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The latest JobsOutlook from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) reports a rise in the number of employers saying they plan to take on more staff. The monthly tracking survey shows this month’s largest increase is among bosses saying they intend to take on more permanent workers within the next quarter, which is up four per cent on last month.

REC chief executive Kevin Green said: “Our data predicts jobs growth will return. While the current economic situation is still challenging for many businesses there are also some positive signs. Although the recovery has been gradual, the UK has avoided the very high levels of unemployment seen elsewhere on the continent and employer confidence does seem to be on the rise.”

May’s JobsOutlook survey of employers reports that:

• 64 per cent plan to increase their permanent workforce over the next three months (4 per cent higher than last month) and only 4 per cent expect to reduce headcounts.
• 56 per cent plan to increase their permanent headcount over the next 4-12 months (2 per cent higher than in April’s report) and only 1 per cent predict a reduction.
• 41 per cent plan to increase the use of agency workers in the next three months (2 per cent higher than last month) and just 8 per cent expect to reduce their use of temps.
• 36 per cent plan to increase the use of agency workers in the next 4-12 months, (no change on last month’s data) and only 7 per cent report they plan to reduce their use of agency staff.

JobsOutlook reports the responses of 600 employers questioned about their hiring intentions over the next quarter and the next year. Respondents are drawn from across the public, private and non-profit sector, and from across a range of industries and sizes of organisation.

Credit: rec.uk.com

As the 2012 Skills and Employment Survey, published today by the Government, reveals that Britain’s employees are feeling more insecure and under pressure at work than at any time the past 20 years, the CIPD is urging businesses to consider how they can improve job satisfaction and employee engagement.

According to the CIPD’s quarterly Employee Outlook survey, which asks more than 2,000 UK employees about their attitudes to working life, engagement levels in the voluntary sector have jumped in recent months, despite prolonged job insecurity in the sector. The survey found that engagement amongst third sector employees is driven not only by an affinity to their organisation’s core purpose, where the voluntary sector might be expected to have an edge, but more importantly by open and honest management teams and cultures of mutual trust and respect, where the private at public sectors have no reason at all to lag their voluntary counterparts.

Peter Cheese, chief executive at the CIPD, said: “The decline in job satisfaction and employee engagement revealed by the Government’s Skills and Employment Survey makes for worrying reading for businesses, the economy and wider society. But CIPD research shows that the voluntary sector appears to be bucking this trend, with valuable lessons to be learned for the private and public sectors. Nevertheless, we need to take the findings of the Government’s latest survey very seriously indeed. Too many recent and spectacular failures – from the banking crisis to public sector scandals like that affecting the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust – are almost entirely born of problems of culture.  Although profoundly different in many ways, they have common roots in issues of trust, empowerment and engagement. What’s good for people is good for business – and if we can embrace that truth to build cultures in which people want to work and are unified by a common purpose, we can not only prevent catastrophes, we can truly build more sustainable economic growth.”
Credit: cipd.co.uk