Wednesday - 19 November 2008
Analysis 

In the summer time

Published: 09 July 2008  Author: Graham Simons 

While the weather can play a big part in the fortunes of recruiters who supply seasonal staff to companies, Graham Simons discovers the ability to meet demand can be challenging

The summer months normally bring great opportunity for some recruiters, but with the credit crunch hitting everyone's pocket, are recruiters of seasonal staff experiencing a prolonged sunny spell or finding themselves right in the eye of the storm?

"The credit crunch hasn't hit us at all and business continues to grow," says Michael Wisher, managing director at Michael Wisher Associates. In the busy summer period, Wisher told Recruiter that the hospitality recruiter looked to university and college students to fill any rise in demand. Staff retention was not a problem due to the flexibility of the business. Wisher says: "Sometimes we may lose people for 12 months if they go travelling but they always come back. Our system helps a lot with retention as employees can transfer between offices without any additional paperwork being filled out."

However, David Peacock, national recruitment manager at leisure recruiter SRG, told Recruiter that retention of staff in this market can be a problem. He says: "It's a transient workforce so we have a number of students that come to us when they break up from university. But it's a high churn market."

Like Wisher, Peacock has not yet seen the effects of the credit crunch. If anything, the recruiter is benefiting from growing numbers of Brits holidaying in the UK rather than looking to foreign shores. He says: "We have not noticed the effects of the credit crunch yet. Where we do see a surge in business is the local authority leisure centres, swimming courses, summer camps, children's activity camps and the holiday parks. Our clients such as [caravan holiday operator] Haven have seen an increase in the purchase of holidays this year. There are also caravan owners going to caravan parks, so there is upwards of 4,000 guests hitting holiday parks every week. Their staff demand is huge over the summer, and they would use interim staff heavily."

Marian Barker, director at horticultural recruiter Anders Plus, has seen a marginal downturn in business this summer, but whether this is due to the credit crunch or the weather is unclear. Barker says: "We've not felt the effect of the credit crunch dramatically, but we haven't peaked as high as we would expect to. It's levelled off much earlier.

"Our trading is very weather orientated. The better the weather, the better for us — it dictates how busy we are. Projects can be delayed until the weather dries out."

If the weather does hold out, the peak period for Barker's firm is between April and June, as this is the time when most commercial gardening needs to be completed. From then on it's maintenance work, once a week, depending on whether it's raining or there's a drought.

The weather is the key variable on whether it will prove to be a profitable summer, according to Jim Winship, director at the Event Services Association. But Winship, who represents the outdoor events industry, was bullish over this summer's economic forecast. He said: "It should be a good summer. I don't think the recession has bitten in the events industry."

User Account Logon Form

Quick Search Form

Advanced Search

Adverts

The Magazine
cover 12.11.08This IssueFree SubscriptionBreak Line

Job of the Week



Break LineSign up for Recruiter job alertsBreak LineCareer MoveBreak Line