Unemployment falls again but double dip labour market only boosted by ‘part-time odd jobbers’.

Dr John Philpott, Chief Economic Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), comments as follows on official labour market statistics for the period January – March 2012 published earlier today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS):

“These are odd figures best explained by a surge in part-time odd jobbing. A sharp quarterly rise of over 100,000 in the number of people in work combined with another welcome fall in joblessness is remarkable for an economy that dipped back into recession at the start of the year. Such an outcome would normally be a sign of economic recovery. However, while optimists might conclude that this casts doubt on the reliability of the most recent official GDP growth figures, a more sober assessment is that a very weak economy is managing to keep unemployment in check only by maintaining a severe squeeze on the size of pay packets and creating enough low productivity work to allow people to avoid the dole by doing the odd part-time job here and there, either as employees or on a casual self-employed basis.

“While a weak double dip labour market might be able to sustain enough odd jobbing to prevent unemployment hitting the 3 million mark, the combination of a growing army of underemployed odd jobbers, 2.63 million people unemployed and pay rises still lagging well behind price inflation suggests that the underlying employment situation is worse than at any point in at least the past two decades.”

Source:
http://www.cipd.co.uk/pressoffice/press-releases/default.aspx

As a result, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has created an online survey to collect employers views, perceptions and experiences as evidence for suggesting future improvements. Employers have until June 8 2012 to complete the BIS survey and have their say.

Impact Recruitment Services have extensive knowledge and expertise in employment law, including dismissal and grievance procedures, and are willing to help any businesses that would like advice in this area; just call Paul on 01604 239555 or paul@impactrecruitment.co.uk.

Source: BIS

For the finer detail go to the Directgov website here, and if you have any further questions please let us know on 01604 239555 or paul@impactrecruitment.co.uk.

Key areas of experience include:
* Analysing systems to monitor sales and stock levels and feedback to the client and production team
* Preparation and distribution of daily and weekly management reports to external customers
* In depth trend and statistical forecast analysis, facilitating continual service improvement
* Co-ordinating and leading monthly supply chain meetings
* Development of opportunities with account management
* Cross department communication to ensure effective management of planning and stock control
* Recording and monitoring complaints to identity the root course of the problem and ascertain any contributing factors
* Problem diagnosis or investigation results passed to relevant body and managed pending a satisfactory resolution.

Our candidate has a lot to offer any business. If you would like to find out more about this candidate or if you have any other vacancies you are looking to fill, please get in touch on 01604 239555 or vicky@impactrecruitment.co.uk.

So as we approach our 10th anniversary and are looking for ways to link up with all of our clients, we thought we’d could ask ‘Mr LinkedIn’ (honestly, he’s the only officially accredited trainer by LinkedIn in the country!) to come back and see us, but this time invite our business contacts too. We guarantee you will be inspired by the real life examples of how LinkedIn has been used for both personal and professional gain, together with the opportunity to ask questions and pickup some practical tips.

For clients and contacts already connected to someone in the Impact Team, please let us know if a professionally hosted LinkedIn session would be of interest to you? Or email me at paul@impactrecruitment.co.uk.

Such events at the Grosvenor Hotel London, never get any less grand or nerve racking as you sit there anxiously waiting for your nominated award to be announced. So imagine our excitement last night when The Recruiter Awards 2012 announced us as winners for the Best Recruitment Marketing Team Award. We are so pleased that our efforts in how we communicate with our clients and candidates have been recognised at an industry level, at an awards ceremony that is the equivalent to the Oscars for the recruitment industry.

In fact, this is the 5th award we have been nominated for over the last 12 month period, and even more impressive, the 5th award nomination for the Recruiter Awards since we launched almost 10 years ago. Such an award winning agency has got to be worth getting in touch with! I’d love to hear from you at paul@impactrecruitment.co.uk.

But then I speak with Impact Recruitment Services clients, who say even with the optimum solution and management processes we have put in place, which could not be improved, it was far easier before. Typically, if something is more difficult to accomplish then it becomes less popular. Further, our own performance stats do not resemble what has been reported, albeit we are operating in different sectors to the Venn Group report which also covers financial services and public sector, on top of our commerce and industry sectors and a different geographical area. I know that the NHS have been reported to be showing strong demand for temporary recruitment of late.

So I’ve decided to simply embrace the national trend of an increase in temporary workers because it is a positive story. It means that businesses are responding to increased activity by implementing flexible workforce strategies, which in turn means performance is improving and hopefully the economy overall. It also means we should stop looking at AWR as a challenge in isolation, but simply a part of the process of achieving the optimum workforce solution for your business and keeping workers motivated.

I’d welcome any other views on how a change in your temporary worker usage has affected your business, as I feel it’s always good to keep a local perspective on national stories, please email me at paul@impactrecruitment.co.uk.

This almost feels like the Supreme Court have given permission for businesses to set their own retirement age for their staff, as long they provide thorough evidence to justify that their decision is based on capability rather than age. The case also highlights the need for businesses to think ‘big picture’ and consider other factors that could influence their decision to make someone retire.

The first is the need to maintain a diverse workforce. Businesses need to recruit and retain workers cross a range of skills and ages, and extract their strengths accordingly. An ageing workforce brings many positives to businesses and the economy, often having advanced experience and skills in certain areas that may allude a younger worker.

The second is the need to have a robust performance management framework, especially if a dismissal is to be based on capability. It needs to be clearly evident why one worker is more suitable than another, regardless of their age.

And the third is around good succession planning; making sure there are workers progressing through with the desired talent and skills to take the business on the journey of meeting their objectives. Again, this is irrespective of their age and ambition, but totally about their ability to perform for the business.

So with all things considered, I feel this is a very important and encouraging ruling, as it will lead businesses to make informed employment decisions in the correct manner that support business requirements. Impact Recruitment Services have a lot of expertise in all of these areas which can be accessed through our Impact Extra online service, emailing us at info@impactrecruitment.co.uk or simply by giving us a call on 01604 239555 – we’d be glad to help.

Source: CIPD

…A young man, hired by a supermarket, reported for his first day of work. The manager greeted him with a warm handshake and a smile, gave him a broom and said, “your first job will be to sweep out the store.”

“But I’m a college graduate,” the young man replied indignantly.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that,” said the manager. “Here, give me the broom, I’ll show you how.”

Marta has been working on her current assignment for the past 3 months, and she has truly made a great impression. She has become an integral part of a small team, always willing to take on tasks as needed. Her attitude has been described as ‘fresh and positive’ which will do for us.

And as if this wasn’t enough, she cooked the whole depot an original Hungarian Goulash which tempted the taste buds of the company’s Health and Safety Manager so much, he tried to poach Marta to work for him at their Horsham site.

Not on your Goulash!