FEATURE
FUTURE TEES
Panel – Alan Kennedy of Womble Bond Dickinson , Amy Smith of CPI and Richard Hogg of Jackson Hogg .
WORDS : SARAH WALKER
‘ Paradox ’ of hot jobs market explored in latest online debate
Teesside ’ s current competitive recruitment market is something of a paradox , according to the panelists in our latest Future Tees debate .
The quarterly online discussion , in association with Womble Bond Dickinson , highlighted both the challenges and opportunities for businesses in the competitive recruitment market .
The impact of the pandemic and Brexit have both seen a large number of job vacancies open up , with businesses strongly competing with one another to attract the best talent .
But while this poses a challenge to businesses , it also creates a number of exciting opportunities , according to the Future Tees panellists .
They included Richard Hogg , CEO of Jackson Hogg , a global STEM-focused recruitment and outsourced service business ; Amy Smith , people director for CPI ; and Alan Kennedy , managing associate at Womble Bond Dickinson .
Richard said : “ I would say it ’ s a wonderful time to be in recruitment – the market is as hot as it ’ s been for a while and highly competitive with a shortage of skills across the board , from business support to executive board level .
“ Tees Valley companies like Fujifilm are continuing to recruit people with very niche skills that aren ’ t necessarily all in our area .
“ The wider North-East is busy , nationally , it ’ s busy and it ’ s a global problem finding good people .”
Amy added the sudden availability of a large number of jobs is a “ major boost for the region ” and the hybrid and flexible working trend forced by Covid has meant the removal of geographical barriers , enabling the recruitment of qualified staff from all over the world .
CPI has recruited 130 people this financial year and Amy echoed Richard ’ s point that niche skills and roles for the likes of vaccine scientists are in demand .
But at the same time , businesses like CPI are competing with well-paid but low skilled opportunities when it comes to attracting talent , at a time when people are making different choices about their work-life balance in the wake of the pandemic .
Discussing the impact of Brexit in combination with the pandemic , Alan said a perfect storm was created .
He said : “ The pandemic obviously caused significant restrictions on international travel and a number of EU workers were returning to their home countries and , in many cases , not coming back .
“ This , combined with the end of free movement of EU workers , has had a direct impact on recruitment in the UK and ( the ability ) to source talent .
“ It has also become harder to recruit EU nationals as they are now treated in the same way as non-EU nationals and require immigration permission before entering the UK .”
While the process to obtain a visa is not straightforward , Alan says the new pointsbased system has made it easier to recruit from overseas , with its lowered salary and skills threshold and the abolishment of the resident labour market test .
Employers with an international presence can also transfer skilled workers and senior executives from overseas , under the Intra-Company Transfer route to fill any staff shortages .
Alan said Womble Bond Dickinson are on hand to help with overseas recruitment , at a time when the freeport and levelling up agenda will bring a number of new jobs into the region , which may lead to further staff and skills shortages .
Amy said that in light of a climate of skills and staff shortages , businesses need to simply “ be kind ” - and giving staff they want to retain opportunities to upskill is part of that .
“ It is a key way to retain staff , saying , ‘ Where do you want to be ?’ and ‘ Where do we want you to be ? Let ’ s get you there ’,” she added .
“ We ’ ve always had a focus on developing people .”
The panel also discussed how , in a competitive recruitment market , candidates are not only scrutinising pay and conditions , but companies ’ corporate social responsibility agendas .
They are also more likely to be attracted by diversity in the workforce and companies which support a good work life balance .
For the full video and debate , go to the video section on the Tees Business Facebook page : facebook . com / TeesBusiness .
The voice of business in the Tees region | 67