Slow and inefficient hiring processes are crippling progress for UK businesses and impacting staff satisfaction.
Finding top talent is a growing challenge for UK businesses, and new survey results published today from Upwork, the largest online talent marketplace,1 show that traditional hiring methods are compounding the problem. The study surveyed 1,000 hiring managers and found that 88 percent of UK businesses describe the way they hire talent as slow, and inefficient. In addition, the findings reveal that it takes UK businesses more than a month (34 days) to find and hire new talent, with one in seven (14 percent) taking more than two months.
According to the research, 82 percent of UK businesses admit slow hiring times have a negative impact on overall business productivity. The study suggests that traditional methods to find talent are no longer fit for today’s business environment, which could help to explain why UK’s productivity level is at its lowest level since World War II4. It’s not just productivity that suffers either; 40 percent of respondents noticed that office morale deteriorates when there are talent shortages, and one in six (17 percent) of businesses have actually lost clients or projects because of talent shortages. Nearly two thirds of hiring decision makers (59 percent) identified their geographical location as inhibiting their access to the right talent. This is perhaps not surprising as 78 percent of businesses restrict their search to their immediate local area, with only a staggeringly low 4 percent looking beyond the UK for talent. Geography even seems to hold back the most talented city in the world;5 London businesses take 37 days (three more than the national average) to fill new roles.
In addition, 37 percent of UK businesses still advertise in newspapers and magazines to find new talent. Despite the digital age, ‘offline’ routes to talent remain more popular than posting an online job advert (31 percent), LinkedIn (25 percent) or using social media (19 percent). Hayley Conick, Upwork Country Manager comments, “The current way in which businesses find new talent is broken – it’s inefficient and often ineffective. It’s particularly worrying to learn that UK businesses are being prevented from growing both in terms of winning new work as well as losing existing clients as a result of inefficient processes for finding talent. Today, businesses have access to a global pool of talent at the click of a button. However, when only 4 percent of businesses are looking beyond UK borders, is it any wonder we’re falling behind? Embracing skilled freelance professionals as a source of talent can bring the average hiring time down from over three weeks to under three days.”
Simon Ryley, Founder of sportrightnow.com says, “Hiring is a real challenge for a growing business like ours. We want to move quickly but rushing the process can result in a poor hire with potentially disastrous consequences. Using expert freelance professionals solves this problem, allowing us to quickly add highly skilled professionals who provide real value to the project.”
Nesta research, July 2014http://www.nesta.org.uk/news/mind-data-skills-gap-uk-businesses-warn-shortage-talent-able-transform-big-data-big-value
Research commissioned by Upwork and conducted by independent research firm, OnePoll between Thursday 3rd June and 11th June 2015. The primary research was conducted with 1000 hiring decision makers. The sample includes 738 SMEs
Average figure taken from primary research
ONS figures, April 2015http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/01/uk-productivity-growth-is-weakest-since-wwii-says-ons
Deloitte data, April 2014http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1143307/london-boasts-skilled-workers-europe
Pension freedoms trigger major new trends in retiree behaviour – BlackRock
BlackRock data shows 4 in 5 people taking entire pot as cash post-April
£1 in every £4 invested in BlackRock drawdown product
