Market confidence for 2015 as apprenticeships grow

Since the release of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, UK PLC has breathed easy with the prospect that the British economy is set to grow by 3% in 2015, much higher than previously predicted (+2.4%). As we continue to climb out of recession we have come to expect impressive growth in the UK economy, but not quite on this scale! In October, unemployment fell below the two million mark for the first time since the financial crisis, with a record 30.8 million people in work.

Despite this growth, there has been a sudden loss of momentum for contract roles. According to APSCo, the temporary jobs market had slowed recently, although permanent jobs are still strong (driven mostly by growth in Engineering and IT). This growth in the IT sector has been profound, and probably largely due to the ‘app economy’; developers and programmers in particular are in high demand. Another major factor pushing this growth is the threat of cyber-attacks on businesses and their data, which, though awful, does offer the IT industry a silver lining; a huge number of jobs have been created to combat hacking.

Looking to the future however, APSCo’s Chief Executive Ann Swain notes ‘as we approach the end of what has been an incredibly buoyant year… it seems clear to me that there is just one real challenge ahead’. The dark cloud over 2015 she refers to is the impending talent shortages…

The demand for professional talent has reportedly risen by almost a third, and can only be resolved by reassessing talent attraction strategies. Encouragingly, however, this is beginning to emerge. The CIPD reported that two million apprenticeships have been created in the last four years and, steadily, the outdated attitude that somehow apprenticeships are less valuable than a university degree is dissolving. More and more young people are questioning the automatic university route, hoping to earn while they learn and set themselves apart from the millions of Bachelor degree holders. But more can be done; Katerina Rudiger, Head of Skills and Policy Campaigns for the CIPD, spoke of a “need to incentivise schools to promote apprenticeships more strongly as a pathway into work, and more generally, to improve links between business, schools and colleges to help prepare young people for work”. Along with the announcement that post-graduate students are now able to obtain government-backed student loans of up to £10,000, the hope is for a boost in. Minister of State for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Nick Boles commented that “apprenticeships have a vital role to play in supporting the long term economic plan… ‘[they] are a solid route into some of the country’s most prestigious professions.”

Though not expected for some time, all this may well result in higher average earnings growth in the future. As salary growth remains markedly below 2014’s employment growth, it is unlikely that we will feel the effects of a healing economy just yet. The CIPD predict that, as there is a strong supply of labour at current salary levels, it will take a while before employers are compelled to raise salaries, but as the year closes, we feel there is much to look forward to. 

Head, shoulders, knees and toes; a jobseeker's guide to interview body language

As an introduction to our upcoming guide for jobseekers on interview body language, we have explored the basics of what you can do to ensure your body is telling the right story.

As you prepare for your interview, Googling buzzwords and choosing the best examples of your successes to relate, you must remember that an enormous 55% of communication is body language. 38% is based on the tone of your voice, and just 7% comes from your words. So, to perform your best in an interview, you must choose what your body is saying as carefully as you choose what you are saying.

Here’s a head to toe guide to walk you through the basics:

When you are under pressure your body does what it can to help, relieving or exorcising this stress by moving, fidgeting, tapping or via other forms of expression. When you deliberately stop your face or voice from showing unease, your body compensates by releasing the tension elsewhere. The trick is not to force yourself to bottle up tension but to manage how to express it, even turn it to your advantage.

Making a conscious effort to use certain body language to appear comfortable or bold is not a failsafe; it would be naïve to suggest that holding eye contact slightly longer than usual will immediately win over an interviewer, but using the tricks and techniques outlined in our upcoming guide will free you up to be yourself, removing obstacles of nervousness, letting you breathe easy and flourish in the interview environment.

Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home office

Marissa Mayer – appointed last year as President and CEO of Yahoo - received a lot of press coverage following her decision/ultimatum to come and work in the office or work for another company. The announcement provoked a debate on productivity and the merits or otherwise of working from home. From where I sat (in my office, at home of course) the discussion that followed mostly missed the more central issues of trust and indirect or intrinsic benefits.

I should declare that I am fortunate enough to enjoy the best of both worlds; an employer that trusts me to work at home as much as I want, and still generous enough to provide me with an office when I prefer (or when it’s half term, when the travelling is easier and the noise levels at home increase). This isn’t just an arrangement that significantly aids my productivity, it’s one I value strongly and see as a key benefit of working for Moog. So a couple of days a week I substitute most of the two and a half hours I would spend commuting for more time working, and benefit from a bit more sleep, and quite a lot less money spent on petrol.

As a reward person, I’ve always been an advocate for giving people what they value, if you can, rather than what you want them to have. To that end, I’ve argued for ‘light touch’ regulation on areas like job titles, working from home and dress code, and that we all end up better off sanctioning the occasional abuse by the minority rather than letting this fear of abuse define what we give.

It’s a philosophy that has more than once got me into trouble. I set up a switch to a smart casual dress code with one former employer who had a sizable call centre where it was proving difficult to find and then keep staff. I reasoned that a causal dress policy might make jobs there a little more appealing and a little less costly. It led to an email from the CEO that you could see had been typed with such venom the keyboard must have sunk about an inch into the desk. I was to be held personally responsible for the decline in productivity that was now inevitable, as well as the lost customers he thought would recoil at the sight of men in M&S chinos and polo shirts. I suppose I didn’t help by replying and speculating how much more successful Richard Branson or Bill Gates could have been had they invested in a tie. Branson’s take on the changes at Yahoo were pretty clear – you have to trust your staff.

Google’s CFO Patrick Pichette talks about there being “something magical about sharing meals” but for me there’s something difficult to swallow in Google’s anti-telecommuting stance given their products, and it makes me wonder if it’s really just about money and control. Alexandra Shulman, British editor of Vogue, laid out a defence of Meyer’s actions, but it’s worth noting how in the last two paragraphs it all comes down to her desire for her team to be accessible on her terms, as and when she wants them to be.

And what about the money? Well, it’s worth heeding what happened to Robert Propst, the man who designed the first work cubicles for Herman Miller. His Action Office designs aimed to increase efficiency, privacy, and create a better work environment. It didn’t take long for some companies to see that his designs could be modified to fit many more employees into the smallest possible space. It had the opposite effect to what Propst had intended, and he later described cubicle-based workplaces as a “monolithic insanity”. Clearly the relationship between proximity and productivity needs to be explored with care.

- Alan Measures, Director of Reward at Moog Inc.

Alan Measures is Global Director of Reward at Moog Inc, a worldwide designer, manufacturer, and integrator of precision control components and systems. He has over 20 years of reward experience from a variety of industries, and has worked for Boots The Chemists, Zurich Financial Services/Allied Dunbar, Bass Brewers, Hewitt Associates, Prudential and Marathon Oil.

Alan holds a B.Sc. degree in economics from the University of Wales. A member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), he spent 8 years as a tutor on CIPD reward courses and is a member of the CIPD Reward Forum.

In his spare time Alan endures a life long affiliation to West Ham United, while his family and neighbours endure his passion for playing the guitar and the mistaken belief that volume is a substitute for talent.