Case studies

Headteacher slams Millennials' 'one-in-a-million job' expectations

The Head of an elite private school has lambasted the 'overly mollycoddled' generation of youngers for their lack of grit and sense of entitlement.

Douglas Robb, the Headmaster of Gresham's, a Victorian red-brick in rural Norfolk that charges fees of up to £34,000, wrote in a blog post on the schools' website that the younger "generation has come of age where many more individuals perceive themselves to be 'one in a million'."

Clearly peeved by a run-in with a candidate, Robb wrote that during a job interview, the jobseeker left him feeling deflated after they enquired, 'why should I come and work for you?'

He described the way that "some youngsters" approach job interviews as they might approach buying a luxury holiday is concerning.

"Some expect to be given a 'one-in-a-million' job, despite being one of millions of applicants, many of whom are not yet fit for the work place!" he wrote. "Perhaps I overreacted and the candidate was more a victim of recruitment-agency pep-talks than anything else, but my lasting impression was of an 'entitled' candidate who was looking for some further guarantee or incentive before committing to getting stuck in to furthering their career."
He said that as well as a clutch of impressive grades or a degree from university, young people need to show they can add value to an employer's organisation through hard work, commitment, passion and determination.
Robb continued that "something has been lost," such as the sense of pride associated with doing 'an honest day's work', whatever the role.

His final word was that schools, parents and Government need to encourage young people that all work experience, is valuable, and ended his rant by stating that young people should be 'grateful' for the opportunities they are given.

Robb's comments coincide with the publication of new research from a thinktank, which calls for changes in the labour market to help young people.

The Resolution Foundation, in its latest research for its Intergenerational Commission, found that Millennial workers are more likely to find themselves in insecure, low-paying jobs and are earning less than previous cohorts did at the same age.

Insecure work, stagnant wages and a lack of moving between jobs were cited as issues hampering younger peoples' careers. More than half of people on zero-hours contracts are aged 16-34 and a quarter of people in their early twenties did not receive a pay rise for five years in a row after the financial crisis.

It also addressed a shift in mindset that is halting productivity. Whereas previous generations found that, 'a job, any job' was the mantra, "for too many younger workers today finding work is not a problem, finding security and advancement is," the report read.

The goal of the paper is to set out a 'Better Jobs Deal' to support younger workers and reinvigorate generational progress.

Stephen Clarke, senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said that if the approach to the labour market did not change, "we risk leaving a generation of young people struggling to get by and progress."

Permanent Placements up 10% as Employers Shun Short-Term Hiring

According to a new survey from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies, Professional recruitment firms are reporting that the number of candidates securing permanents roles in Jan 18 increased by ten percent

APSCo's data, which focuses on professional recruitment, reveals that vacancies for permanent staff also remained strong, increasing by 0.3% over the same period. This stability is reflected in the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics which reported in February that UK employment levels now sit at 75.3%, a figure that was higher than a year earlier and the joint highest since comparable records began in 1971.

While overall demand for talent remains resilient, vacancies for finance professionals to work on a permanent basis were particularly strong, jumping by 16% year-on-year.

Contractors out on assignment down

Demand for contractors decreased across many of the trade association's core sector groups. Vacancies within engineering, for example, slipped by just 5%, while demand within IT and marketing fell more significantly (by 8% and 21% respectively). Finance was the only sector where vacancies for non-permanent roles increased, with demand for contractors up by 2%.

The overall number of contractors out on assignment, meanwhile, dipped by 16% during the same period. This can largely be attributed to a significant 38% year-on-year fall in IT professionals working on a contract basis during this time.

Average salaries stable

APSCo's figures also reveal that median salaries across all professional sectors dipped by 1.2% year-on-year. This figure is characterised by notable fluctuations in terms of sector, with financial services and engineering, for example, recording uplifts of 1.8% and 2.4% respectively.

Graduates who left university this summer with degrees in Engineering may well qualify for the largest pay packets when starting work, according to new research by job search engineAdzuna.

The study, conducted in September 2017, analysed CVs belonging to recent graduates using Adzuna's ValueMyCV algorithm, to reveal which degrees are the most valuable immediately after leaving university.

Students bearing Computer Engineering degrees are destined to in the money and can expect to earn as much as £33,555 when starting out, making this subject the most lucrative degree in the UK. This is followed by Electrical Engineering (£32,781), Finance (£32,159) and Chemical Engineering (£31,880) qualifications, which are also top earners for new graduates.

