After years of stagnant wage growth, the figures coming out of the economy suggest things are starting to pick up.
The latest news from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) suggests that starting salaries are on the up in the UK as employers face increasing competition to secure the right staff with the necessary skills.
This is the most recent set of figures to suggest that salaries are beginning to rise, with starting pay in May increasing at its highest rate for three years. The shortage of skills currently faced has been described as ‘business critical’, forcing a ‘radical re-imaginging’ of the way firms attract new employees, according to REC policy director Tom Hadley.
Whether that’s an opportunity or a problem for a recruitment business depends on the business itself.
Grasping opportunity is one area where The Recruit Venture Group’s unique joint venture comes into its own.
Because The Recruit Venture Group takes away many of the daily distractions recruitment businesses have, such as compliance, HR, accounts, financial reporting, marketing and IT, it allows the people driving the business more time to think about strategy and how to react to the latest trends.
With major skills shortages in the marketplace, recruiters need to think creatively and cleverly about how they meet the needs of clients. Not having a time consuming and costly administrative burden means they are free to focus on delivering for clients at a time of acute need.
Paul Mizen, Managing Director of The Recruit Venture Group, said: “Recruiters need to be agile, responsive to client demand, and be forward-thinking and ambitious in how they attract the right skills to the right jobs.
“I firmly believe our joint venture model is perfectly suited to these changing times. Good recruiters will know how to operate in all sorts of fluctuating market conditions, they just need to be allowed to get on with it. That’s what The Recruit Venture Group allows them to do, and that’s why I believe this period will be an opportunity rather than a threat for the 43 businesses we support.”
Often rising wages will mean that workers are more likely to start hunting around for new jobs, being tempted by the promise of better pay. But while employers are prepared to pay more for the right staff, there will always be a ceiling.
That’s were other potential benefits, such as flexible working, home working, extra holiday or innovative incentive schemes can come into their own, to really help sell those jobs to prospective employees. With businesses backed by The Recruit Venture Group freer to explore innovative ways of filling vacancies, they are well positioned to adapt to the current jobs climate.
The Recruit Venture Group not only has the experiences of 43 businesses active in the marketplace to draw upon, but also has a team of experts on hand to offer advice at any stage, including some wise heads to bounce ideas off. Any innovative or creative solutions recruiters come up with for filling jobs will also have the watertight backing of legal, HR and payroll support from the extensive back office team.
Any talented recruiters in salaried jobs who see an opportunity in times of growing wages but a shortage of skills might consider now a good time to launch their own enterprise.
Paul Mizen added: “Changing times create openings. There will be recruiters out there with several years’ experience who are already thinking that their employers are not seeing the opportunities in front of them, or who think that if they were running things, they would take a different strategic approach.
“These are exactly the sorts of people we would like to speak to. Every business we have helped launch started with a simple phone call or email and an idea.”