HR news round-up: from recruitment figures to demand for term-time working

UK’s largest employers warn of cooling jobs market

The UK’s largest employers have warned of a cooling jobs market, with a slowdown in wage growth and a fall in vacancies.

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG’s UK Report on Jobs survey reported a decrease in permanent staff placements in July. The number of vacancies also fell, indicating subdued demand for hiring while recruitment consultants reported an increased volume of redundancies.

The data showed that permanent placements fell most noticeably in the South of England. In contrast, a modest  increase in placements was seen in London. Temporary billings rose in the Midlands and the North of England, but fell in London and the South of England.

Half of the sectors covered by the survey showed growth in permanent staff vacancies during July. The strongest increase was for Nursing & Medical Care staff, followed by Engineering. The steepest decline in permanent staff was for IT & Computing.

Kate Shoesmith, the REC’s deputy CEO, said that employers are keeping pay in line with inflation and that the interest rate cut is welcome. The report suggests that more of the same will be needed to maintain confidence. “Businesses may be cautious to hit go on their full recruitment and investment strategies until they have heard more from the Chancellor in her Autumn Budget,” suggested Jon Holt, chief executive of KPMG.

Government begins to undo rules on strike action

The Government has started to undo Conservative-era rules limiting strike action by workers, including teachers, firefighters and train workers.

Labour ministers have instructed employers not to enforce legal minimum service levels while a new law to formally abolish them is being passed in Parliament. The previous government extended anti-strike laws to set minimum service levels for various services, including education and transport. Unions, who strongly opposed minimum service levels when they were introduced by the previous government, have welcomed the move to undo them.

It came as a report by the TUC and the University of Cambridge found British employment laws are “significantly weaker” than those in other major economies. The research found that labour laws in the UK are half as protective as those in France and weaker than in Germany, Italy, and Spain. The report argues that the gap in worker protections between the UK and other OECD member nations widened after the Conservatives took office in 2010.

Meanwhile, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been warned to take proactive steps to ensure compliance with the National Minimum Wage (NMW). HMRC plans to crack down on perceived non-compliance with the NMW and will target SMEs in regions including Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Cornwall, Cumbria, east Anglia, Glasgow, Liverpool, the north east, and Watford.

Carers leaving due to Carer’s Allowance fines

Teachers, NHS staff and other key workers who balance part-time work with caring for loved ones are quitting their jobs or reducing their hours to avoid being hit with huge fines for breaching carer’s allowance rules, according to a new report.

The Carers UK report, which will be presented to the new Minister for Social Security and Disability at the Department for Work and Pensions today, is calling for swift action to prevent unpaid carers unwittingly building up huge debts after going over the earnings limit.

Read more here.

Report shows cost of presenteeism

The hidden cost of rising workplace sickness in the UK has increased to over £100bn a year, and there has been a significant loss of productivity due to presenteeism, according to a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

The cost of staff sickness grew to £103bn in 2023. The annual bill was £73bn in 2018. Most of the increase (£25bn) was attributed to lower productivity due to people working while sick, with just £5 billion down to rising sick days. The report says UK workers are among the least likely to take sick days, and most likely to work through illness.

It states that employees now lose an average of 44 days of productivity due to working through sickness, up from 35 days in 2018. The report calls for a change in approach to protect workers and boost profits.

Early years sector struggling to recruit staff

Over three quarters of early years settings have found it difficult to recruit staff in the last year, with nearly half (48%) finding it ‘very difficult’, according to a new survey launched just before ‘free’ childcare is extended to nine month olds.

The online survey by the Early Years Alliance, based on 889 responses from early years providers, found more than six in 10 respondents (61%) reported that staff from their setting had left the sector entirely over the previous six months, while eight in 10 (82%) had seen an increase in the number of staff members leaving the sector compared to two years ago.

As a result of the sector’s ongoing recruitment and retention challenges, in the six months prior to the survey, half of respondents (50%) have had to limit or stop taking on new children and nearly two in five (17%) have reduced or restricted their opening hours. Half of settings (51%) said staffing shortages have had a negative impact on the quality of provision.

Read more here.

