What a year! We’ve seen political and economic changes on a global scale, starting in the UK with the vote to leave the EU, followed by the success of Donald Trump after a controversial election campaign and now the impending UK General Election in June. Are we witnessing a rise in populism and anti-establishment sentiments? Either way, there’s no doubt that a spotlight has been firmly placed on immigration issues and political uncertainty looks set to impact the way in which organisations attract and retain talent.
Despite the doom and gloom painted by the “remainers”, before Brexit, the labour market in UK has held up well and is showing stronger job creation with unemployment at an 11 year low. And as one Start up CEO put it yesterday , “Brexit or no Brexit, London is Tech City on the Global stage, so we will continue our aggressive recruitment drive and make our London office our International hub .”
Despite low unemployment, wage growth has not kept up with inflation and Brexit negotiations are likely to bring further uncertainty. Organisations therefore need to remain alert to the potential changes and agile in their response to these in order to continue to attract and retain people with the best skills and potential for their business.
With recruitment difficulties and skills shortages already reaching high levels, over three quarters of employers were experiencing recruitment difficulties and more than four-fifths felt that competition for well-qualified talent had increased ( Source Hays recruitment survey), it is likely that these are set to increase further amidst the political and economic changes organisations are currently experiencing. Such challenges are also likely to be further exasperated given the skills needed for jobs in organisations are changing and evolving, especially in the Digital & Tech sector.
With the political changes going around, there is the potential for major changes to occur in the future to employment law, immigration and the ability to bring the right skills into businesses. Therefore, we at Success Appointments believe that Talent & HR teams should be using Brexit as a stimulus for applying focus to what we should already be doing as an economy and society: to get the fundamentals right, to build a stronger, more productive workforce, and workplaces that engender growth and inclusiveness.
Therefore, moving forward, businesses large or start up, need to continue to develop a thorough understanding of their existing talent profile and their current and future requirements. Targeting resources effectively will remain a priority through this period of wider economic and political instability. My guidance would be to monitor and evaluate to ensure that the methods used to attract, select and retain employees are effective.
If you would like to have an informal discussion, please contact Deepak Saluja here about the roles we are currently working with.
