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• 07 Jan

  Bibby Recruitment Research Shows Reduction In EU Candidates

  New UK recruitment sector Recruiting Times research, published by Bibby Financial Services, shows that 50%, of the 250 recruiters interviewed, had seen a reduction in the number of candidates from EU countries in the run-up to Brexit. This was despite 60% of respondents saying that recruitment performance had improved since last year. 63% are expecting performance to improve in the coming year, a very positive sign for the sector.

  Reduction in EU Candidates

  This is an indication that EU candidates and/or UK recruiters may be anticipating future issues once the UK leaves the European Union, currently scheduled for March 2019.

  This was in spite of a "skills shortage" being cited as the biggest challenge* faced by respondents (54%), closely followed by uncertainty over the future relationship with the EU (41%).

  Most Challenging Sectors For Recruiters

  The sectors where recruiters were finding roles the most challenging to fill, were reported to be:

  • IT (information technology), Computing, Technology & Communications (24%)
  • Construction (16%)
  • Healthcare (15%)
  • Manufacturing (13%)

  Only 6% stated that no sectors were difficult.

  The research went on to highlight late payments as a continuing problem for recruitment agencies.

  Late Customer Payments

  Late payments were cited as a concern for many recruiters (21%*), with 34% of those surveyed saying that they had to wait for over 30 days to receive payment from customers. In such a fast-growth sector, this can be a significant cash flow issue for staff agencies and recruiters, which is why the research found that 25% of those surveyed used either factoring or invoice discounting, both of which are types of invoice funding, to bridge those cash flow gaps.

  Specialist funders that handle the staffing sector tend to offer packages of services to their recruitment customers, which can include bundles of outsourced services such as funding, credit control, sales ledger management and payroll management. This allows the recruiter to focus on finding candidates and matching them to roles, rather than dealing with the administration of their business. Even new startup recruiters can use these outsourcing and funding services, as they don't tend to require the business to have any trading history, unlike other forms of funding such as bank loans and overdrafts.

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  Source: Bibby Financial Services Recruiting Times Research (Nov 2018):

  * responses to a question about their biggest concerns 

  By Glenn Blackman