, 36 and 37 respectively.

Sadly, Northern Cyprus’s workforce was also the angriest, with 51% reporting that they felt anger much of the day. Unfortunately, the UK moved up the rankings to number 10 for feeling angry during the day, with 20% feeling angry during a lot of the day. Also reporting 20% of the workforce getting angry a lot of the day were the Czech Republic (8), Albania (9), and the Republic of Ireland (11). The bottom ﬁve, the workforces experiencing the least anger, were Portugal at 34, Estonia at 35, Iceland at 36, Netherlands at 37 and Finland at 38.

The UK was the second saddest location for workers, ranking lower than only Northern Cyprus in the countries reporting their experience of daily sadness. Only 5% of Kosovo’s

workers reported experiencing a lot of sadness daily, making them the least sad workforce within the 38 European countries. Ranking in the lowest ﬁve countries, meaning that their workers reported the least amount of much daily sadness, were Serbia at 34, Croatia (35), Finland (36) and Lithuania (37).

Asked to think about the job market where they lived, respondents were questioned whether they thought the current time was a good or bad time to ﬁnd a job. Of the UK workers, 48% said they thought the job climate was good, placing the UK at number 29.

Surrounding the UK at numbers 28 and 30 were Bosnia and Herzegovina (28), where 49% thought it was a good time, and Switzerland (30) where 48% also believe the time was good. Eighty per cent of Denmark’s workers opted for ‘good’, where in Spain at number 38, only 32% believed so. Italy, also with 32% believing it was a good time to look for a job, was at 37.

Possibly the question with most interest to employers was around intent to leave: “To what extent are you currently looking for a different job than the one you have now? Are you actively looking for another job, watching for opportunities but not actively looking, or are you not looking for another job?” Albania ranked the highest, with 42% of respondents on the lookout for a new job, with neighbouring Bulgaria the lowest at 20%. The UK ranked near the middle, at number 24, with 31% intending to leave. The UK was ﬂanked at number 23 by Estonia (also 31%) and Serbia at 25, with 30%. Ireland ranked 17th, with 33% looking for new opportunities.

With the global pandemic in our recent past, dissatisfaction with the ruling political classes evident in the world’s elections and catastrophic humanitarian crises still exploding around the world, it’s no surprise that disenfranchisement and discontent are so omnipresent today in the workplace population. But resolving those conditions will likely require signiﬁcant catalysts outside the workplace to dissipate and disperse the malaise. ●

SHORTLIST CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2024 2024

AGENCY RECRUITMENT LEADER OF THE YEAR

• Alison Lester, Managing Director – Red Lester

• Amy Hambleton, Director – RedLaw

• Hayley Pugh, Managing Director –Oakley Recruitment

• Natasha Makhijani, CEO –Oliver Sanderson Group

• Ross Crouch, Director – Wadkins & Associates

• Sasza Bandiera, CEO – Oyster Partnership

• Tom White, CEO – 5Values Consulting Group

OF THE YEAR

• Nicholas Ottley, Supervising Associate – EY

• Sam Waterman, Talent Acquisition ManagerHarding+

• Siobhan O’Neill, Supervising Associate –Recruitment Team – EY

• Vicki Parker, Head of Talent Acquisition, UKICIMEA & Europe - Vistra

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

• Emérique Opou - Founder and CEOEmerique & Partners

• Hayley Pugh, Managing Director –Oakley Recruitment

• Nicholas Barton, Founder & CEO –The Barton Partnership

• Sam Spoors, Founder and MD – Talentheads

• Tom White, CEO – 5Values Consulting Group

TALENT RECRUITMENT

• Atkins Apprentice and Graduate Programmes –AtkinsRealis and Amberjack

• Building a Future Workforce for Morrisons –Morrisons and Amberjack

• Pernod Ricard Building Futures Internship Programme – Pernod Ricard and Amberjack

• Police Now Graduate Programmes – Police Now

CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE

RECRUITMENT TEAM

MARKETING TEAM

• Connex Education, Connex Academy, Teacher Training College & Academize

• Freshminds Talent

• Investigo, The IN Group

• Morgan Hunt

• Pulse Healthcare, part of Acacium Group

• Spencer Clarke Group

• Trinnovo Group

• Xcede Group, Xcede, EarthStream

• Brabers Consultancy

• Caritas Recruitment

• Citrus Connect Recruitment

• Dedicate Recruitment

• Franklin Fitch

• GKR London T/A GKR International

• Kemp Recruitment

• MPS Healthcare

• NHS Professionals

• Oriel Partners

• Service Care Solutions

• This Is Prime

• TIB Services

• VHR

• Wynne Pepe Recruitment

• Zentar Healthcare

• Careerlink

• ersg

• Franklin Fitch

• Hunter Bond

• Oliver Sanderson Group

• Oriel Partners

• Randstad UK

• Service Care Solutions

• Talentheads

• The Barton Partnership

• VHR

• Xcede Group

• Xpertise Recruitment

• Zentar Healthcare

RECRUITMENT AGENCY

• AJ Chambers

• Hunter Bond

• Meraki Talent

• Pro-Recruitment Group

• RedLaw

• Wadkins & Associates

• WPR

RECRUITMENT AGENCY

• Daksta

• EarthStream

• NRL

• Roc Search

• Vantage Consulting

• VHR

RECRUITMENT AGENCY

• Cogent Staffing

• Impala Search

• Kendrick Rose

• Oriel Partners

• Red Lester

COMPLIANCE OPERATION

DROPPING BEHIND IN THE SKILLS RACE

The UK is being outperformed in key science and tech skills, particularly compared with our European counterparts

FINDINGS FROM COURSERA, ‘GLOBAL SKILLS REPORT’

Despite government-backed efforts to cement the UK's place as a science and technology superpower by 2030, with multi-million pound investment in AI, new research launched in June from online learning platform Coursera places the UK 45th globally for technology and business skills proﬁciency.

The ﬁndings are from Coursera’s 2024 sixth annual ‘Global Skills Report’, which draws on data from over 148m learners and 7,000 institutional partners from 109 countries to identify skill proﬁciency trends. This data is combined with third-party indicators, including the Global Innovation Index (GII), Labour Force Participation Rate, Human Capital Index (HCI) and GDP per capita.

METHODOLOGY

The Coursera results indicate that the UK continues to fall behind in the global race for key skills, having ranked 38th in 2022 and 64th in 2023. This year, the UK continues to be outperformed by prominent European counterparts, including Germany (3rd), France (5th) and Spain (7th), as well as developing economies like Brazil (19th). However, the UK’s struggles to upskill were matched and exceeded by other Anglophone peers, most notably the US, which placed 69th, the report said.

In the UK, 3.8m learners have enrolled for over 6.9m Coursera courses and recorded 6.2m learning hours since October 2021.

Coursera’s data reveals explosive growth in Generative AI (GenAI) course enrolments – a 1,060% year-on-year increase – as the world races toward AI

literacy. While the UK has seen a 961% increase in AI upskilling in the past 12 months, it has seen a lower uptake than the global average, the report said, and lags behind the US (1,058%).

Nations across the world appear to be prioritising AI upskilling more than the UK, the report suggested. In Brazil, which ranks among the global top 20, and which attains cutting-edge proﬁciency in tech and data science, there has been a 1,079% year-on-year increase in GenAI course enrolments.

This year’s Global Skills Report introduces a

With over 148m learners, 7,000 institutions and 7,100 courses from 325 of the world’s top universities and industry partners, Coursera has a significant datasets for identifying and measuring skill trends. In the Global Skills Report, 109 countries are ranked against one another, with percentile rankings attributed to each skill proficiency. A country that shows 100% skills proficiency ranks at the top of the 100+ countries, and a country at 0% is at the bottom.

new methodology that combines learners' skill proficiency scores on the Coursera platform with third-party indicators, including the Global Innovation Index (GII), Labor Force Participation Rate, Human Capital Index (HCI) and GDP per capita.

“With the UK technology sector employing millions of people and contributing over £150bn to the nation’s economy, the country’s institutions and leaders must continue to prioritise upskilling to remain competitive in the AI age – one in which two-third of jobs may be exposed to some degree of automation,” said Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO. “This report aims to offer actionable insights for UK businesses,

governments and academic institutions as they respond to this unprecedented disruption and contribute to a future in which access to high-quality learning empowers everyone.”

Of the 3.8m Coursera learners in the UK, 48% are women, 35% are women in STEM and 39% are learning on mobile devices, the report said. The top Professional Certiﬁcates being earned in the UK are Google Data Analytics, Google Project Management and Google Cybersecurity. The top 10 skills learners are seeking to acquire in the UK, in order, are Epidemiology, Bioinformatics, Regression (a method used for predictive modelling in machine learning), FinTech, Machine Learning Algorithms, Python Programming, Investment Management, Bayesian Statistics, Risk Management and Applied Machine Learning. In contrast, the top 10 target roles in the UK are Bookkeeper, Risk

Analyst, Data Analyst, Database Architect, Software Developer, Financial Analyst, Product Manager, Technology Consultant, Cybersecurity Analyst and Data Scientist.

Enrolment trends in GenAI in the UK ﬁnd that the most popular courses are GenAI with Large Language Models, Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT and Generative AI for Everyone.

Outside the UK, in Europe for example, the European Commission aims to reach 80% of EU adults with at least basic digital skills and 20 million Information & Communication Technology (ICT) specialists, especially women, employed across the EU by 2030.

Nineteen of the top 25 countries globally are in Europe, where learners demonstrate strong overall skill proﬁciency, the report said. ●

Excerpted from Coursera’s Global Skills Report 2024

1 2 POWER POINTS

Switzerland ranks top of this year’s global skills leaderboard, followed by Japan, with European countries occupying 17 of the top 25 places.

The UK’s individual business (53%), tech (59%) and data science (72%) scores lag behind European counterparts like Germany (93%/96%/97%), as well as France, Spain and emerging markets like Brazil.

