recruitment

According to Keith Dugdale, global recruiter for the professional services giant KPMG, global recruitment markets are recovering. Dugdale went on to explain that recruiters face a recurring challenge: to make sure the correct talent is in the right place at the right time.

"The signs are that in a number of countries market conditions are picking up, so recruitment is accelerating as well," he said. "We have moved from a point when recruitment had fallen off the agenda as a key strategic issue to it being central again."

Dugdale highlighted emerging economies like India, which have come out of the recession rapidly but now face different challenges. India has recently experienced a period of massive growth, with markets growing by 30%. This has resulted in the Indian economy needing a constant supply of fresh talent. However, due to the rapid nature of India's growth, companies are looking for skilled experienced workers as well as graduates, who are in short supply.

This is in polar opposite to China, another booming economy. Rather than having too many graduates, China struggles to recruit graduate talent. Part of the problem is that graduates from other countries are reluctant to up sticks and move due to the recession and are much more cautious when considering international assignments.

The Daily Telegraph reported last week that businesses in the UK are beginning to look towards school leavers as an alternative to recruiting graduates straight from University. The research survey carried out found that one in five recruiters prefer school leavers, believing that ‘university graduates had unrealistic expectations of working life'.

Interpersonal skills and, surprisingly, computer skills, were cited as the most common skill lacking from new graduates, along with basic numeracy and literacy skills. Instead, younger recruits coming straight from school and college were described as having a better attitude to work, timekeeping and productivity.

This is reinforced by a survey carried out by the Young Foundation; the social innovation research organisation. A study in October 2011 of big businesses in the UK including HSBC, Proctor and Gamble, Santander and KPMG found that there was common concern about the quality of graduates. Again, the skills lacking were listed as commercial awareness, written and spoken English to a high enough level, technical skills...and interpersonal skills.