After weathering redundancies and furlough storms through the global Covid pandemic, employers and recruiters continue to face challenges in finding and retaining top talent.
The ‘Great Resignation’ saw a mass of people leaving jobs in the aftermath of Covid due to lockdown resignations or a desire for a better work-life balance.
Lymington-based Escala Recruitment report they have seen businesses reacting quickly to create more attractive packages resulting in a greater work-life balance for potential employees.
Emma Clark, Director of Escala Recruitment said: “Recruitment is tougher than ever! Since Covid hit us in 2020 we’ve seen recruitment trends change rapidly, meaning finding the perfect team member was challenging.
“At the same time, it’s given the opportunity for businesses to make positive changes to promote a better work-life balance.”
“Recruitment is tougher than ever!”
Emma Clark, Director of Escala Recruitment
As the economy emerges from the pandemic, vacancies in the UK rose to 1.3m in May 2022.
A surge in potential roles is great news for job seekers but brings significant challenges for employers keen to hire the best talent.
Escala Recruitment has seen employers offering remote or flexible working, and investing in employee development to attract candidates.
A 2022 survey by accounting leader PwC of 2,000 UK residents showed that 18% are “very or extremely likely” to switch jobs and 62% prefer a hybrid way of working both remotely and in the office.
Around two-thirds of those surveyed were also said to be working remotely either most or all of the time.
Clark continues “We’ve seen redundancies, furlough, candidate shortages and ‘the great resignation’, but the biggest challenge has been finding and retaining good talent.”
“The biggest challenge has been finding and retaining good talent.”
Emma Clark, Director of Escala Recruitment
“As a start-up recruitment agency these changing factors have set a precedent for how we work with our candidates and clients.
“We can take strong lessons from what’s happened in the last two years and continue to build on this and with new initiatives like four-day working week pilots, it will be interesting to see what happens next.”
With the country’s cost of living crisis on everyone’s minds, it is also thought many will have to cut retirement short to cover soaring bills and be the answer to labour shortages.
Lymington-based Escala Recruitment launched in early 2022 and specialises in permanent recruitment for small to medium-sized companies.
For more information go to www.escalarecruitment.co.uk.
Image: Emma Clark, Director of Escala Recruitment.
