Recruitment giant Hays is feeling the pinch as job cuts in the financial sector see a decline in profits in the recruitment industry.

Paul Venables, Finance Director for Hays, told The Independent: “It's a musical chairs business – we need someone to leave before we can replace them, and in many cases they are not.

"Fees are down mainly thanks to a weakening in the City. It's a weakening confidence, and clients making a clear decision to reduce the number of permanent staff.

"Until confidence improves, we'll see subdued demand."

Venables said this explains the seven percent decline in UK business during the last quarter of 2011.

Despite the decline in the UK, other markets have been making steady increases.

Strong growth in the Australian mining industry as well as an increase in Germany and France has seen earnings rise by 28 percent and 20 percent respectively.

This growth helped Hays post a nine percent jump in net fees towards the backend of 2011.

But even Asia saw growth slow dramatically, down from 34 per cent in the third quarter to 16 per cent in October, November and December.

Venables said: "Three months ago, banks in Asia were looking to increase their headcount aggressively but now – even there – they are being very selective about hiring.”

Photo by Images of Money

Recruiters should push to place as many candidates as they can now, to beat a predicted slow down in recruitment next quarter, according to a new report.

Recruitment firm Manpower surveyed 2,100 employers and found that only one in five of them had plans to hire more workers in the next three months.

This means jobseekers and recruiters need to move quickly to stay ahead of employers’ dampened expectations.

However there are still hundreds of thousands of jobs out there with sectors such as utilities continuing to hire.

According to the report, an East-West divide has also emerged, with employers in the East of England being the most positive about employment prospects and those in the West, Wales and Northern Ireland the most pessimistic.

Manpower’s managing director, Mark Cahill, said: “Employers have now adopted a wait-and-see approach to hiring; they are cautious about the economy and the fear of a Euro-wide contagion is weighing heavily on their minds.

“Of the sectors that are creating jobs, however, utilities is the most positive, with employers in the water, gas and electricity industries reporting hiring intentions of +13%, a rise of 2 per centage points on the previous quarter. This sector has proved particularly resilient, as the only sector demonstrating a positive outlook in every quarter throughout the downturn.

“The manufacturing sector also shows signs of optimism with employers reporting a cautiously optimistic outlook of +5%.”

“We should not lose sight of the fact that there are still hundreds of thousands of vacancies out there. Employers continue to look for skilled and motivated candidates who show a real desire and determination to work. People who are willing to learn new skills are the ones who will succeed in this challenging environment. Those with a refuse-to-lose attitude will find work.”

Photo by Alex France

According to Dan Erwin, dress down days could look set to become a thing of the past as the majority of UK workers want to dress to impress in a bid to save their jobs and win new business because of the current economic climate, according to a survey of 13,000 employees.

Dressing to create the right impression with clients, prospects and colleagues is one area where individuals can influence the outcome of the economy, according to 94% of respondents UK work wear provider Alexandra.

For more information go to Dan Erwin's website.

Photo: Nelson Pavlosky

According to the Daily Mail, a top recruitment executive has been forced to quit his job after he mistakenly sent an expletive-filled rejection email to 4,000 people.

The email was sent by Gary Chaplin as a reply to a mass-mailed enquiry from Manos Katsampoukas, who was looking for a job.

Mr Chaplin, who was earning £200,000 per year at Manchester firm Stark Brooks, accidentally replied to the 4,000 employment leads that Katsampoukas had contacted as opposed to just him.

The incident begun when Katsampoukas sent an email to thousands of job recruitment firms looking for a job in the banking or marketing sector. His email is said to have been polite and formal, however in his reply, Chaplin criticised him for not taking the time to send an individual email to each recipient.

Chaplin then wrote a scathing email in response to Katsampoukas which was packed with expletives and offensive words and insulted the intelligence of its recipient. However when Chaplin hit reply he inadvertently selected the ‘reply to all’ function and his message was sent to thousands of people in the recruitment sector.

His reply told Mr Katsampoukas: 'I think I speak for all 4000 people you have emailed when I say, "Thanks for your CV" – it's nice to know you are taking this seriously.'

Mr Chaplin has had to resign over the matter and told the Daily Mail: 'I am mortified by what I did … It was a moment of idiocy.'

'I am now looking for a job just a few days before Christmas. If I could turn back the clock I would. I will regret this forever.'

Photo by ideagirlmedia

2e2, the ICT services company, released figures today which show the need for UK business to alter traditional working practices in order to boost employee productivity.

A survey conducted on nearly 2000 office workers showed that 63 percent said they feel restrained by the traditional nine to five working day and felt they would be more productive if there was more flexibility around the hours they worked.

Also, 55 percent admitted to being more productive when working from home as opposed to being in the office environment, while 73 percent said that technology was no longer a barrier to working from home.