3

British learners on Coursera are placing particular emphasis on skills at the intersection of healthcare and technology, with Epidemiology and Bioinformatics identified as the UK’s top two skills.

Cybersecurity skilling stalls despite urgent need for cybersecurity skills development. European enrolments in cybersecurity courses declined by 5% yearon-year – despite Europe being the region most impacted by cyberattacks.

As learners turn to microcredentials to gain the practical, job-ready skills needed to succeed in the digital economy, the UK has seen a 59% YoY growth in Professional Certificates.

TECH & TOOLS

IN

FOCUS:

Advances in generative AI

BY SUE WEEKES

The past 12 months has seen a flurry of developments in the field of artificial intelligence but it’s fair to say that May 2024 has brought a bumper crop of advances in the field of generative AI (where AI is used to generate material) that will change how we work for decades to come.

At a special event on its campus in the US, Microsoft introduced what it described as a “new category” of Windows PCs designed for AI in the shape of the CoPilot+ PCs. CoPilot is Microsoft’s Gen AI companion launched last year, which is available in Windows 11, Microsoft 365, Edge and Bing. Now, Microsoft has moved AI innovation to the device and said it has reimagined the entirety of the PC “from silicon to the operating system, the application layer to the cloud” with

AI at the centre. Without doubt, it marks the most signiﬁcant change to the Windows platform in decades.

Meanwhile, OpenAI, developer of the generative AI tool ChatGPT unveiled GPT-4o, which took things a major step on from its previous iteration by being able to reason across audio, vision and text in real time. OpenAI explains that it marks a step towards much more natural human-computer interaction and accepts as input any combination of text, audio, image and video, and “generates any combination of text, audio and image outputs”. It supports more than 50 languages.

Then, at the time of writing, Apple announced that it is integrating ChatGPT access into experiences within its iOS 18, iPadOS and macOS Sequoia. In addition, Apple’s digital assistant Siri can also “tap into” ChatGPT’s

expertise, and it will also be built into Apple’s systemwide Writing Tools to help users generate content.

The signiﬁcance of these announcements shouldn’t be underplayed as they demonstrate how generative AI is fast becoming seamlessly part of our working lives. Our News in Brief stories this month also all focus on some form of AI integration with recruitment tools whether it be a CRM system or CV parser.

Many recruiters are already taking advantage of currently available generative AI tools to reduce time spent on routine tasks, help to write everything from job ads and descriptions and longer documents, and summarise and analyse reports. And based on the views of four top talent leaders we spoke to, for those who haven’t sampled such tools yet, it’s maybe time to start experimenting.

Toby Culshaw,

global head of talent pipeline strategy & intelligence, Worldwide Amazon Stores

Gen AI is a double-edged sword for recruiters, but it also presents a pivotal opportunity. Wielded wisely, it ampliﬁes our capabilities, automating tedious tasks and surfacing insights buried in data. This empowers us to transcend the role of order-takers and become true strategic partners, armed with talent intelligence to advise business leaders. However, we must guard against the pitfalls of bias creep and over-reliance on opaque models. The future belongs to those who strike the balance between human intuition and AI, creating a harmonious symbiosis that elevates talent acquisition to new heights.

Lisa

Scales,

talent director, Royal Mail Group

I can see that recruiters are using

Gen AI tools on two levels: formally and informally. Formally, AI is being employed by organisations to automate repetitive tasks such as scheduling interviews, enhancing efficiency and productivity. Informally, recruiters are using AI to augment their own personal activities and work styles such as drafting job descriptions and personalising candidate outreach and engagement communications. While the formal use is widely recognised for its clear cost benefit, the informal use also significantly boosts productivity, though its impact is harder to measure due to the varied platforms and activities so it is not being seen yet for its productivity benefits to build sound business cases for formal use.

Yasar Ahmad, vice-president – talent, mobility, reward & communications, HelloFresh Global

AI is a tool, not a threat. Recruiters are not just adapting but enhancing their capabilities. The integration of tools like ChatGPT is optional, but soon it will be indispensable. Whether it’s drafting copy or researching into conﬂict management strategies, the time-savings provided by such tools are undeniable – allowing time for more impactful and meaningful work.

Jon Hull, head of talent, Nominet

Currently I believe the use of Gen AI is tactical – for example, writing job ads, creating job descriptions, policy creation, reducing time on administrative tasks. However, I don’t think we’ve seen or used the tools’ full potential, ie. for more automated sourcing. The future may really transform much of TA and the approach we take to it, from sourcing and attraction to screening and interviewing. ●

IN BRIEF

Enter the next-generation CRM platform

Recruitment software developer iCIMS is launching what it calls a ‘nextgeneration’ CRM system powered by AI, which provides more personalisation, AI matching and engagement scoring. iCIMS Candidate Experience Management (CXM) enables recruiters to find candidates that are both most interested in and most qualified for a role. It integrates with iCIMS ATS (applicant tracking system) to rediscover existing talent such as ‘silver medallists’ and past employees. It also allows recruiters to create ‘hyper-personalised’ candidate journeys and improve engagement by crafting personalised outreach that resonates with each candidate based on their interactions with content. Teams can also automate the process of finding and engaging with top talent, freeing them from time-consuming routine tasks. www.icims.com

Powerful parsing with AI CV parsing technology specialist

RChilli is launching a beta version of a large language model (LLM) parser. The LLM Parser analyses complex language structures and understands context and relationships beyond keywords. It integrates the capabilities of ChatGPT with RChilli’s industry knowledge for increased accuracy when it comes to parsing resumes. LLM Parser also supports multiple languages to enable RChilli to expand its scope over multiple markets. www.rchilli.com

Using AI to build workforce agility

Cornerstone is launching an AIpowered ‘workforce agility’ platform designed to address the workforce readiness gap being created by the pace of change of innovation and other market changes. Cornerstone Galaxy builds on the company’s focus on building workforce agility and aims to identify the skills shortages that impede corporate performance. Alongside Galaxy, it is also launching the Immerse spatial learning solution; Companion, an AI-powered companion to aid talent development; and Talent Intelligence, an analytics tool, featuring an AI engine in partnership with HR analytics specialist Visier. www.cornerstoneondemand.com

Prepare for Worker Protection Act

Eight things employers should do now

BY PHILIP GRINDELL

Employers and business leaders need to be more proactive ahead of new legislation designed to protect employees from sexual harassment. From October, employers will need to comply with a legal duty to take ‘reasonable steps’ aiming to prevent sexual harassment of employees. This follows the passing of the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023.

Under the Act, employment tribunals will have the power to increase compensation by up to 25% if it ﬁnds that an employer has breached this duty. Too many companies are woefully ill-prepared for the changes coming down the line. Clearly, employers shouldn’t wait until October to make changes. The key is to be proactive right now. Employers who delay may ﬁnd themselves extremely vulnerable by the time the new law comes in.

Unfortunately, sexual harassment remains a signiﬁcant issue in the UK workplace. Recent data from the Office of National Statistics reveals almost 67% of women in the UK have experienced sexual harassment at work, with some cases escalating to criminal levels.

Despite laws against such behaviour, the statistics indicate more needs to be done to address and prevent these incidents.

Employers will need to prioritise preventing sexual harassment at work by taking proactive steps. The new legislation emphasises the importance of consistently reviewing and updating harassment policies. It will also require employers to conduct frequent training sessions, and handle complaints seriously.

At the same time, it’s crucial for employers to take consistent action beyond policies and training to foster a safe and inclusive workplace. Regular workplace assessments are essential to ensure the effectiveness of existing measures. Training that focuses on behavioural indicators rather than conﬂict management can be useful in such nuanced issues.

Apart from the human response and the obvious duty of care, failing to be proactive may result in many other problems. These can include legal consequences like lawsuits and compensation claims, reputational damage, reduced employee morale and increased turnover and decreased productivity from employees.

PHILIP GRINDELL is founder and CEO of Defuse Global, a provider of training, independent investigations and law enforcement liaison and advisory services

Here are eight steps employers should look to implement now and ahead of the law change:

● Have clear policies: Develop and communicate clear policies on sexual harassment.

● Invest in training: Introduce new regular training for all employees on recognising and preventing harassment.

● Ensure you have reporting mechanisms: Establish straightforward procedures for reporting harassment.

● Conduct prompt investigations: Investigate all complaints promptly and thoroughly, and be mindful of incidents where criminal offences may have been committed.

● Guarantee conﬁdentiality: Ensure that complaints are handled conﬁdentially.

● Make sure you offer non-retaliation: Protect complainants from retaliation.

● Take appropriate actions: Take disciplinary action against perpetrators when necessary.

● Offer support for victims: Provide access to counselling and support services. ●

GREEN SKILLS GAP THREATENS UK’S GOALS

Findings from the National Environmental Services Survey say that education and skills are lacking in many areas of sustainability.

This includes expertise of waste management and the circular economy, resilience building and developing strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change, along with similar shortages in environmental management, carbon management and offsetting, as well as environmental law and policy.

The rise of roles such as chief sustainability officer –which saw more individuals hired in 2021 alone, compared to the previous five years combined –highlights an important shift towards organisations prioritising sustainability. However, the report data from ESS Expo suggests that many businesses are still struggling to find qualified candidates to fill these newly emerging positions.

The survey gathered data from 1,498 professionals across the environmental services industry from April-May 2024 by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), the Environmental Services Association (ESA), Groundwork and ESS Expo (Environmental Services and Solutions Expo).

• Send your news to recruiter.editorial@redactive. co.uk with the subject line Sustainability News

“What policy outcomes will you be hoping for from the General Election on 4 July?”

