Potential Candidate Shortages And The Importance Of Planning Ahead Post Brexit

Bournemouth based recruitment specialists, Jobshop UK, welcomed Lush CEO Mark Constantine as the guest speaker to the Directors' Lunch at the West Hants Club on 11th October, where he highlighted the potential damage to UK businesses as a result of emerging staff shortages in the run up to, and post Brexit.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) add weight to his concerns, showing a record number of available vacancies of 833,000 for June to August 2018, which is 44,000 more than the previous year, and the highest since comparable records began in 2001.

Frances Miles, director at Jobshop UK, commented:"With unemployment at a record level of 4%, skills shortages across the UK in all disciplines have been widely reported over the last few years and we know this is set to worsen. Mark discussed why Lush is looking to take some of its manufacturing for the UK - which it has never previously done - to Croatia after Brexit, explaining that the Company will not be able to find the numbers of staff they require here.

"In order to strengthen the UK workforce generally, companies need to focus on pulling out all the stops in order to attract the right people to their roles. It is also vitally important to cultivate a good relationship with one or two really excellent recruiters. We are in an era of job boards, LinkedIn, web portals and transactional hiring processes. A good recruiter also meets their candidates face to face, building trust, which demonstrates investment in their candidate's short and long-term career aspirations; they know the market and understand their client's needs and can put both parties together successfully.

"We are urging our clients to act quickly when recruiting so as not to miss out on an ideal candidate. Candidates are very aware that it's their market and have the pick of the jobs."