HR Industry Insights June

JUNE 2021 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS | HR FTC vs Perm Across our business we have seen a shift in the balance of permanent vs. interim / temporary vacancies, alongside an upturn in temporary or fixed term opportunities. This was perhaps to be expected, as Q1 can typically produce more temp-to-perm opportunities due to being the tail end of the budget year for a lot of businesses. Having experienced back-to-back record months through February and March at Distinct, it seems to us that the East Midlands and Northern Home Counties businesses are optimistic about the year ahead. One trend we have noticed is an increase in short term internal recruitment positions, which is potential further evidence of businesses planning to hire throughout 2021. RFLs Unsurprisingly, when surveying our placed candidates in Q1, a number moved to new positions because they had been made redundant from their previous roles. We expect that this is to drop considerably as we move into the second half of the year, as a large portion of candidates who had fallen into the market due to redundancy have now secured new positions. However, it will be interesting to see if there is a shift in people moving for career enhancing positions as we progress through 2021 compared to very few moving for progression in Q1. This can most likely be attributed to low confidence in the market and the uncertainty of Covid-19 being deemed as a risk not worth taking. 45% of HR professionals are feeling less satisfied with work than they were 12 months ago, but how many admit that the pandemic has affected their perspective on work? Get the full story here

MAY 24TH, 2021 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS | MARKETING Anticipating Attrition Confidence in the job market has been 225 Total Votes critically low during the pandemic, with most people in permanent work seemingly happy to stay put - unless a 10/10 opportunity should be presented to them. With these available roles falling more often to candidates who are out of work, this has resulted in there being no churn in the market and thus no cycle of new roles. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by HR professionals - when asked in one of our LinkedIn polls if they were anticipating increased levels of attrition when lockdown restrictions are permanently eased, 74% of respondents said yes. The unusually high amount of internal recruitment positions being sourced since the turn of the year indicates that there won’t be a lack of opportunity to stop people moving. But rather than looking at the lack of opportunities and low confidence as being reasons for attrition to have been so low during the pandemic, should we perhaps be looking inwardly to ensure that employees want to stay - even when the options to leave are there? Working from Home and a rise in flexibility It’s evident that the vast majority of office-based staff have been working from home during the last 12 months (or at least working more flexibly). The pandemic has also provided a watershed moment for several employers who have historically been anti- homeworking and typically rigid in office working practices. Jobs which were 9-to-5 in the office beforehand have now needed to become something entirely different. While it would seem from multiple conversations that most businesses will return to the office when possible, there is an optimistic opinion that the world of work has been permanently changed, with the likelihood of increased flexibility and time spent working from home.

MAY 24TH, 2021 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS | MARKETING Having spoken to businesses aiming to get back into the office from June onwards, and with hiring clients being slightly more restrictive in what they could commit to around the home/office divide; we recently asked our HR network if they believed their employers would be more flexible in the long term. Thankfully, 86% of respondents stated a belief that their current employer would be more flexible in the long term (compared to before the pandemic), so we should be looking at an overall net gain when the pandemic is in our rear-view mirror. The 14% we anticipate are perhaps primarily in operational businesses where work cannot be completed any more flexibly than it currently is. 401 Total Votes ConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionC onclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionCo nclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConc lusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclu sionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusi onConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusio nConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclus Sam Chambers | Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant 07458 160 719 [email protected]