CHRIS DRAKE

MANAGING PARTNER, HORTON INTERNATIONAL UK

“As an executive search and interim management firm with a well-established Infrastructure & Energy Practice, and a certified member of 1% for the Planet [members contribute at least 1% of their annual revenue to environmental causes to protect the environment], we hope that the next government prioritises infrastructure and renewable energy investment. As well as benefits for the labour market and job creation, this will also support economic growth, improve public services, and help tackle the climate crisis. Measures to expedite infrastructure delivery and increase Renewable Energy capacity are vital for promoting sustainable growth and securing a better future for all.”

KIRSTY YOUNG DIRECTOR AND FOUNDER, PARKHOUSE BELL

“It’s time for politicians to make the prompt payment code compulsory for any listed company (UK or internationally) to pay SME suppliers within a 30-day period. The voluntary code means that too few businesses have signed up and therefore still paying small businesses on their own terms, often falling outside of fair and reasonable supplier payment terms. SMEs like global executive talent research ﬁrm Parkhouse Bell are crucial to the UK economy. We create jobs, boost GDP and promote diversity. As vital as we are, bankrolling large companies should not be part of our remit.”

DAVID MOREL CEO AND FOUNDER, TIGER RECRUITMENT

“I want to see policy outcomes that truly beneﬁt SMEs in the UK. These businesses are the beating heart of the economy and I feel they have been ignored by the Conservative government. I hope the winning party recognises their importance and introduces policies that encourage SMEs to grow, stay in the UK and – importantly – employ more people, ensuring the sustained vitality and competitiveness of our national economy.”

FAST 50 FIRMS STAND OUT FROM THE REST

In the ﬁnal year of taking the pandemic into account, the FAST 50 shows higher growth rates

The data from this year’s FAST 50 shows higher rates of growth as conﬁdence returned to the recruitment industry post-Covid and the ongoing Ukraine war, and candidates took advantage of a tight labour market to secure enhanced pay packages in new roles.

With 2024 being the ﬁnal year that incorporates the Covid slump, there were always going to be questions about if this would

provide a deceptively positive growth story by starting from a lower point and capturing the subsequent rebound. This is certainly supported by the data, which shows the average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) up by 7% on last year to 66%, and a minimum CAGR of 37% to feature on the list.

While interest rates in the UK remain elevated, business conﬁdence has increased and concerns about macroeconomic

DANIEL SHRIMPTON, director of corporate and finance house and international M&A specialist Clearwater International, compiler of the Recruiter FAST 50 +

Rank 2022 rankingCompanySectorsRevenue(£000s)

Compoundannual growthrate(%) 1TheRecruitmentCo.Multi-sector192,055427.4% 2iCare24GroupHealthcare40,002131.5% 3OptimeAerospace24,252101.7% 4BerkeleyScottHospitality22,04897.0% 5SerocorMulti-sector84,75295.1% 6EvolutionJobsTechnology45,52090.5% 72ICGMedicalHealthcare196,93385.9% 8CareerTeachersEducation20,39875.5% 9BarringtonJamesLifescience47,31474.4% 107FawkesandReeceBuiltenvironment,construction66,04673.0% 1142HWGlobalMulti-sector27,37071.4% 12SelectOffshoreEnergy29,14969.4% 13ProsperoTeachingEducation100,42265.8% 1413PRGMulti-sector95,85063.0% 154MachRecruitmentMulti-sector291,50162.6% 1620Challenge-trgRecruitmentLogistics,industrial244,44757.3% 17PremierWorkSupportMulti-sector20,63460.3% 1839HarnhamTechnology51,27260.0% 193XcedeRenewables,technology93,36759.7% 20PangeaTalentSolutionsEnergy,naturalresources15,86758.4% 21VisunaEnergy,technology69,41157.3% 2211i-PharmLifesciences41,88556.1% 2335SkilledCareersConstruction,industrial40,32756.1% 24G2VGroupMulti-sector203,28454.5% 2548ARCMulti-sector32,44054.2% 26HallamMedicalHealthcare19,80154.0% 27TeacherActiveEducation65,18952.4% 28SourceGroupInternationalTechnology51,30352.4% 29SaragossaTechnology20,84752.0% 3015MerakiTalentMulti-sector20,81151.7% 31TheBridgeTechnology44,84651.4% 32ElementsMulti-sector27,52449.3% 33OakleafPartnershipHumanresources16,13148.1% 34TempletonandPartnersTechnology26,79347.5% 3531NextVenturesTechnology112,91546.5% 36CavalConstruction45,28446.5% 37OperamEducationGroupEducation22,49145.9% 38CookRecruitmentGroupHealthcare84,14745.7% 39RocSearchMulti-sector45,19545.4% 4034CarringtonWestConstruction76,33644.0% 41OysterPartnershipMulti-sector50,79542.7% 4223MajorRecruitmentMulti-sector58,31242.5% 439SevenResourcingHealthcare,education64,92142.0% 44TheFiserGroupFinancialservices,professionalservices47,10740.9% 45SensibleStaffingHealthcare,socialcare25,04940.7% 465KernelProfessionalServices49,82340.0% 47SkillsAllianceLifesciences31,56339.8% 48AxcisEducationEducation24,22739.3% 49nGAGETalentMulti-sector656,60338.9% 50TenthRevolutionTechnology495,50738.4%

KeyshareholdersWebsiteHeadquarters

Financial year-end

Twenty20Capitalwww.therecruitmentco.ukLondonMar-23

DavidSwali,JohnSwali,SimonSwaliwww.icare24.co.ukBirminghamMar-23

MatthewYoung,AnthonyYoungwww.optimegroup.co.ukCrawleyMar-24

PABellwww.berkeley-scott.co.ukLondonDec-22

DavidWilson,LeonHowgill,ShaunPopewww.serocor.comPortsmouthDec-22

GarethMorris,NicholasElliott,HelenElliottwww.evolutionjobs.comWarringtonDec-22

AdrianTreacy,LucyTreacywww.icg-medical.comLondonMar-23

Twenty20Capitalwww.careerteachers.co.ukLondonDec-22

OrangewoodPartnersManagementwww.barringtonjames.comCrawleyDec-22

RaymondConnollywww.fawkesandreece.co.ukLondonMar-23

AdrianHitchenor,JohnWakeford,SpencerJinkswww.hwglobal.coLondonDec-22

MichaelTann,RyanBurvillewww.selectoffshore.comChelmsfordDec-23

RobertGrayswww.prosperoteaching.comLondonJun-23

ThomasHibberd,MarkLloyd,KatarinaLloydwww.precisionresourcegroup.co.ukBristolApr-23 TomaszZyzak,AdamNicholson-Geewww.mach.co.ukLeedsJul-22 NicolasGordon,RichardCropper,ThomasCropperwww.challengetrg.co.ukWiganMar-23 RichardBlood,DarrenLiebman,JosephGreenwww.premierworksupport.co.ukRugbySep-22 SimonClarke,BusinessGrowthFund,PollyLintonwww.harnham.comLondonNov-22 UniversalPartnerswww.xcedegroup.comLondonDec-22 SanjayRamdhonee,AmarveerPannu,AmardeepPannuwww.pangea-resourcing.comLondonDec-22 GeoffLennox,RichardFielding,ClaireFielding,JaneLennoxwww.visuna.comTyneandWearDec-22 StephenMcAnaney,StevenLamport-Went,IssamAl-Tarafiwww.i-pharmconsulting.comLondonDec-22 GavinMcBride,DavidFreerwww.skilledcareers.co.ukLondonDec-22 JamesGorfinwww.g2vgroup.comLondonMar-23 ChrisFord,MatthewNoake,RobertWalliswww.arcgroup.co.ukNorwichDec-22 AlexanderMunrowww.hallammedical.comSheffieldApr-23 RobinBrowett,LisaDovey,PricoaPrivateCapital,DavidFreethwww.teacheractive.comBirminghamDec-22

GavinTew,LawrenceHargreaveswww.sourcegroupinternational.comLondonDec-22

RuaidhriGaston,JamieLloydwww.saragossa.co.ukLondonDec-22 SyndicatedInvestmentGroup,AndrewWelshwww.merakitalent.comEdinburghDec-22 OnexPartnerswww.thebridgeit.comLeedsDec-22 BusinessGrowthFundwww.weareelements.ioLondonDec-22 BrendanForster,RichardColganwww.oakleafpartnership.comLondonMar-23 TempletonGroupwww.templeton-recruitment.comLondonDec-22 DarrenRosenfeld,RichardLaceywww.next-ventures.co.ukLondonDec-22 JamieTalbot,OliverBurt,MatthewChapman,RachelChapmanwww.caval.co.ukLeedsDec-22 BusinessGrowthFundwww.operameducationgroup.comManchesterAug-22 DavidCook,GlennCook,JenniferCookwww.cookrecruitmentgroup.co.ukWymbushFeb-23 ConorRoughneen,LucyRoughneenwww.roc-search.comReadingDec-22 JamesFernandes,SimonGardiner,AlexKerrwww.carringtonwest.comPortsmouthDec-22 DanielWhomes,SaszaBandierawww.oysterpartnership.comLondonMar-23 PhilipBottomley,KatieNebard,RossBagleywww.major-recruitment.comHuddersfieldMar-23 Agilitas,JamesRook,RichardCookewww.seven-resourcing.comIpswichOct-22 MartinBolland,ColinWebster,KirstinDuffywww.thefisergroup.comLondonDec-22 AssallInternational,Lousta&Co,JosephDumontwww.sensible-staffing.comStevenageNov-22 LoganNaidu,ThreeHillswww.kernel-global.comLondonDec-22 Palatine,CarlMarottawww.skillsalliance.co.ukLondonDec-22 PaulGoldwww.axcis.co.ukLondonJun-23 TimothyCook,GraphiteCapitalwww.ngagetalent.comLondonMar-23 TPGwww.tenthrevolution.comLondonNov-22

volatility have fallen. Consequently, companies can plan accordingly and take advantage of improving sentiments as recessions have largely been avoided.

