Thursday, 09 February 2012

Employers not impressed by Jobcentre Plus' £1k incentive

11-November-2009 | By Colin Cottell

Despite launching an extensive advertising campaign, recruiters say that Jobcentre Plus will have to do more if it is to improve its services to employers.

Jobcentre Plus launched the campaign entitled ‘It pays to work more employers to use its “free vacancy advertising and recruitment service”. The campaign comes after research carried out by Jobcentre Plus in June revealed that only two out of five UK employers “have a relationship with” the government agency. The campaign features adverts in national, regional and business press.

One of the services Jobcentre Plus is marketing is a £1,000 payment to employers who take on people who have been on Jobseeker’s Allowance for more than six months.

However, Gary Franklin, talent acquisition manager at IT computer security and software company Symantec, told Recruiter that the prospect of £1,000 wouldn’t make any difference to the company’s recruitment. “I can imagine that the incentive of £1,000 would appeal to small businesses, but for larger companies like ourselves, we would always look for the best people rather than be influenced by this sort of incentive,” he said.

I can imagine that the incentive of £1,000 would appeal to small businesses, but for larger companies like ourselves, we would always look for the best people rather than be influenced by this sort of incentive

And despite the advertising campaign, Franklin added that he didn’t really know what the Jobcentre offered employers. “You have to ask if it is being marketed correctly,” he said.

Stephen Pearce, a director of finance recruiter Kennedy Pearce Consultancy, said the reason why Jobcentre Plus struggled to attract employers was “probably perception” that its candidates had been out of work for a long time. “The longer they have been out of work the less employable they become,” he said.

“If you are looking for a finance director you are not going to go to Jobcentre Plus, but you might for a junior role. People want to employ the best person, so whether you have to pay a fee or whether it is free is irrelevant - that’s the way it is,” said Pearce.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson told Recruiter: “We are continuing to advertise 70,000 jobs every single working day, even during the current downturn; 70% of people come off Jobseeker’s Allowance within six months due to the support we give them, and we are working closely with employers to make sure we provide the best support to prepare them [those receiving benefits] for the workplace.”

Readers' comments (5)

  • Jason Pierce | Wed, 11 Nov 2009 4:39 pm

    I agree with this article. However, I believe that a radical change to skills testing, beneficial to both the candidate AND businesses, could be the route to its recovery. Placements made through the Jobcentre Plus scheme are currently being hindered due to a lack of trust and faith by businesses and organisations. Sustained complaints such as, ‘submitted candidates skills are not aligned to the job specifications’ and ‘candidates employed are unable to perform the tasks for which they are employed’ are undermining confidence. In this climate business and organisations will not use ineffective means to employ and adopt other methods.

    HR departments of major corporate organisations and recruitment agencies have been using skills tests to successfully match candidates with vacancies for decades. Applicants using the Jobcentre Plus system are lucky if they get assistance from staff with their requirements, let alone a professional and efficient job matching service.

    If the Jobcentre Plus wants to truly succeed in its aims, it needs to open its eyes to the new technologies that can speed up the system and help place applicants in the right job, first time in a cost-effective way. Currently, the system is failing both businesses and candidates by its inability to supply industry with the right skills set.

    There is growing frustration amongst the skills assessment industry over the Jobcentre Plus offering. It is an unfortunate reality that skills testing companies do offer the technology to help solve some of the unemployment problems posed by the recession but, from our experience, the Jobcentre Plus is not willing to consider it. Our concern is that without new technologies such as online skills testing, and a new way of approaching the job market as a whole, the Jobcentre Plus scheme will hinder more job applicants than it will help.

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  • Keith O'Reilly | Thu, 12 Nov 2009 2:41 pm

    I challenge the figures first of all. How many of these 7,000 jobs advertised every day are multiple vacancies from recruitment agencies i.e 3 agencies all advertising the same jobs from the one contract? How many are weekly emailed vacancies from NHS & local councils that get put onto the Jobcentre vacancy system even with no hope of ever filling the job with someone unemployed? Instead of giving the small and medium sized employers the £1,000 for taking someone on, why not give the Jobcentre Plus personal advisers the cash as an incentive to get people into employment? The jobs would still be there would they not, even without this bribe (sorry incentive) from the Jobcentre? Start treating the staff as professional career/recruitemnt consultants rather than box tickers. Give them the IT systems & training to match the best in private recruitment. Some can even use email or word processing packages, let alone social networking and online sites for jobsearch help.

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  • Bernard Peek | Mon, 16 Nov 2009 3:24 pm

    As a candidate I don't feel that Jobcentreplus is doing a lot for me either. I won't mention the £1,000 bounty unless I'm sure that revealing that I've been out for a long time won't hurt my case.

    The staff at the Jobcentre have targets for "positive outcomes." Keith's suggestion of giving them the bonus would be a very bad idea, from my viewpoint. They already try to force me into completely unsuitable jobs and giving them a bonus for succeeding would add insult to injury.

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  • Bernard Peek | Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:40 pm

    As a candidate I don't feel that Jobcentreplus is doing a lot for me either. I won't mention the £1,000 bounty unless I'm sure that revealing that I've been out for a long time won't hurt my case.

    The staff at the Jobcentre have targets for "positive outcomes." Keith's suggestion of giving them the bonus would be a very bad idea, from my viewpoint. They already try to force me into completely unsuitable jobs and giving them a bonus for succeeding would add insult to injury.

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  • jennifer jones | Fri, 16 Jul 2010 9:33 am

    No wonder people have been out of work for a long while - maybe that is the aim. The Jobcentre staff do not know what they are doing, sending people out to jobs they cannot do and sending them on courses which do not give them any real qualifications. Things have to change

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