Illustrating the situation for recruitment businesses throughout the UK is a sobering statistic from Elite Leaders, the networking and leadership development organisation for recruitment agency owners and leaders: around four out of five, or 80%, of Elite Leaders members are furloughing their staff, according to Elite Leaders’ CEO.

Under the furloughing scheme announced by the government, employers whose business has been hit by the pandemic will receive a grant of 80% of an employee’s normal salary up to £2.5k a month, although the employer must pay the worker first before claiming it back from the government. The first grants are expected to come through in April.  

Speaking to Recruiter after his weekly video call with members, Elite Leaders’ CEO Jeff Brooks said: “Eighty per cent of my members have done some sort of furloughing in some shape or form.” Brooks emphasised that this didn’t mean that 80% of members’ companies staff had been furloughed.

“There is no golden rule here, but I would say some have done as little as 20% and some have gone up to 70%.”

Those staff who were continuing to work tended to be mission-critical staff, “the ones who have got the best relationships with their clients”, said Brooks. He explained that because there were now fewer jobs around because of the effects of the pandemic on the economy, there was less need for resourcers, and consequently these tended to be the staff that were being furloughed.

Another effect of the coronavirus on members was that “because managers have less management to do, they are turning back into recruiters”, said Brooks.

The impact of the pandemic on member companies varied, with some in certain sectors “doing fine”. He cited one IT recruiter, who although it had furloughed some staff was reporting regular requirements from clients wanting to take people on. “Not to the same level as three or four weeks ago, but still busy,” said Brooks. It was a similar picture for recruiters in life sciences and healthcare. In contrast, he said other sectors such as engineering and construction had been hit harder.

Brooks said that members’ finances were generally holding up well. “It wasn’t that they had lost cash at all. We are at the start of this downturn, we are not three months in, and their receipts from March should be able to set them up for April,” he said.

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