Unemployment rates have remained at near 50-year lows, vacancies remain high and wage growth is now positive on a nominal and real-terms basis. All of this continues to point to a structural skills shortage in the UK. Companies are once again looking for talent, and willing to reward it, giving strong incentive for both employers and employees to ﬁnd high quality talent and increase labour efficiency.

It comes as no surprise that

“While interest rates in the UK remain elevated, business conﬁdence has increased and concerns about macroeconomic volatility have fallen”

agencies serving the Hospitality, Aerospace, Healthcare, Warehousing and Food Production sectors performed exceptionally well and held all of the top ﬁve places in this year’s ranking. Sectors that are either experiencing structural growth or slowed signiﬁcantly through Covid

before are rebounding rapidly. The trend of strong representation from Technology ﬁrms continued, with Covid-19 accelerating the adoption of digital technologies and budgets being drawn across all business functions to invest in digitising customer and supply-chain interactions and internal operations.

The standout performers this year were that of The Recruitment Co. and iCare24 Group, which both reported growth in excess of 120%. The two companies successfully deployed different strategies, with The Recruitment Co. operating across multiple verticals, while iCare24 Group focuses exclusively on the healthcare market. The other notable difference in the companies is the ownership structure, with The Recruitment Co. being owned by Twenty20 Capital, and leveraging available capital to merge Cordant People and Premiere People to create the group.

A sector which is experiencing structural growth and therefore a growing number of FAST 50 participants is that of the Energy sector, speciﬁcally those serving wind and solar, alongside a key subset of minerals essential for energy transition and storage technologies. To deliver carbon neutrality will require developing renewable energy technologies at unprecedented levels, a process reliant on skilled labour to ensure efficient global supply chains. The highest performer in this year’s list was that Select Offshore, which

METHODOLOGY

The Recruiter FAST 50 prepared by Clearwater International lists the fastest-growing, privately-owned recruitment companies in the UK according to a revenue compound annual growth rate over the three most recent annual reporting periods.

generated a CAGR of 69%, with strong growth in its offshore wind practice. Future year’s lists are expected to see even more specialist renewable agencies feature, particularly if Labour is successful in the upcoming election and implement a number of their large-scale green energy commitments.

CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION:

To qualify, companies must be unquoted, registered in the UK and not subsidiaries, although their ultimate holding companies may be based offshore. Companies which are backed by private equity or other financial investors, either minority or majority equity stake, are also considered for inclusion. All companies considered for inclusion must achieve minimum annual sales of £5m in each of their last three financial years.

EXCLUSIONS:

Companies that have filed abbreviated accounts at Companies House without disclosing audited sales are excluded from the FAST 50. Companies that are not pure play recruitment companies are also not considered. Recruiters that are coowned by foreign trade recruitment companies or where a listed recruitment firm holds a minority stake are also discounted.

DATA COLLECTION

METHODS: Qualifying companies are identified through independent research, which utilises a number of financial databases, Companies House information, press coverage and other research sources. Entry submissions are therefore not required, although any firm which believes that it may not be automatically assessed in the 2024 FAST 50 may contact Clearwater International to discuss. Please email dan.shrimpton@cwicf.com

As we look forward to next year, Clearwater very much expects agile and entrepreneurial agencies to continue to thrive. Whilst it is easy to point to economic challenges and early signs of a softening labour market with some potential rebalancing of power to employers, it is no more daunting than the operating environment faced by business over the last ﬁve years. It will be the same sectors that continue to dominate due to high levels of investment and structural undersupply of talent. ●

By Francis Larson, founder and CEO of Ascen (ascen.com)

If you want to grow your recruitment business, the best opportunity is expanding to the US market, and here’s why. The US staffing market is considerably less competitive. There are over 30,000 recruitment ﬁrms in the UK, while there are only 20,000 in the States, which has a population ﬁve times the size of the UK. If you’ve had any success in the UK market, you will perform well in the US market due to the skills you’ve learned winning in the competitive UK market.

Gross margins are higher in the US. On average, US staffing agencies earn up to 30% gross margins, 50% higher than UK recruiters’ 20% gross margins. The market is bigger, a lot bigger. The US staffing industry does over $200bn (£158bn) in sales in the US, while the UK is closer to $50bn. Salaries are also higher. Average US wages are over 40% higher than in the UK, increasing fees based on wages. The business culture is favorable for UK entrants. True to the stereotype, US businesses routinely take risks to work with new vendors.

Knowing the US is a great recruitment market doesn’t make entering easy. Here are some things you should know before expanding into the States. Employment laws vary by state. Some broad federal laws exist, like overtime pay regulations, but other laws, such as required harassment training or paid sick leave, vary by state, sometimes drastically.

All states will require various registrations for state tax and

WHY AND HOW UK RECRUITMENT FIRMS SHOULD EXPAND TO THE US

unemployment insurance, among others. Insurance is important. Staffing clients will expect certain coverages on your Certiﬁcate of Insurance (COI); some are required by law, such as workers’ compensation insurance for on-the-job injuries. Contract staffing is dominant. Contract staffing in the US represents over 80% of the revenue for staffing ﬁrms versus permanent hire fees.

Once you decide to leap, you have some choices to make. You can set up your own entity to run payroll in the US. This will require creating a legal entity, getting insurance from a staffing-specific insurance broker, engaging a staffing-focused law firm for your MSA and compliance, acquiring US invoice financing, and handling registrations state-by-state. For larger UK staffing firms, managing these items in-house will be the most cost-effective approach, especially at around $10m in US payroll and beyond.

The other option is to engage an

Employer of Record (EOR) to handle payroll, onboarding, compliance and funding. An EOR becomes the legal employer of your workers, eliminating the need for you to have a legal entity in the US. The EOR will make sure all the Labor Laws are followed and will ensure payroll compliance. Here, you will also have many options on which firm to pick. The trick is to find an EOR who works with staffing firms specifically and one who is used to working with UK staffing firms expanding into the US. Bonus points if you find an EOR offering a pay and bill platform and payroll funding, such as Ascen.

You are now ready to begin expanding into the US for contract staffing. Don’t overthink it; start selling. Once you get your ﬁrst US client and contract role, there are services available, such as EOR, that can sort out the details while you are growing your new US business.

For more information on Ascen, visit www.ascen.com

Ma ers Recruitment

Workforce planning

THE VIEW AND THE INTELLIGENCE

What we want from a new government p2

BIG TALKING POINT

Cri cal labour laws that need upda ng p4

LEGAL UPDATE

Changes to immigra on rules p6

Q&A

Why we need humans as well as AI p8

Temps can turn tide on tech anxiety among ﬁrms

Employers across the world will turn to temps to help them transi on to new technology and green skills, according to a signiﬁcant survey by The World Employment Confedera on (WEC). The report shows how the UK can achieve global leadership in technology, including ar ﬁcial intelligence (AI), and achieving ‘net zero’ by 2050 if policymakers focus on workforce ma ers and businesses target temps with the right incen ves.

The WEC (of which the REC is a member) commissioned a global survey of senior execu ves in Forbes 2000 companies. Most respondents said that at least a ﬁ h of their workforce were employed on ﬂexible contracts – and 88% said it was important to them to increase employment of agency workers in the next two years. Eight in 10 of UK respondents planned to increase their use of agency workers in the next two years.

However, global employers said they were worried about keeping up with technology innova on – and technological change is speeding up. Among UK respondents, 84% said employing agency workers with up-to-date technology skills is an eﬀec ve way to boost the knowledge of permanent employees.

This an cipated increase in demand

for temps coincides with nine in 10 UK respondents expressing concern that their organisa on will be unable to train employees fast enough to keep up with technological developments in the next three years. Eight in ten UK respondents said that AI and other tech disrup ons will require companies to come up with radical solu ons to skills and resources needed by large parts of their workforce. Meanwhile, 88% of UK respondents said they will increasingly look for employees with green skills in the next ﬁve years. The two trends are connected, because skills in new technology are vital to helping organisa ons transi on to a greener economy.

“With be er skills planning and laws from the next government that reﬂect modern ways of working, we can overcome con nued labour shortages in the kinds of jobs needed to help realise the produc vity beneﬁts of new technology and keep the UK safe from the impact of climate change,” said Kate Shoesmith, Deputy Chief Execu ve at the REC. “Businesses must play their part by pushing workforce planning up the agenda at leadership and board level to grow and deal with technology changes and commitments to reach ‘net zero’.”

See www.rec.uk.com/our-view/research/ recruitment-insights/work-we-want

Leading the industry

the view...

TThe new government must understand labour to create growth, says Neil Carberry, REC Chief Execu ve

he old playground taunt reversed – you know something I don’t know (or will do very shortly)! I’m referring, of course, to the shape of the next government of the UK.

The new government’s inbox is piled high. Making the sums add up is a challenge, and the only way to make them work is growth. That puts business at the heart of prosperity, yet we heard so li le about it on the campaign trail.

A er 20 years of lobbying for business, I have come to the conclusion that this is partly about the nature of retail poli cs – businesses don’t vote, people do. But is also about poli cians not understanding business and the market. This is a challenge. Growing the economy is the only way to cut taxes and fund public services. But we need to educate policy makers on how to do it well.

The REC set out four big themes to the par es before the elec on and, as you are reading this, we’ll be pu ng pressure on the new government to drive them forward.

First, understand that the challenges workers and businesses face have changed. There is no ‘typical’ way of working now and both workers and businesses benefit from that. CEOs recently told the WEC that they’ll lose out if they don’t offer flexibility. A new government must work in this world, not an ideological one.

Second, acknowledge the need to prepare for the future –set out an industrial strategy that embraces AI and the march to ‘net zero’ as drivers of prosperity, and create incen ves to help ﬁrms invest (including in our immigra on system).

Third, support workers with skills reforms that liberate levy funding for the training businesses and workers really need. And focus on the things that boost the candidate pool, such as eﬀec ve childcare and local transport.

