Recruitment and training are priorities for large employers

A recent UK survey reveals that while most large national employers prioritise good motivation and attitude among favourable job applicants, this varies according to the qualifications required in their main occupation. Moreover, employers believe that the balance of responsibility for developing workers’ skills should be shared and that the government-led ‘Skills Pledge’ provides a worthwhile platform for further development.

A report entitled Recruitment and training among large national employers (577Kb PDF), published in January 2008 by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), examines recruitment and training issues among large UK employers. The research on which the report is based was undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and IFF Research and draws on the following findings:

• survey responses obtained through computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI) with 201 senior human resource personnel, workforce development or similar respondents from very large national companies between June and August 2007. The overall response rate (46%) comprised a 90% response rate for the 60 National Employer Service (NES) members and 38% for non-NES members. Some 90% of the large companies surveyed operate in services as opposed to manufacturing, 63% employ more than 5,000 workers in the UK, while the remainder employ between 1,000 and 5,000 workers;

• follow-up case studies with two NES and two non-NES companies which participated in the survey and which together employ more than 30,000 staff. The case studies explored in greater depth the extent to which organisational workforce planning and development strategies are ‘joined up’ and how recruitment and training policies were developed and implemented.

Details of Skills Pledge

The Skills Pledge refers to a voluntary, public commitment made by companies to support all of its employees in developing their basic skills, including literacy and numeracy skills, and in working towards relevant, valuable qualifications to at least Level 2 – the equivalent of five good General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) subjects. The pledge seeks to ensure that all staff are skilled, competent and able to make a full contribution to the success of the organisation. This is in line with the final Leitch report on skills (719Kb PDF), published in December 2006, which asserts that in order for the UK economy to compete with other advanced and newly emerging economies, it will have to invest more in skills. When an organisation registers its intention to make the Skills Pledge, it is then able to access a [Train-to-gain](http://www.traintogain.gov.uk/What Is Train To Gain/) skills broker who is part of a national network across the UK, managed and funded by the LSC. The skills broker identifies public funding sources that are available from the government and the best suppliers of training. Very large companies with more than 5,000 employees can obtain assistance through the LSC’s NES to create a bespoke training package for meeting its business needs.

Main findings of LSC report

The following sections outline the main findings of the LSC report on recruitment and training among large national employers.

Recruitment and retention

In terms of recruitment, most of the employers (69%) surveyed give equal preference to external and internal applicants when recruiting for their largest occupational group. Almost all employers look for good motivation and attitude levels among job applicants, while 45% prioritise this over everything else (see Table below). However, this emphasis was much more likely among those whose main occupation usually requires Level 2 qualifications or below, at 56% compared with 20% of those whose main occupation is at Level 4. The companies interviewed for the follow-up case studies generally recruited employees for their largest occupational group externally, mainly because it was generally at a relatively low level within the organisation. There was thus limited scope for enabling workers to progress into that particular role from within the company.

It is more likely that employers will give priority to specific and/or technical skills for higher-level occupations (39%) than lower-level ones (8%).

The majority of employers (60%) agree that qualifications are a good indicator of the skill requirements of their main occupational group. Among employers whose main occupational group usually requires Level 4 qualifications, the figure was 81% compared with 55% of those requiring Level 2 or below. Skills thought to be less well correlated with qualifications are mainly ‘soft’ or generic skills, such as communication or teamwork competencies. In the four case study companies, with respect to new recruits for the largest occupational group, relevant qualifications were generally considered a bonus rather than essential, as all of these companies were prepared to train such staff in-house. However, it should be borne in mind that all four case study companies had medium or low-level occupations as their largest occupational group.

A significant minority of employers (43%) have actively recruited workers from overseas, mainly because they believe that the UK labour market has an insufficient supply of workers with the right level or type of skills. The most common positions for which employers recruit from abroad are for qualified nurses or engineers. Only one of the case study companies had actively recruited staff from overseas, although another two reported that a significant minority of their staff were non-UK nationals, largely from EU accession countries. The main reason for recruiting staff directly from abroad was to fill recruitment shortages caused by skills gaps.