Recruitment Advice

There has been a decrease the in the number of applications for work from the A8 countries within the UK, since they joined the European union in 2004. The number of eastern Europeans registering to work in the UK has fallen by 24,000, official figures show.

The A8 countries are Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic. Government figures show that there were 29,000 applications from workers during the last three months of 2008, this is down by 53,000 based on the same time period in 2007. Overall the biggest drop in applicants came from Poland where the figures dropped from 36,000 in 2007 to 16,000 in 2008.

The drop in figures from nationals from the A8 countries will help the high level of unemployed workers from the UK over 2009.

The downturn in the economy has led to a huge recruitment drive in teaching, according to new figures from the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).

New applications for teacher training schemes have increased by more than 10% between September 2008 and February 2009 compared with the same period last year, while recruitment enquiries have risen by 45 per cent year on year.

More people are also considering teaching the more difficult subjects like science and maths maths, it has been reported by the TDA that these subjects have traditionally been more difficult to recruit for. Applications to teach maths were up by 25 per cent and science by 23 per cent on the previous year.

The Royal Bank Of Scotland have announce today that they have endured the largest annual loss in UK corporate history standing at £24.1 Billion and is set to receive more of the taxpayers money.

Tens of thousands of jobs will be put on the line this week when RBS unveils plans to dramatically cut costs and sell up to a quarter of its businesses in a desperate effort to stave off full-scale nationalisation.

It will come to no surprise to RBS employees who are wondering whether they will still have jobs in 6 months? There have been signals that more job may be axed on top of the already planned cuts of 2,000 people. It is now looking that there will be as many as 20,000 job loses which could fall heavily on the banks 80,000 strong workforce in the UK.

As an employer, recruiting whilst unemployment is so high means that i am getting a huge response from all of the job advertisements i have placed. I am seeing a increase of applicants by 150% for some of the roles, with so many applicants sending there C.V it is becoming difficult to manage the amount of paperwork i have received.

With such a high volume of applicants it is part of my role to assess the C.V’s and send them to the recruiting line manager’s for them to decide who they would like to interview. With applicants sending there C.V by post it is difficult as i only have 1 original copy of the C.V and a few recruiting managers.

I do not want to make several photocopies of the document because you then have to make sure that you keep a tight control of where the C.V’s are being stored by the individual managers as you need to remain with the data protection laws.

I think that i will have to start document scanning as i receive the C.V’s, this will help to keep better control over the application process and managers will not have to print out several copies. This will also help the recruitment system to become more digital and help towards not using excessive amounts paper.

The job centre teams are looking to recruit more advisers to help the thousands of people who have left their jobs. The centres that are recruiting are Kidsgrove, Newcastle, Longton, Hanley and Cheshire. They are being recruited thanks to a £1.3 billion Government investment to better support the unemployed.

The recruitment drive comes as the number of individual cases of unemployment in Stoke- on-Trent has jumped 41% and in Newcastle 50% in the last year.

Jane Gratton, policy manager at North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry, today backed the recruitment.

She said: “It is important that people who have lost their jobs have access to good quality advice and information about their options. This includes the potential for improving their skills or learning new ones, so they are ready to take advantage of job opportunities when the economy picks up.” Most of the recruits will act as caseworkers for individual clients, on a starting salary of £19,650.

The British car industry was put under further scrutiny today as new figures shown that production has halved in the last 12 months.

New car production in the UK fell dramatically in January from a year earlier, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). A total of 61,404 news cars were produced last month, 58.7% lower than January 2008, as plants closed for extended winter shutdowns. Construction of commercial vehicles slumped by an even larger 59.9 per cent.

And there was yet more woe as Saab, which has 80 dealerships in the UK, announced it was filing for protection against creditors in a bid to save its business.

Reductions in workforces.

Several car firms have had to cut jobs and reduce workers’ hours in response to slowing demand.

Aston Martin are currently axing 600 jobs in Warwickshire

Ford has said up to 850 UK workers at the firm would be offered voluntary redundancy packages.

Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley and Toyota, which have just announced pay freezes for all of their staff and they have announced that there will be either job cuts or production reductions.

Workers in the UK’s Vauxhall plants also fear that redundancy is on the cards, they are waiting for more announcements by the company’s US parent General Motors.

Retail group Stylo have appointed administrators for its shoes stores Barratts blaming the downturn in the UK retail market.

The company have said that current and projected sales would not support the current cost base of its business, in particular its high rent obligations.

The administrators said today even though they have struck a deal with the firms existing management team there will be a job cut of around 2,500 jobs but they are able to safeguard around 3,000 jobs.

Experian Ltd have estimated that 1,600 U.K. retailers may go out of business this year as stores struggle to contend with a slumping consumer economy. Stylo this week joined retailers Woolworths Group Plc, Zavvi Group and Adams Childrenswear Ltd. that have all struggled and collapsed over the past six months. This has added to the high level of unemployment in the UK which rose in January to the highest level in possible a decade.

Domino’s have joined KFC in expanding the number of restaurants in the UK as customers look for a more cost effective way to feed the family.

Domino’s the UK’s largest Pizza delivery chain already employees 18,000 people and is set to recruit another 1500 this year.

The company is ramping up its stores and plans to open up at least another 50 per year.  The target is to have another 1,000 stores by 2017. The new openings will create 30 to 35 jobs per store and the workforce is set to jump from 18,000 to 30, 000.

Domino’s Pizza has become the latest company use online recruitment as a way of hiring workers. The fast food company will use the method for all of its sourcing and hiring needs in its corporate owned stores. Online recruitment will also be put to good use in more than 5,000 of Domino’s franchise-owned outlet.

Fast food chain KFC plan to create 9000 new jobs as customers try to eat out for less and save there pennies. The fried chicken chain is to invest £150 million in a scheme which will see it open as many as 300 new restaurant over the next three to five years.

Martin Shuker,CEO of KFC in the UK and Ireland, said: “Last year, we opened 36 restaurants and in 2009 we will open 44 more. We are seeing really strong growth.

“Two weeks ago, we opened a new drive-through in Worcester and it brought in £100,531 in the first week, which smashed our previous record of £88,000. We have grown UK sales in all but one of the past 15 years

KFC currently has 22,000 UK staff, with the lowest-band recruits starting at the UK minimum wage, which is £5.73 an hour for people over the age of 21.

Car manufacturer BMW have confirmed today that they will axe 800 jobs from there oxford plant. The job loses are going to affect the agency workers on the weekend shifts. The cuts will start in early March when the plant will operate a five day week instead of the current seven. The site has also closed for a week to stop production as a result of the economic downturn.

Almost a third of the Cowley workforce are agency staff and there is concern amongst the workers as some complained today that they would not receive any redundancy pay. Some of the agency staff have worked at the plant for over 4 years and have spoken out to say they feel used and disgraced.

The BMW group have also identified 150 surplus workers at the Mini plant in Swindon.