I have been reading the findings of the 2014 Employer Perspectives Survey published by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) recently and was particularly interested (and concerned) by some of the findings around recruitment trends.

Around half of the employers surveyed reported that they had recruited for at least one vacancy in the preceding 12 months, up on the previous survey two years ago, which is good news but not completely surprising as we have seen employment levels grow quarter on quarter over that time period. What was more interesting to me was the recruitment channels businesses use and what they look for in candidates.

Three quarters of employers reported that they used free to use recruitment channels – word of mouth (the most common), their own website, internal notices and other free websites. The use of social media as a recruitment channel was used in only 7% of cases which surprised me given the number of social media networks we are all plugged in to.

Relevant work experience was rated by two-thirds of recruiting employers as an important factor looked for in candidates, but only 38% of employers said that they offer work experience placements. This immediately prompts the question – how are young people going to break in to the jobs market when the need to show work experience is high but the opportunity to gain work experience is low?

The survey revealed that 11% of employers used work experience as a recruitment tool – more than used social media for recruitment – showing that there is real future recruitment value to employers for offering work experience.

I’d like to hear your thoughts. How have you gone about recruiting to fill your most recent vacancies? What recruitment channels have delivered the best results for you?

Could you offer a work experience opportunity? Is there something putting you off offering work experience? What help would you like to set up a work experience in your business? How does work experience benefit your business?

If you are interested in giving a young person the opportunity to gain work experience, getting involved in boosting young people’s employability skills, then contact us on 01296 568944.

If you want to expand your recruitment pool and are not sure where to start then take a look at the Talent Pool section of our Workforce Support web pages which includes some free to use recruitment channels that you might not have thought about.