Last, ensure regula on supports this dynamic, ﬂexible labour market. Be er enforcement, laws that treat agency work and contrac ng as valid op ons and are easy to comply with, and a review of IR35 can underpin growth.

Governments come to power full of vigour and plans. Their success depends on delivery. That starts with working with business, not against it. Let’s see where we end up!

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

CAMPAIGNS

New government, new labour laws?

Shazia

Ejaz, Director of Campaigns at the REC

Members may be excused for asking us ‘Dude, where’s my legisla on gone?’ The answer is that it was probably lost in the ‘wash-up’ in May before the general elec on was called.

The wash-up period describes the last few days of a Parliament before it is dissolved for the General Elec on. Any unﬁnished business is lost at dissolu on, so the government tries to push through some of the legisla on that was already in progress. Some bills are abandoned completely, while others are passed quickly, although some mes in an abbreviated form.

Whether those that are dropped see the light of day again depends on the incoming government.

We suspect that the publica on of statutory guidance on new rules in the agency child social work sector, involving new agency rules and price caps, falls into the category of paused, but probably not lost en rely. Also on hold is the implementa on of The Predictable Terms and Condi ons Bill. We look forward to having a second chance to tell poli cians that this is a pre y shoddy bit of legisla on.

Another piece of legisla on on hold is the introduc on of a statutory due diligence regime for umbrella companies. Again, we would relish another chance to tell policy makers that accountability and liability must sit with the companies that are noncompliant, rather than with other businesses in that supply chain that have no control over the ac ons of those umbrellas.

One big legal change that is s ll going ahead is the plan to ban off-framework agency staff in the NHS. This is coming in the context of significant budget challenges at the Department for Health and will have an impact on our sector. We are working hard to find out as much detail as possible for our members.

Whichever poli cal party, or par es, form the new government, they will face serious workforce challenges and we stand ready to help.

the intelligence...

Employers highlight cost-of-work crisis

Hamant Verma, REC Communica ons Manager

Back in the rela vely calm days before the grand mayhem of the General Elec on campaign, welfare-towork reform was at the top of the government’s agenda.

We had the Modernising Support Green Paper and the Back to Work Plan. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions was a regular presence on the airwaves and in newspaper pages.

Two months’ later, employers are s ll struggling to ﬁnd workers in a period of entrenched labour and skills shortages. What welfare-to-work reforms do they want from today’s ministers?

A er all, businesses, including recruiters, will surely be invited to work with the incoming government if any welfare-to-work reforms are to be meaningful?

This is why we teamed up with the Ins tute for Employment Studies (IES) to ask 172 employers to priori se a list of hypothe cal changes to public-sector employment services.

The survey found that the ﬁrst priority for employers was for a reformed employment service to

62%

chose providing funding to recruits as a priority for government reform

provide funding for new recruits to help them overcome barriers to star ng work, such as transport, childcare or work clothes. There was par cularly strong support for this among small organisa ons (0-49 workers) and large ones (250+ workers). It was backed by employers across diﬀerent regions and na ons in the UK.

The joint-second most popular op ons were ‘support to iden fy and access skills training’, and ‘a service that is open and accessible to all those who want to change job as well as those who are out of work’. A er these, the next favourite choice was to provide a single point of contact for employers that acts as a gateway to a range of public schemes.

The pa ern of results was similar when we asked employers for their three priori es for government reform. Nearly two-thirds (62%) chose providing funding to recruits, 36% chose support to iden fy and access skills training, and 30% selected having a service that is open and accessible to all those who want to change job as well as those who are out of work.

The results prompted the REC and IES to call for a trial to make the exis ng Flexible Support Fund an en tlement for those returning to work a er caring, ill-health or having spent more than a year out of work, so that the costs of travel and workwear are reimbursed where necessary. This discreonary support with travel and workwear should also be available for anyone who is moving from beneﬁts to work, and the fund should be publicised to employers so that they can promote it to poten al candidates.

Interes ngly, the responses we got to this survey suggest that many employers have speciﬁc, individual priori es for reforming JobCentres and related services. Given this, and the diverse answers we received to open quesons, we believe our survey has opened up poten al for a much wider discussion.

Therefore, we would be interested to hear the views of our members about what else would help to reform publicly funded employment services. Let us know what you think.

big talking point

Ditch outdated employment laws for the sake of the UK’s economy

The REC’s ‘Labour laws ﬁt for the future’ report sets out the legal ambigui es that the new government must resolve to boost the economy and protect workers.

Our labour laws are outdated and holding back the UK economy – and the burden of making these inadequate rules work eﬀec vely falls largely on the recruitment sector. This is the stark message from the REC’s ‘Labour laws ﬁt for the future’ report. What should the incoming government do about it?

There are around a million workers in the UK on an agency assignment on any given day. Yet labour laws impac ng agency workers date back to 1973 (The Employment Agencies Act) and 2003 (Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regula ons 2003 (Conduct Regula ons)). The world has turned many mes since these were brought in and advances in technology and working pa erns have changed the way people work and the skills required. Umbrella companies, for example, did

not exist when the 2003 regula ons were drawn up, but have become common since the introduc on of the IR35 rules.

As the report points out, we have had five innova ons in the Playsta on since 1993, but it took 26 years for any meaningful change to be made to the Working Time Regula ons, first introduced in 1998. The first-ever video arcade game (‘Pong’ for those keen on pub quizzes) was created the year before the Employment Agencies Act was passed. Now, we have video games with virtual reality. It is me for similar innova on and progress to happen for our labour regula ons.

This ma ers because it is damaging na onal produc vity and hampering the recruitment sector, the REC argues. Key priori es for any incoming government should therefore be to:

complexi es to boost UK produc vity.

• Enable agency workers to work more eﬀec vely, safe in the knowledge that their rights are clear and reﬂect their status.

• Free employers to focus on what ma ers, without having to navigate complicated and unnecessary confusion around legisla on, amendment regula ons and case law.

Outdated laws put agency workers in a par cularly di cult space because many don’t fit specified categories. Current legisla on o en refers to ‘employees’ or ‘self-employed’. Neither descrip on fits many agency workers and the more flexible arrangements in non-standard

contracts. This leads to ine ciency and confusion and, ul mately, can expose some workers to unfair prac ces.

“To ensure agency workers, as well as anyone on any ﬂexible work contract, are treated fairly compared to other staﬀ, changes need to be made to the employment law framework,” the report says. So what needs to change?

“We need to ensure that any legisla ve changes are properly thought through, because although the current legisla on is a patchwork of overly complicated regula on, shiny new s cking plasters over the top to make some quick headlines will ul mately be a step backwards for our industry,” says John Mayes, Director of Governance & Public

Aﬀairs at Randstad UK&I. “The key has to be to consolidate that patchwork, and replace it with a whole new set of clear and simple regula ons. Making things more complicated will serve only to give an advantage to unscrupulous businesses that like to exploit legal grey areas, increase the compliance burden for reputable operators, and make it harder for workers to understand and secure their legal rights.”

Fundamentally, any legisla ve framework should consider the en re recruitment supply chain, and should explicitly cover all of those, such as umbrella organisa ons, that employ, contract and/or pay workers. Then they must be held accountable for mee ng legisla ve employment standards.

The report highlights speciﬁc legal areas that require updates and clariﬁca on to recognise modern working prac ces. Current ambigui es in these areas mean that it is unclear what protec ons some workers are en tled to, and this causes confusion and extra work for employers, undermines enforcement and leaves workers disadvantaged.

Key examples include the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This has been supplemented with a host of secondary legisla on aimed at employees and self-employed people. Agency workers are treated as self-employed, even when the work they do is the same as that performed by employed workers. There is a clear need for these rules to be adapted to apply fairly to agency workers and ensure they have the same level of protec on as other workers.

Similarly, Statutory Sick Pay is regulated by an Act da ng from 1992, when it was a state beneﬁt. While responsibility for paying sick pay has transferred to employers, complex rules have been further complicated by case law rela ng to when an agency worker should be deemed an employee. Clarifying and simplifying the rules for agency workers would make the process far more e cient for organisa ons and workers.

Furthermore, the relevance of TUPE (the Transfer of Undertakings (Protec on of Employment) Regula ons 2006), which historically applied only to employees, has been broadened by a recent tribunal case to include agency workers. This has made the scope of the regula ons ambiguous. A new law

explicitly sta ng that TUPE relates only to employees would resolve this.

There are some examples of where legisla on has been successfully updated to cover agency workers, and these demonstrate an approach that could work elsewhere. The Working Time Regula ons 1998, for instance, have been changed to take account of case law decisions. Changes included allowing rolled-up holiday pay and accoun ng for the accrual of holiday pay for workers with non-standard hours.

However, the Workers (Predictable Terms and Condi ons) Act 2023 is a recent example of new legisla on that has included agency workers, but has not resolved ambiguity. The Act enables all workers, including agency workers, to request a stable working pa ern a er they have been in a role for a certain period of me. This makes sense in the context of employers with no set employment hours, however, if agency workers can request set hours from the end hirer, not the agency, it confuses the contractual rela onship with the agency and undermines the ﬂexibility of agency work. This needs to be clariﬁed to ensure that agency workers must make their requests to the agency.

Modern, eﬀec ve working regula ons are essen al to a modern, eﬀec ve –and produc ve – employment sector.

“Although perfec on cannot get in the way of progress, we cannot let the opportunity pass to have a proper and competent reform of our employment and taxa on laws,” Mayes says.

The new government must think seriously about all these issues if it wishes to boost the economy and increase business e ciency, while also protec ng workers equally in all sectors.

legal update

Key changes to skilled worker rules

By Nithin Fransis, Legal Advisor at the REC

On 4 April this year, the Migra on Advisory Commi ee (MAC) replaced the Shortage Occupa on List (SOL) with a new Immigra on Salary List. MAC is an independent, non-statutory, non- me-limited, non-departmental public body that advises the government on migra on issues. It is sponsored by the Home O ce.

