Aberdeen & Grampian Workforce Survey - December 2011
The British Chambers of Commerce commissioned Research by Design (RbD) to undertake a national survey with business members of the Accredited Chamber Network including Aberdeen & Grampian to: understand businesses’ attitudes to recruitment; flexible working arrangements; migrant workers employed; what encourages employers to take on staff; and what skills employers need to grow their business. The national survey secured over 7,000 responses, of which 185 were in the Aberdeen & Grampian region.
We can learn a lot from the main findings of the report, which are:
The vast majority of business in the region are SMEs, with just 8% of Aberdeen & Grampian businesses completing the survey being sole traders. Many SMEs (around 4 in 10) employ workers on a flexible basis. The key reason for this is to easily adjust the size of workforce according to demand. The Working Time Directive ‘opt-out’ is used by around a third of businesses, and the reasons for this include the need to provide the best service to clients and customers and to give more choice to employees.
Networking, word of mouth, local newspapers, recruitment agencies and company websites are the main methods of recruitment for businesses in Aberdeen & Grampian. The majority of businesses find it difficult recruiting the right staff to fill vacancies, with almost all stating there is competition for the skills they require. Around 3 in 10 businesses use temporary agency staff; the main reason for this is to provide short term staff cover. Most of these businesses predict no change in the hiring of agency workers once the Agency Workers Directive is implemented.
Around 4 in 10 Aberdeen & Grampian businesses have received requests for flexible working in the last 12 months; the vast majority of these have been accepted, or a compromise that suited both parties has been agreed. The inability to achieve adequate staff coverage at certain times is the key barrier to flexible working.
With regard to employment regulation, dismissal rules along with health and safety are seen as the most burdensome areas of regulation for Aberdeen & Grampian firms. Businesses are fairly negative when comparing the UK workforce to their EU or US counterparts. Less than a third feel the UK has a more flexible labour market than other EU countries or the US, or that the UK has more skilled workers than the EU. Over half of Aberdeen & Grampian businesses feel they are well informed about changes to employment regulation. The main concern emerging from the survey relates to additional paternity leave and pay, which is the legislative change that is seen as most detrimental to businesses.
Just under a fifth of businesses have been threatened with an Employment Tribunal claim in the last three years, with 41% of these claims being settled. Only a minority were defended and won by the Employer, although these took a disproportionate amount of time. Half of businesses in the region agree that employment tribunals are unfairly weighted towards the employee.
Virtually all businesses in the region provide training to employees. This is most commonly identified as on-the-job training, followed by induction training. The majority of businesses have not taken on an apprentice in the last 12 months, the main barrier being the lack of relevance to their business or sector. All those taking on an apprentice are doing so to build the skills capacity within their business.
The majority of businesses support work-related learning activities with educational establishments, with work experience placements being the most common. There are concerns that non-graduate candidates will have the right business skills to be work-ready. Overall, businesses regard their in-house skills positively, particularly in processing payroll, tax compliance and employment regulation compliance, and external resources are used to assist them when required.
Just under half of Aberdeen & Grampian businesses employ migrant workers, most commonly for professional positions, with the key reason given for employing migrant workers being the lack of domestic candidates with the required experience and skills. Only a minority of businesses have outsourced their operations overseas.
What emerges from the survey results for this region are businesses with a highly professional approach to recruitment, training & development, apprenticeships and business skills; strong compliance with employment regulation; a pragmatic and constructive approach to flexible working and employment tribunals; and a global approach to recruiting the right staff.
Copies of the full survey results are available from AGCC on www.agcc.co.uk as part of the Chamber campaign to provide high quality research to decision-makers in the region. |