2e2 Director, Mike Hockey, said: “Employers often don’t realise the impact of working culture on productivity. Different people have different working patterns and the traditional 9 to 5 way of working doesn’t suit everyone.

“It’s clear that often employees would be more productive if they had flexible hours or could work from home.

“However, an organisation’s culture can often mean that this isn’t possible or, if people do work in this way, they are seen as slackers. Bosses need to change this: they need to make it clear that working from home isn’t a perk and that it’s productivity and effectiveness that they care about, not hours behind a desk.”

Research also revealed however, that nearly one in two workers felt modern working practices, including the increased use of technology and remote working, has led to the loss of valuable human interaction with work colleagues.

The Agency Workers Regulations come into effect on 1 October 2011, effectively giving equal rights to agency workers and full time staff after 12 weeks in a role.

Recruitment agencies need to take note of the changes to the law, because they carry a lot of responsibility when it comes to compliance, however the responsibility is shared by the employer hiring temp workers through agencies.

The hiring company needs to give the agency the correct information about the conditions of the role in order for the two to work together in ensuring the regulations are followed.

Agency workers will have some rights straight off the bat, such as the right to accessing shared facilities and amenities accessed by full time workers in comparable roles and access to job vacancies. Other rights, such as basic pay, annual leave, rest breaks and performance bonuses must kick in after 12 weeks.

If an agency worker changes roles for a hiring employer after the 12 week period, the worker will retain the rights they gained at week 12, unless the roles are substantially different.

It is clearly very important to get to grips with the changes brought about by the new regulations, and with only a few days left until the regulations come into effect, it is imperative that action is taken now.

To learn more about the Agency Workers Regulations, click here.

A while ago LinkedIn launched a plug in allowing candidates to apply for jobs through LinkedIn. If you were to believe the hype behind this move you’d probably think any recruitment process outside of LinkedIn was doomed to die a miserable death.

However, social network sites are still falling short of the mark in supplying sufficient quality candidates for employers to consider for their vacancies. They are a great additional tool for job seekers and employers alike, but they need to be used as a supplementary tool, not necessarily as the primary tool.

For one thing, as far as advertising vacancies in recruitment is concerned, the price of posting a job on LinkedIn needs to be compared to posting a vacancy on a reputable job board in the recruitment industry. Careers in Recruitment only charges £95 for a starting level job post (at the time of writing this blog post).

Our recruitment site has great vacancies from the top employers in the field, and we complement our job board with a lively LinkedIn group where candidates and currently employed recruitment consultants can chat about industry news, events and opportunities. Advertising a vacancy on Careers in Recruitment will therefore get you exposure to an active LinkedIn group for the industry and a large volume of traffic through search engines.

LinkedIn is a great career tool, but it needs to be used in conjunction with specialist recruiters who have the tried and tested skills and expertise needed for effective recruitment.

Its is still about four months to go until Christmas, but Argos are launching an annual Christmas recruitment campaign which needs to source 12,000 Christmas workers for their stores. The recruitement is being done in partnership with Tyi UK and Job Centre Plus. Terry Duddy, Argos Managing Director said, "Argos is a fun, interesting and busy place to be over Christmas so we are excited about finding passionate and enthusiastic staff that can join the team. "With over 70 million customers passing through our doors over the period, the new recruits will really help us deliver great customer service this Christmas." Recruiting for seasonal workers is a skill in itself and will see a busy period for many recruitment agencies.

More people are being placed into jobs by recruitment agencies, according to the Recruitment and employment Confederation (REC). Engineering and construction, as well as IT workers are the most in demand. Hospitality and healthcare sectors are not hiring as much though. Kevin Green is the chief executive of the REC. He said, "Employment is just 1% off its pre-recession peak but the economy is still struggling at 4% down in comparison with 2007/2008 figures. The UK's flexible labour market is a key reason why employment is continuing to grow. Employers are using large numbers of temporary workers which, with the Agency Workers Regulations less than two months away from implementation, shows that businesses continue to see the value of using a flexible workforce."

2011’s graduates have money at the centre of their job seeking concerns. The Hay Group is a management consultancy who believes there is good news for the graduates. They expect average graduate salaries to be higher than students are expecting. Recruitment consultancies may be able to pleasantly surprise graduates with the job offers out there. The reward information consultant at Hay Group, Christopher Smith, said, “The economic climate is clearly influencing graduates' career decisions. Acutely aware of the difficult labour market and rising living costs, they are looking for a career path that makes financial sense first and foremost. Idealistic factors barely come into consideration.” Smith also said, “Confronted by an uncertain outlook, graduates have lowered their remuneration expectations well below what they can expect to earn in the main functions of the UK's largest graduate employers.” Data on salaries was put together looking at 10,000 graduate wages in more than 600 mid to large size private sector employers in the UK.