This list highlights roles that qualify for a discounted salary threshold, rather than lis ng all occupa ons experiencing labour shortages. Consequently, the new list is shorter, and fewer roles will beneﬁt from these discounts.

Skilled workers are allowed to undertake supplementary work provided they con nue working for their sponsor in their sponsored role and any supplementary work is outside of their contracted hours for no more than 20 hours a week.

Previously, supplementary work had to be either in the same occupa on and at the same professional level as the sponsored role, or in an occupa on listed on the

Seven ways that AI will revolu onise recrui ng

By Lia Taniguchi, Senior Research Manager, Bullhorn

SOL. But with the introduc on of the new Immigra on Salary List, supplementary work for skilled workers can now be in any occupa on eligible for the Skilled Worker route. Eligible roles are listed in tables 1, 2, and 3 of the Appendix Skilled Occupa ons. on the Immigra on Rules webpage on Gov.uk.

It is important to note that ongoing changes are being made to the standard occupa onal classiﬁca on system to align with the new Immigra on Salary List. Many occupa on codes will be updated, and codes that are no longer eligible for sponsorship will be removed. Employment agencies should verify that a role remains eligible for sponsorship when instructed to recruit candidates for a role that was previously eligible.

A lot of informa on is available on the Gov.uk website.

Following a right-to-work check using a share code, some candidate proﬁles are s ll showing informa on based on the

AI is the buzzword of the day in many industries, including recruitment. Although everyone is talking about it, it turns out that most companies are s ll in the exploratory stages, experimen ng in limited ways and inves ga ng how they might use AI in future. In the process, recruiters have begun to create a wishlist of AI applica ons that they believe could revolu onise the industry.

Seven of the novel ways that recruiters hope AI will change the industry for the be er in the next two-to-three years are: create candidate shortlists; take over Boolean search; pitch candidates on jobs; generate interview ques ons; rework job descrip ons; generate candidate communica ons; and generate marke ng content. When considering the beneﬁts of genera ve AI, recruiters give consistent responses. They believe that using AI in these ways will speed up iden fying and communica ng with high-quality

outdated SOL, instead of the new Immigra on Salary List. Those con nuing to see right-to-work informa on referring to the SOL, should contact the Home O ce for clariﬁca on. On Gov.uk, Annex B of the updated Right-to-Work Guidance provides detailed instruc ons on these checks. Addi onal informa on is available in the recently updated Workers and Temporary Workers: Guidance for Sponsors on Gov.uk. Employers wan ng to know if a job is included in each area of the UK, and how much workers need to be paid, can view the immigra on salary list on Gov.uk. REC corporate members wan ng general guidance on the immigra on salary list or right-to-work checks can contact the REC legal team on +44(0)2070092199 or via email at legal.services@rec.uk.com

candidates, improve accuracy of sourcing, build on exis ng automa on tools to take more rote, repe ve tasks o recruiters’ plates and improve recruiter produc vity and free up me for other important tasks

Everyone we talk to gives the same caveats when it comes to relying on AI. For the moment, they want human eyes on any AIgenerated communica ons. This is not only to ensure accuracy, but also to make sure that communica ons aren’t too generic. The most successful recruitment ﬁrms are di eren ated by their specialist exper se, which should be reﬂected in any public-facing materials. And recruiters are equally clear that AI should never be about replacing human beings, but about freeing recruiters to focus on the personal rela onships that are at the heart of the recruitment industry.

Visa challenges and EDI ambi ons

What I know Q&A

Laura Collings is Director at Ve ed Recruitment Gemma Downing is Co-owner and Director of Mixxos Group (formerly Somnium Recruitment)

Clinical vets and nurses are scarce. My business partner Debbie and I set up Ve ed Recruitment in 2021 to focus purely on helping clinical veterinary staﬀ do the job they want to do. We met in-house on the management team of Europe’s largest veterinary group, so we knew the shortage of qualiﬁed people.

Vets must go back on the Shortage Occupa on List. Around 30% of the clinical vet workforce in the UK qualified elsewhere or do not have UK ci zenship, and vets have been on the Shortage Occupa on List (SOL) for years. I am a registered immigra on adviser, so we offer an extra service that most agencies can’t. We were shocked when vets were taken off the SOL in April. This

will leave a massive shor all. The UK doesn’t train enough vets and people in the UK bought three million pets in lockdown. We have talked to 24 vets training in Europe who now cannot work here, yet they would have generated over £3m in business and paid tax.

Shortages

will affect vet categories differently. The biggest group affected are specialists in specific disciplines–oncologists, cardiologists, etc. We are also likely to see a shortage of official vets who check import requirements. Each type of vet has specific skills and commands a different salary, so applying a single ‘average’ salary lacks insight. Many vets will now look to Europe instead, which will be a loss for the UK.

Why a new name?

We’ve rebranded and renamed ourselves Mixxos Group to reﬂect our work championing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). We believe everyone deserves a fair chance to get the job they want. The ‘Mix’ in our name represents ge ng the right ‘mix’ of people.

What are your EDI ambi ons?

We want to be EDI thought-leaders and share what we know to drive higher standards. We host events to get people talking about best prac ce, par cipate in podcasts, sponsor local community events and partner with the REC. We’ve upskilled our team to help clients and ensure candidates have the best interview and working experiences. My business partner Chris and I set up the company to focus on

service and values. Our rigorous processes mean everyone gets the same premium treatment.

What next?

We have 12 staff and we’re growing. We’re happy to train the right person from scratch – it’s about culture, not experience. Our work changes people’s lives. We’ve doubled our business three years running and recently launched a temp division for office and warehouse staff in the M1 corridor. Our processes are no less for temporary hires than for perm hires – this is what differen ates us. Each client gets a dedicated account manager and we offer temps the same benefits as permanent employees. Recruitment should never be a race to the bo om. We’re ambi ous to grow and open more offices.

Tech threats and promises

‘AI you need is love’

Pellegrino Riccardi gives Recruitment Ma ers a ﬂavour of the keynote speech he made on technology at last month’s RECLive24.

Iam a big tech fan. In fact, as I prepared for my keynote speech in London in June, I repeatedly turned to ChatGPT as my main sparring partner for ideas. This marvel of ar ﬁcial intelligence (AI) had me exclaiming in wonderment. It also had me shaking in my boots.

What if ChatGPT does to casual conversa ons with a colleague or an expert what Google Maps has done to asking for direc ons and ﬁnding one’s way around a town?

What if expressions such as ‘following one’s nose’ become obsolete. Goodness! What if my skills as a communicator and speaker end up considered of less value than the bot that everyone is telling me will one day take my place?

For recruiters, it’s easy to panic about the value of one’s services. A er all, today’s tech can do the donkeywork of ’headhun ng’ much faster than any human being, right?

Just look at the legal profession, where the important task of discovering informa on, once handled by junior lawyers si ing through reams of laws, byelaws and byelaws of byelaws, is now being accomplished in milliseconds by AI. Who would want to put themselves through years of law school and burden themselves with decades of student debt just to be ousted by some so ware programme? Where is the point, or the value, in that?

As I said, I am a huge tech fan. However, I am also a massive fan of humans. And I am, furthermore, a tech op mist, in the sense that I believe that, while we will certainly witness seismic shi s in the way labour tasks are organised, there are certain human elements and characteris cs that tech simply cannot replicate. Intui on is one of these.

Another part of being human is the ability to give and receive love. According to researchers at Harvard Business School, employees who feel love perform be er.

Love in the workplace, which one can understand as a sense of camaraderie, mutual respect and genuine care

for colleagues, plays a crucial role in crea ng a posi ve work environment and enhancing overall produc vity.

As yet, I have not heard of any form of tech or AI that can produce this in a workplace. Perhaps it’s me to let tech take over the donkeywork, and thereby focus on being the donkey, while we carry on focusing on the work that makes us human. Although the human work may not appear to save costs at ﬁ rst glance, it does have the poten al to create real value in the long term.

Pellegrino Riccardi is a global keynote speaker, moderator/programme host and communica on skills trainer. www.pellegrino-riccardi.com

By Sue Weekes

NO MORE UNTO THE BREACH

The recruitment sector must take the potential for attacks on payroll data seriously and prepare for when their system is attacked, not if...

The security breach on the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) payroll earlier this year is a wake-up call for all umbrellas or similar companies operating payroll for contractors and freelancers, as well as agencies paying their own people.

Cyber criminals were able to break through cybersecurity defences at the Ministry and target private information about armed service personnel. Defence secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement that the system was operated by a contractor (completely separate to MoD’s core network), adding: “There is evidence of potential failings by them, which may have made it easier for the malign actor to gain entry.”

Shapps reported that the payroll system was immediately taken offline and secured against further similar threats and a full investigation was launched,

drawing on Cabinet Office support and specialist external expertise to examine potential failings by the contractor and to minimise the risk of similar incidents in the future.

Initial investigations found no evidence that any data has been removed but, as a precaution, Shapps said those service personnel affected were alerted.

Following the breach, the Global Payroll Association (GPA) published ﬁndings that revealed the extent to which cybercriminals are using payroll software as a means of breaking through companies’ cybersecurity and how businesses of all sizes can stop hackers penetrating their systems.

Melanie Pizzey, CEO and founder of the GPA, agrees the attack is a wake-up call for all industries, including umbrellas and recruiters who handle payroll. “These bad actors or criminal organisations are now aware of the important data that payroll holds, making us a key target. Attacks have become

so sophisticated that the issue is not that the software is a weak spot but that the value of the data has increased the frequency and intensity of attacks,” she says. “This makes constant reviews of software essential and payroll staff need to be trained to spot potential scam emails or ways that these actors are trying to gain access to the data.”