Easyjet offers returnships for 50+ workers

Airline easyJet has launched a ‘returnship’ initiative to encourage more over 50s to become cabin crew, following research that showed nearly three quarters of them (74%) agreed it was the perfect age to change careers.

Since 2022 the airline has seen the number of new cabin crew over the age of 50 more than double and the number of over 60s joining has increased fourfold.

With 71% of over 50s believing their age would stop them being accepted for the job, the airline wants to tackle myths about the career and encourage more older people to apply.

The returnship initiative will offer free online careers advice sessions and hands on experience at the airline’s London Gatwick cabin crew training centre.

The announcement comes ahead of the airline’s annual recruitment drive this month with hundreds of cabin crew roles available for 2025.

easyJet’s Returnship events will take place throughout August and are now open for registration via https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/easyjet-69330075973

BP to help staff escape abusive relationships

UK-based staff at oil company BP are to be offered free accommodation and legal advice to help them escape abusive relationships, according to a new policy document seen by the Telegraph.

The new policy comes amid concerns that those who work from home may lack a safe space to get away from their partner.

BP is also said to be offering 10 days extra paid leave for appointments related to court applications or meetings with lawyers. BP has been advised on its new anti-abuse policies by the Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA).

Susan Bright, who runs EIDA, said: “One in five people in our country experience domestic abuse and, for many, work may be their only safe space. A supportive employer can change and save lives.”

Teacher recruitment programme secures funding for 2025

Now Teach, a teacher recruitment programme for career changers has secured funding for 2025 after its funding was axed by the previous government.

The programme, which has received £4.47m in government funding since 2022 but had its funding cut by the Department for Education earlier this year, will now be able to continue recruiting career changers for at least another year thanks to donations from philanthropists, trusts and foundations.

The donors include The Hg Foundation, the Rothermere Foundation, and individuals such as Dr Tony Trapp. However, the co-founder of Now Teach, Lucy Kellaway, said that funding the scheme should not be left to philanthropists.

Now Teach plans to recruit 250 teachers for September 2025, an increase from the 215 recruits this year. The programme aims to support career changers from various professions and provide them with a network of support in the teaching world. Now Teach is also planning to meet with the Labour government next term.

Regulators propose new scoring system for pension schemes

Regulators are planning reforms to improve the value of pension schemes for savers.

The FCA, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Pensions Regulator (TPR) say they aim to implement a joint framework for workplace defined contribution schemes.

The joint framework would be used by pension providers and those making decisions on behalf of savers to provide greater transparency over how schemes are performing.

Schemes will be compared on public metrics that demonstrate value – not just costs and charges, but also investment performance and service quality. They would, once the final framework is decided, be publicly rated red, amber or green.

The measures of performance would be standardised to ensure comparability. The reforms are supported by a report from think tank Policy Exchange, which suggests a more adventurous approach could boost the average pension pot by £12,000. However, some experts have raised concerns about the simplicity of the proposed system, although some support it.

Becky O’Connor, Director of Public Affairs at PensionBee, says: “It’s currently close to impossible for people to compare pension plans between providers and to know whether they are getting a good deal. There is arguably no other product or service people pay for that they know so little about.

“As this consultation highlights, there is more to value for money than cost. Better transparency, as well as education, could help pension savers work out if they are getting a good deal in the same way they do for other financial products. It should also mean that if they are not happy, they can move their pension more easily to one that represents better value.”

Term-time work popular with parents

One in three working parents with young children would consider term-time only working to improve their work/life balance, according to a YouGov survey.

The poll of nearly 2,500 working adults, commissioned by Amazon, shows almost a third (32%) of parents with primary school-aged children (5-11) said they would consider switching to a term-time contract. This was 27% for all parents with children 18 and under.

Furthermore, 40% of those questioned say their current employer offers no opportunity to work flexibly at all.

The survey follows Amazon’s expansion of its term-time working option which guarantees time off during the summer, Christmas and Easter school holidays for parents, grandparents and guardians of school-age children.

Meanwhile, a survey for Your Co-op Little Pioneers childcare provision found four in 10 parents have been forced to reduce their working hours due to the high cost of childcare – a figure that rises to 45% when filtered just for mums.

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