CooperLomaz's Lydia Barker says the jobs market is warming up as we come out of lockdown
As talent partners and employment specialists across East Anglia, Cooper Lomaz has witnessed an 18 per cent increase on intent to hire across our clients.
While prospect of employment is on the rise, there is also a significant decrease in the number of job cuts anticipated over the coming months. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), this level has dipped below pre-pandemic levels.
Overall, there is a positive outlook to hiring, recruitment, and employee retention across the region.
To sustainably recover, businesses need to focus on producing and outlining positions with longevity and growth to create a continuous strategy that accounts for succession planning and the introduction of new talent into their organisation.
Some employers face new challenges in the shape of skill and labour shortages, partially due to the recent fall in supply of overseas workers. This has created a greater emphasis from upskilling internally and mentorship programmes to facilitate the transference of information between skilled workers.
This quarter’s growth aligns with the findings from the official statistics and offers further evidence that the UK employment market could be entering an early stage of recovery.
Recovery in hiring will require businesses to be decisive in those they want to recruit and have clear strategic vision on the future of these positions within the firm.
Through dedicating time to planning workforce hiring strategy and reviewing every few months in order to remain agile, businesses offer themselves a quicker route to growth as requirements can shift on a quarterly basis. In doing so, companies currently in growth mode are able to adapt to the recovering market and hire at pace when there is an abundant talent pool in a particular skill set.
Over the next 12 months, it is anticipated that most employers will be reviewing their wages once their business exits recovery and reaches financial stability. There is a high possibility this review will result in a bounce back of median basic pay expectations in both the private and the public sector. This is on top of the increase of the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage in April where we saw the National Living Wage rise by 2.2 per cent to £8.91 and will be given to 23 and 24-year-olds for the first time.
For more information on recruitment and employment in East Anglia, call us CooperLomaz 01603 766760.
-- Lydia Baxter is marketing manager at CooperLomaz
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