Julie Lally, MD of payroll at payroll software company Ciphr, agrees that the attack is evidence that cybercriminals are getting smarter. “Cyber-attacks used to be seen as a ‘might happen’

incident. Now they are seen as a ‘when it happens’ incident. Many organisations have stepped up to counter these threats, but sadly, not all,” she says.

“At Ciphr, every decision we make when developing the payroll solution has to go through security rigour as a standard. Testing, and penetration testing [pen testing], are essential processes that we go through continuously. The responsibility sits with everyone involved in developing the solution, from product design through to testing.”

Even though this is a pressing issue, the GPA observes that not all businesses will be as on top of their digital security as others and strongly encourages organisations of all sizes to evaluate their security measures to ensure they have the best possible protection.

“This includes taking a very close look at your payroll service provider because, as we have seen, hackers have identiﬁed this as a potential weak spot to exploit to devastating effect for businesses and their employees,” says Pizzey. “Payroll providers are caring for important and often sensitive data about your employees, so you should take real care in choosing a provider that can give that data the protection it deserves.”

It is vital that the in-house team operating payroll and the IT department and any external parties involved in payroll work closely together and, crucially, share responsibility for cybersecurity for the payroll system. “While the IT department is typically responsible for implementing

IF THE WORST HAPPENS

The GPA recommends the following steps if a company or its payroll provider falls victim to a payroll breach.

Gather as much information about the breach as possible: what happened, how did it happen and what was stolen?

Assess the impact: consider how the breach impacts the business and its employees.

3 Respond: every business must have a planned and well-defined response should a breach occur. This includes communicating with people from HR, IT, legal and finance, ensuring that all departments are aligned.

4 Communicate: honest and open communication is a must in the aftermath of a breach. Employees must be informed of what’s happening and given a clear point of contact should they have any questions or concerns.

Roll out back-up payroll systems: the primary payroll system is breached, a back-up needs to be implemented as soon as possible to ensure employees continue to be paid properly and on time. It might be necessary to bring the process in-house while the external provider is down.

6 Legal and Compliance: the business must work to understand their legal standing and obligations in the event of a data breach, including whether the situation needs to be formally reported and to whom.

Re-evaluate payroll service provider: once the breach has been resolved, it’s important to question whether a new payroll provider should be appointed. Is the current provider still vulnerable, or have they worked to properly improve their security? If there are any doubts whatsoever, look for another, more reliable provider.

and maintaining the technical infrastructure and security measures, the payroll department has a crucial role in safeguarding sensitive employee data and ensuring compliance with the GDPR,” emphasises Lally.

“The payroll department should communicate its speciﬁc security requirements and concerns to the IT department, which can then tailor technical solutions to meet those needs. Ultimately, ensuring the security of the payroll system is a shared responsibility that requires coordination and co-operation between the two departments.”

She recommends the following as how responsibilities should typically break down:

The payroll department

● They should be vigilant about protecting sensitive employee information, such as personally identiﬁable data, National Insurance numbers, bank account details and salary information

● They need to follow internal policies and procedures related to data access, storage and handling

● Regularly review and audit payroll processes to identify and address potential security vulnerabilities

● Train payroll staff on security best practices and protocols to prevent data breaches.

The IT department

● Responsible for implementing robust security measures to protect the payroll system from external threats such as hacking, malware and unauthorised access

● Regularly update software and systems to patch security vulnerabilities

● Monitor network traffic and system logs for signs of suspicious activity

● Implement access controls and encryption to safeguard sensitive data

● Provide technical support and assistance to the payroll department in maintaining system security.

Steve McDermott, business development manager at New Red Planet, which provides PAYE and umbrella payroll solutions and is accredited by the Freelancer & Contractor Services Association (FCSA), agrees that cybersecurity should always be at the forefront of a company’s planning, processes and policies but recognises there is nothing like a major cyberattack

Streamlining Due Diligence

for Recruiters and Umbrella Companies

to make companies immediately re-evaluate the effectiveness of their existing controls.

“As with all companies dealing with large amounts of data, New Red Planet takes cybersecurity very seriously,” he says. “As an FCSA-accredited member, we have the beneﬁt of receiving advice from partners in the world of cybersecurity. While no protection can ever be guaranteed as 100% effective, there are certain measures that are particularly recommended. Multi-layered defence systems will almost always give better protections, including: multi-factor authentication (MFA); strong and unique passwords; and controlled permissions.”

He adds: “In the recruitment sector, large amounts of data are needed on a weekly basis. In the

event of a breach, is that data readily accessible in the form of a back-up? If so, is the back-up separate from main systems, complete and in a readily accessible location?”

There is certainly a greater awareness of the need for intensiﬁed cybersecurity, but Pizzey believes more money must be invested because the valuable data payroll holds has to be protected at all costs.

“Like every organisation or sector, the recruitment industry needs to be prepared for when their system is attacked, not if,” she said. “Consider whether you have communications prepared and the steps you will take to manage the fallout once an attack happens.” ●

PAYROLL CYBERSECURITY CHECKLIST

Ciphr has put together the following cybersecurity checklist. It says by implementing the following measures, and continuously evaluating and updating security practices, umbrellas and recruiters that are operating payroll can effectively mitigate the risk of fraud and protect the sensitive data they handle.

Encryption – ensure that all sensitive payroll data, including employee information and financial records, are encrypted both in transit and at rest. Encryption adds an extra layer of protection against unauthorised access.

Access control – implement strict access controls to limit who can view and modify payroll data. Use role-based access control (RBAC) to ensure that employees only have access to the information necessary for their job responsibilities.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) –requires employees to authenticate their identity using multiple factors such as passwords, biometrics, or one-time codes sent to their mobile devices. This makes it more difficult for fraudsters to gain unauthorised access to payroll systems.

Regular audits – conduct regular audits of payroll data and processes to detect any irregularities or suspicious activity. This can help identify potential fraudsters or security vulnerabilities before they cause significant harm.

Payroll team training – provide comprehensive training to employees on security best practices, including how to recognise phishing attempts, the importance of strong passwords, and how to report suspicious activity. Employees are often the first line of defence against payroll fraud.

Vendor security – if using third-party payroll services or software, ensure that vendors adhere to strict security standards and compliance regulations. Conduct due diligence to assess their security practices and verify their track record in protecting sensitive data.

Monitoring and alerts – implement real-time monitoring systems to detect unusual activity or unauthorised access to payroll systems. Set up alerts to notify administrators of any suspicious behaviour immediately.

Data back-ups – regularly back up payroll data to secure, off-site locations. This ensures that even if the primary payroll systems are compromised, data can be restored from back-ups with minimal disruption.

Compliance with regulations – ensure compliance with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

Incident response plan – develop a comprehensive incident response plan that outlines the steps to be taken in the event of a security breach or suspected fraud. This should include procedures for containing the incident, notifying affected parties, and conducting a post-incident review to prevent future occurrences.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? GET IN TOUCH!

Recruitment organisations continue to work with partners and charities to make a real difference since the last Recruiter…

GAME OF THRONES ACTOR HELPS BRAIN INJURY SURVIVORS RETURN TO WORK

Big Issue Recruit job coaches are working in partnership with brain injury charity SameYou to help brain injury survivors return to work. SameYou was founded by actor Emilia Clarke MBE and her mother, Jenny Clarke MBE, to support brain injury survivors with their recoveries. Emilia suffered two life-threatening brain haemorrhages while starring as Daenerys Targaryen in HBO series Game of Thrones. She spoke in a recent Big Issue about the difficulties of returning to work after experiencing a brain injury. In a survey of more than 300 brain injury survivors and carers, conducted by Big Issue Group and SameYou, 61% of respondents to their survey said they would have benefitted from a Big Issue Recruit job coach to ease their return to work.

IN MEMORY OF COLLEAGUE

CYCLE-A-THON FUNDS NURSING CARE INMEMORYOFCOLLEAGUE

The Gi Group team got on their (static) bikes for a virtual ride at their annual award ceremony earlier this year. In a cycle-a-thon in memory of Sara O’Brien, a beloved colleague who passed away in January, for every mile cycled, the Gi Group donated £5 to Willow Burn Hospice in County Durham which provided Sara, who worked at Gi Group’s sister company Tack TMI, and her family with vital support and care. Through their efforts, the team raised enough money to fund a nurse’s care for 49 hours at the hospice.

NRL SECURES ARMED FORCES SILVER EMPLOYER RECOGNITION AWARD

Technical engineering business the NRL Group has secured the Armed Forces Covenant Employer Recognition Scheme silver award, having previously held the bronze award for several years. As members of the scheme, businesses make a long-term commitment to support the UK’s Armed Forces community, ensuring recruitment opportunities are available to the community through identifying transferable skills. NRL has also launched a £90k charity donations pot to allow colleagues to secure a company donation supporting their own fundraising activities. The match funding will be made available to colleagues to access over the next three years, providing the potential for the business to work with employees to raise up to £180k for charities and causes.

League One football club

Le foo

Leyt has as attractio fo

Leyton Orient has re-signed Pertemps Network Group as its talent attraction partner for another season

“Have a plan, always be learning and have people around you, so that you can ask for help or advice”

MY BRILLIANT RECRUITMENT CAREER

What was your earliest dream job?

Which boy who is raised in England doesn’t want to be a footballer? I dreamed of playing for Arsenal, until the mandatory knee football injury meant a career in recruitment instead.

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

When I ﬁnished university, I sought a career combining IT and sales. I remember reading the Evening Standard and seeing an advert for recruitment consultants with eye-watering OTEs. I worked for a recruitment ﬁrm Elan IT, which was part of the Manpower Group.

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

Toby Babb – I truly believe he was ahead of time, when it came to marketing and branding in recruitment. Also, Lloyd Gordon – you cannot outwork him. Both have built successful recruitment businesses and I’ve tried to incorporate their strengths into my way of working.

What do you love most about your current role?

The variety – the modern recruiter wears many hats. I’ve travelled abroad to meet clients, I’ve spoken at events, I’ve been on pitches to win clients, I’ve created business plans to break into new markets… The role really is what you make it.