Forming a clear trend, engineering-related courses dominate the top 10 list of highest paying degrees, with Software Engineering (£30,839), General Engineering (£30,557), Civil Engineering (£30,047) and Mechanical Engineering (£29,958) all also featuring on the list.

Computer Science (£31,698) and Information Technology (£31,162) degrees round off the top-10 UK's most valuable degrees.

 Table 1: Top 10 Most Valuable Degrees in UK

Average annual earning potential after graduation
Computer Engineering £33,555
Electrical Engineering £32,781
Finance £32,159
Chemical Engineering £31,880
Computer Science £31,698
Information Technology £31,162
Software Engineering £30,839
General Engineering £30,557
Civil Engineering £30,047
Mechanical Engineering £29,958

Case Study for Watertrain Ltd
The water industry is rapidly growing and as such good people with the right experience are in high demand.

CASE STUDY

RECRUITMENT SERVICES TO THE WATER SECTOR

BACKGROUND

Watertrain is the predominant provider of high quality technical training and qualification programmes to the water sector. The water specific knowledge and competency qualifications delivered by Watertrain are accredited by CABWI, a nationally recognised awarding body. Watertrain sees its role as helping employers find effective solutions to immediate training needs and longer term staff development.

SER LTD OPERATING SECTORS

Asbestos Building Controls
Building Services Electronics
Environmental Fire & Security
Hydraulics Lighting
Audio Visual Manufacturing
Measurement Telecoms
Refrigeration Renewables
Waste Management Utilities

CHALLENGES

Watertrain was in need of a additional Tutors/Assessors to provide syllabuses on Water Treatment, Wastewater Treatment and Network Distribution. Due to the working environmental of this industry we found finding applicants with the ability and willingness to carry out this role very difficult to find until we approached Becky Goodwin from SER Limited.

THE KEY POINTS

Tutors/Assessor were required
Water/Wastewater, Network Distribution background
The ability to deliver industry recognised qualifications

CURRENT SITUATION

Watertrain Ltd found that they were dealing with numerous recruitment agencies from across the UK and further supported this via local press advertisements and the occasional job board.
This approach was proving to be:
Time consuming
Expensive
Difficult to control
Producing numerous duplicate applications and fee claims
Ineffective in sourcing high quality Tutors/Assessors

ACTIONS

SER Ltd was known to Watertrain Ltd and it was decided to appoint SER Ltd as the preferred recruitment consultancy to Watertrain Ltd with the view of addressing the above issues.

ACTIONS/SOLUTIONS

SER Ltd appointed an Account Manager to Watertrain Ltd and then arranged a further site visit to understand the company's operations, approach and culture. It was important that SER understood what skills the Tutors/Assessors would require and what they would be required to do on a day to day, week to week basis. SER planned to focus on staff retention ensuring that a strong candidate fit was achieved and therefore removing the continual "urgent" need to recruit and replacing it with a more selective approach which would mean a further increase in the skills level.

REASONING

The thought process behind this was based on the following factors:
SER Ltd being specialist recruiters to the engineering market
Level of knowledge and understanding of the Water sector in the UK
In-house candidate database
Recruitment vetting process
Trust and open approach

RESULTS

Hazel Sarath – Quality Assurance Manager
Watertrain have found SER very professional in approach with a high standard of customer service, which is consistent in approach. This is excelled by a front facing approach- where sales executives undertake an initial recruitment needs analyses prior to recruitment taking place. We found this valuable as a 'get to know you' tool, which has led to the most suitable candidates being forwarded. We have successfully secured 3 full-time permanent employee- who not only have the right technical experience, but the right personalities to fit into a small team. I have found working with SER seamless and like the positive energy that they generate over the phone and during face- face meetings.

Watertrain has no hesitations in recommending SER as a recruitment agency and will continue to use them as the preferred choice of recruiters in the future.

Welcome

SER Ltd would like to welcome four new recruiters to the team.

Roger Taj
Kym Barton
Sarah Bailey & Lauren Colman

Roger comes with a wealth of business management experience and will be responsible for the continuing recruitment that we provide within the HVAC Sales sector. Replacing Chris Ragnal who has decided to join one of our Clients JCI as part of their continuing focus on in-house recruitment. Roger will be tasked with continuing to build long term business relationships with our every growing Client base within the HVAC sector while bringing a proactive active to sourcing outstanding talent within the sales environment.

Kym joins us as a junior recruiter and will be focused on the Asbestos sector. Mainly responsible for sourcing Asbestos Surveyors, Analysts and Lab Techs.

