The UK recruitment market is currently experiencing a significant imbalance between the number of available job vacancies and the number of people seeking employment.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the unemployment rate stood at 3.7 per cent, or 1.3 million people, in the three months to December 2022. In contrast, the number of job vacancies in the UK was 1.1 million in the three months to January 2023, a reflection of the economic pressures and the uncertainties that come with that.
To attract and retain talent, businesses are adopting innovative strategies, including flexible and hybrid working arrangements. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development is urging employers to continue to develop and embed new ways of working, with data suggesting that more than threequarters of organisations have embraced hybrid working through a mix of formal and informal arrangements.
The start of March saw the end of the world’s largest trial of a four-day week, involving 61 companies and lasting for six-months. It gave staff at those companies the opportunity to remain on their existing salary but work across four days instead of five and forms part of a wider push by non-for profit organisation, 4-Day Week Campaign, to urge politicians to give all workers in the UK a 32-hour week.
Of the 61 companies that completed the trial, 56 have chosen to extend it, while 18 have made the change permanent. The question is whether a four-day working week would be suitable for all types of businesses. Larger companies, of course, have the infrastructure and people to be able to implement a four-day working week without too much impact on the overall running of the company. Smaller businesses, however, could struggle to provide that cover for a colleagues non-working day to ensure that their quality and values are sustained.
There are other changes, however, that firms have been putting in place to ensure that their peo0ple are content and have a balanced working environment – measures to improve employee wellbeing, including relaxation spaces, mental health support and wellbeing days, are great examples.
A study by Westfield Health found that 75 per cent of UK workers believe employers should be responsible for their wellbeing, with many companies offering employee assistance programmes (EAPs) and on-site mental health support.
The methods by which businesses choose to recruit the talent they need is also evolving. LinkedIn is now the go-to platform for recruitment, which is perhaps not surprising. What has changed, however, is the way in which those firms are engaging across social media, using it to promote their brand values and showcase company culture, with Instagram and TikTok becoming popular platforms for companies to reach younger, tech-savvy jobseekers.
The end of the four day working week trial, which has been hailed as a huge success, is further evidence of the evolving business landscape and highlights the importance of remaining competitive in the war for talent.