RICHARD TWUMASI

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

I’ve been top biller a number of times, but the moments I enjoy the most and I’m most proud of are when I’ve broken into my target accounts.

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

I was working with a lady who had recently been made redundant. When I found her a role, she was so happy she introduced her daughter to me. I am not sure what she expected to happen. We went on a date, but more out of politeness – ☺

What would you regard as your signature tune?

LL Cool J – Mama Said Knock You Out. I believe I can

achieve anything when that song is playing.

The last few years have been a bit of a rollercoaster. What have you learnt about yourself during these turbulent times?

The last four to ﬁve years I have had to evolve and do tasks such as embrace social media, create content and develop a community in my market. These are all duties I did not focus on pre-Covid.

What personal qualities do you think are needed to lead through change and uncertainty?

Have a plan, always be learning and have people around you, so that you can ask for help or advice. In periods of uncertainty, you have to be able to pivot to where the opportunity is. ●

Richard Twumasi spoke with journalist Roisin Woolnough.

↗

RICHARD TWUMASI Founder and director of Ocean Red Partners

Lawrence Beach, client development director with the recruiter, has been appointed as chair for the Employer Advisory Board (EAB) at HMP Bristol. In his new role as EAB chair, Beach will assist HMP Bristol in creating a network of employers who can support prisoners upon their release.

APSCO

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) has announced its new Representative Committee to help shape the trade association’s strategic direction. The new UK committee consists of: Amy Davies, managing director, PGC Group; Amy Gudgeon, associate director, 3D Recruit; Barnaby Parker, CEO, Venquis; Che Hookings, CEO, Recruit 121; Christopher

Eldridge, CEO – UKI & North America, Robert Walters; Dan Taylor, MD, Morgan Hunt; GavinBeart, MD, Reed Education; IanKnowlson, director, Talence; James Hanbury, senior partner, SThree; Jon Cox, compliance director, Pangea Talent Solutions; Lee Knowles, director, Adepto Technical Recruitment; Lisa McLean, CEO, RGF Staffing UK; Lucy Morgan, CEO, Pod Talent; Mark Baker, founder/director, Claremont Consulting; Stephen Shorter, group CEO, Cobalt; and Tara Ricks, director, Consulting Eve.

BALTIMORE CONSULTING

The public and third sector recruiter has promoted James Eddison to assistant divisional lead of children’s services. Eddison will focus on nurturing talent and sharing his expertise within the children’s social care directorate to help develop

Global leadership advisory ﬁrm Russell Reynolds Associates has named Nanaz Mohtashami as head of the UK, succeeding Laura Sanderson.

Sanderson will assume a new role as co-head of Europe, Middle East & India, alongside Filiep Deforche in Brussels.

Mohtashami has been with Russell Reynolds since 2013.

Before her appointment as head of the UK, she ran Russell Reynolds’ Global Medtech Practice, working with clients across the world.

In her new role, Mohtashami will look to build upon the ﬁrm’s leadership expertise at a time when UK leaders face economic challenges at home, geopolitical risk overseas and a growing urgency to respond to technological and environmental change.

emerging talent within the sector. He has worked with Baltimore Consulting since 2015.

CALIBRE ONE

The global executive search ﬁrm has opened a new office in Miami, headed up by Manny Corsino. Corsino has over two decades of regional and global executive search expertise, and has led numerous searches for CEOs, presidents, general managers and sales directors across Latin America, specialising in

technology, private equity, consumer and retail sectors.

CONSTANTINE LAW

Catherine Wilson has been appointed partner in the employment team at the employment and regulatory specialist law ﬁrm. Wilson was previously partner and head of employment teams at Eversheds, Squire Saunders and Keebles in Sheffield. She was also director of legal services at employment law consultancy Ellis Whittam (now Worknest).

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

ACORN BY SYNERGIE

ENNIS & CO GROUP

The global automotive and mobility executive search ﬁrm has appointed Claire Miller as associate. Miller is a mobility and energy specialist who has worked with companies across the energy and mobility ecosystem.

GI GROUP

Zak Harper has been appointed as group marketing and communications director at the HR and recruitment specialist, and member of its UK&I executive board. Harper was previously global marketing director at Adzuna where he was responsible for growing global traffic to 20 job search sites.

HAYS

The global recruiter has appointed Deborah Dorman as chief people officer to lead the group’s People & Culture department. Dorman joins Hays’ executive leadership team and will lead the

strategic people agenda development, driving forward key areas such as culture, diversity & inclusion, talent management, compensation and beneﬁts, and succession planning. She joins Hays from retailer Sainsbury’s, where she served as the director of group HR, leading signiﬁcant innovation across all aspects of strategic HR.

HEIDRICK & STRUGGLES

Stacy Hostetler has joined the executive search ﬁrm’s San Francisco office as a partner in the healthcare and life sciences practice, specialising in the medical device sector. In addition, Adam Rubin has joined the New York City office as a consultant in the Heidrick Consulting change practice, businessfourzero. He will advise clients on integrating purpose, strategy and culture.

REMOTE

John Kelly has been appointed chief revenue officer (CRO) at the global HR platform for distributed companies. Kelly will be responsible for driving global revenue through new sales, customer acquisition, retention, market expansion and channel development. He will report directly to CEO Job van der Voort.

VIQU

The Southampton and Birmingham IT recruitment agency has appointed Adam Smith as senior account manager in its account management team. Smith will support the growth of new and existing key accounts, focusing on the public sector. He brings over nine years of technical IT recruitment experience to the team.

9 Dallington Street, London EC1V 0LN 020 7880 6200

CONTACTS

EDITORIAL

+44 (0)20 7880 7603

Editor DeeDee Doke deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

Contributing writers Sue Weekes, Roisin Woolnough

Production editor Vanessa Townsend vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk

Senior designer Will Williams Picture editor Jessica Marsh

ADVERTISING

+44 (0)20 7880 7661 +44 (0)20 7880 6231 display@recruiter.co.uk

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING recruitment@recruiter.co.uk +44 (0)20 7880 6215

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 aaron.nicholls@redactive.co.uk

RECRUITER AWARDS/ INVESTING IN TALENT AWARDS

+44 (0)20 7324 2771 eventsteam@redactive.co.uk

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. © 2024 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

Total average net circulation between July 2019 &June 2020 – 16,076. is also sent to all REC members

Recycle your magazine’s plastic wrap – check your local LDPE facilities to find out how.

Scan here to get your own copy of

Redactive Publishing Ltd Fora,

When considering candidates to put forward for roles, recruiters have many variables to consider. One in particular has come to the fore in today’s job market: the question of job hopping and how long one should stay in a particular role.

The Ashdown Group conducted a survey of 171 hiring managers to gauge hiring managers’ views regarding the optimal duration for employees to remain in their positions and potential implications of both short and long-term employment.

For entry-level roles, an overwhelming 98.76% of managers believe that employees should remain in their positions for at least one year. This suggests that managers value a minimum period of commitment to recoup training investments and to allow new hires to gain substantive experience.

Interestingly, 43% of

managers suggested that a tenure of two to three years is best for entry-level employees. This preference indicates a desire for early career professionals to demonstrate growth and the ability to advance beyond the initial learning curve before moving on. For employees, meeting or exceeding this tenure can signal stability and a willingness to develop professionally within a role – traits that are highly valued in the workforce.

As professionals progress to mid-level roles, the expectations around job tenure become more nuanced. A signiﬁcant 61% of managers prefer employees in mid-level positions to remain in their roles for three to ﬁve years.

This three to ﬁve-year period also reﬂects a balance between gaining deep expertise and the potential for career advancement.

Staying within this range allows mid-level professionals to build a

“In talent management, understanding your clients’ hiring managers’ expectations regarding job tenure is crucial”

John Lynes

Are your candidates outstaying their welcome or job hopping?

strong track record while still being ﬂexible enough to pursue new opportunities and avoid stagnation.

For senior-level roles, the expectations become more varied. Around 60% of managers believe that employees should remain in their positions for at least ﬁve years, while 21% expect a tenure of 10 years or more. This extended period is likely due to the strategic and leadership responsibilities in senior roles, which often require time to implement substantial changes.

However, senior roles also afford a degree of ﬂexibility. Some managers recognise the unique demands and opportunities at the senior level might necessitate more frequent transitions.

According to the Ashdown Group’s survey, 80% of managers view a pattern of short-term employment negatively, suggesting that job-hopping may signal instability or a lack of commitment. Additionally,

when hiring for permanent positions, 64% are wary of candidates with a history of temporary or contract work. Conversely, remaining in a role for an extended period does not inherently harm a candidate’s prospects. About 75% of managers indicated a long tenure did not cast candidates in a poor light.

For those who did view long-term employment unfavourably, 75% stated that the negative perception only arose if the individual had stayed longer than 10 years in a single role.

In talent management, understanding your clients’ hiring managers’ expectations regarding job tenure is crucial. While there is no ‘one-size-ﬁts-all’ answer, balancing the stability of long-term employment with a candidate’s regular pursuit of new opportunities can be an advantage. ●

John Lynes is director at the Ashdown Group

Minimisedelaysinhiringbyeliminating manualfollow-upsandreminders

Easilycreatecustomrefereeformstailoredto specificrolesanddepartments

Securelystorecandidatedataincompliance withdataprotectionregulation

InadditiontoReferencing,carryoutRightTo WorkandDBSchecksfromasingleplatform

Enterprise Software for Recruitment Firms, Built on Salesforce

For when you need a true enterprise CRM software for your growing recruitment and stafﬁng agency

Built on Salesforce, TargetRecruit is a full ATS/CRM suite, packed full of innovation. It’s a business critical tool which is easy to conﬁgure and customise to your exact business needs, keeping you ahead of the competition.

Empower your recruitment ﬁrm with the ultimate CRM.