Sarah Bailey joins SER Ltd from previous roles within Business Development and is tasked with driving forward our recruitment services within the telecommunications market. Mainly focusing on Sales and Tech roles throughout the UK.

Lauren is our newest member to join the team. Joining as a junior recruiter, she will be working along side Dan Walton in the FMCG Machinery.

Should you wish to contact any of our three new recruits feel free to call SER Ltd on 01254 781 300

Specialists within Engineering Recruitment

It is illegal to employ someone that does not have the right to work in the th UK, under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. New sanctions have been introduced with the Immigration Act 2016. If an employer employs someone they know or have reasonable cause to believe is working illegally, the employer can face a custodial sentence of up to 5 years or an unlimited fine..
Do not rely on race, ethnicity, accent or appearance to determine whether you should complete checks. To avoid breaching the Equality Act 2010, there must be a consistent approach across the board.

In the United Kingdom all employers are required by law to check their employees have the right to work in the UK. The British government website states that "You must check that a job applicant is allowed to work for you in the UK before you employ them."

A complete guide to the combination of documents accepted as right-to-work documents and how to check them can be found on the .gov website. The correct document combinations depend on the potential employee themselves, but include these documents:
• Passport
• Biometric Residence Permit
• National Identity Card
• Full Birth Certificate
• Certificate of Naturalisation
• Passport with valid Visa inside

'As the Acceptable right to work documents document states it is the employer's responsibility to check the validity of the documents presented and "you must be in the physical possession of the original document or documents"

Find out if a potential employee has the right to work in the UK and what documents employers should check.
https://www.gov.uk/legal-right-work-uk
There will be no change to the rights and status of EU nationals living in the UK, nor UK nationals living in the EU, while the UK remains in the EU.
Gov.uk has plenty of information, links and a checklist that explains the types of documents that are acceptable for checking an employee's right to work and how long the check is valid for.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-work-checklist

You may need to ask the Home Office to check an employee's or potential employee's immigration status if:
• they can't show you their documents, eg they have an outstanding appeal or application with the Home Office
• they have an Application Registration Card
• they have a Certificate of Application
You should see if they can work legally in the UK before asking for a check.

At SER we are preparing for the upcoming changes which are due to happen when GDPR is introduced, 25th May 2018.
EU Parliament & Council approved the GDPR on the 14th April 2016 and will be enforced 25th May 2018. Non-compliant companies will be subject to heavy fines of either 4% global annual turnover or twenty million euros

It has been introduced to give everybody more control over how their personal information is processed. We now have to have permission to use personal information and this can be removed at any time by a candidate request.

 Consent will be one of the lawful grounds for data processing.
A GDPR-compliant data sharing agreement will be used when sharing information with a third party such as umbrella companies.
It will affect EU based candidates, companies collecting data from EU candidates, organisations collecting or processing personal data of EU candidates. This includes our own staff, candidates for both temp & perm positions, clients and even potential clients.

'Personal data is any information (hard copies and soft copies) relating to an individual, whether it relates to his or her private, public or professional life. It can be anything from a name, address, medical information, phone number, posts on social media'. Personal data that is hidden via pseudonymisation may also be included, depending on whether it can be identified to a candidate. Pseudonymization is a procedure by which the most identifying fields within a data record are replaced by one or more artificial identifiers, or pseudonyms.

Personal data also includes all data that can be related to an individual, who can be identified by the information – either directly or in-directly.
It could also include piles of loose paper hanging around the office, which holds information that can be easily accessed.

BREXIT WILL NOT AFFECT ITS INTRODUCTION INTO THE UK
In preparation for the change we will be attending workshops and running in house training for all employees, to ensure that we are all ready for these changes.

Here at SER we value our staff and their ongoing development. We believe this sets us apart from other recruitment companies

As well as running regular in house training programs, to keep our recruiters up to speed with what our clients and candidates want and expect from us. We also promote and fund out of office education, training and personal development

John-Paul, Office Manager at SER, has recently completed ILM Level 3 certificate in Leadership & Management, which involves several modules including "innovation & change in an organisation" and "how to lead effective meetings"

Leah from our accounts department has also recently completed Foundation Certificate in Accounting with Distinction and is now moving forward, onto Advanced Diploma in Accounting at Blackburn University. This will give her a greater understanding of her role within SER and enable her to be able to deal with client and candidate enquiries, in an efficient and competent way

 These and future courses help our staff to continue their on going personal development and promotes confidence and knowledge within their sectors