Employers show increased confidence in the future

19th August 2013

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), recruitment is on the up, with more employers looking at taking on staff and employment confidence at its highest since 2008.

The CIPD's quarterly Labour Market Outlook surveys over 1,000 HR professionals and employers to provide information and an outlook on recruitment, redundancy and pay. The latest summer report shows that there are more companies expecting to increase staff than decrease them, and it is the sixth consecutive quarter with this positive outlook. The private sector has shown a significant increase in confidence: continuing to show an increase in companies looking to take on staff. However, whilst in general, the public sector is still looking to decrease staff, fewer organisations are looking to do so. The voluntary sector is also still looking at increasing staff, though there are slightly fewer organisations looking to do so. The report indicates that, in general, there is virtually no change in the types of contract that will be offered to new recruits, with 76% being on full time contracts and 24% on part time contracts. The public sector appears more likely to offer part time contracts and smaller employers (less than 250 employees) are more likely to offer full time contracts. The increase in confidence in employment has not led to an expected increase in pay rises. Those employers who are planning a pay review within the next year still expect the mean basic pay increase to be 1.7% (excluding bonuses). This figure has remained between 1.5% and 1.8% for the last two years. Jay Bhayani, partner at Bhayani Bracewell, and specialist in employment law says -This is really good news for job seekers, but also for employers who appear to be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, but they need to remain vigilant in their employment activities. Whatever type of contract a business is looking to offer new employees, it needs to be watertight right from the start to ensure that the employer/employee relationship is successful. Employers should remember that their legal obligations begin at interview stage and can continue beyond termination with a myriad of legislation and regulations in between. Taking the right advice from the beginning and getting proper policies and procedures in place can make the whole employment relationship much easier to manage and far easier to deal with if things do unfortunately go wrong. Whilst the report indicates that the number of firms looking to make redundancies has fallen from 31% in winter 2012/13 to 26% in the summer of 2013, Jay urges employers not to drop their guard and continue to be rigorous in following proper redundancy policies and procedures, as mistakes here can be very expensive. For advice and information on recruiting, redundancy, or any employment of HR issue in between, please contact our specialists here at Bhayani Bracewell on 0114 272 1884 or email hello@bhayanibracewell.co.uk. Visit www.bhayanibracewell.co.uk for more details.