I think in a turbulent economic climate with so many unknowns, the knee-jerk reaction is to avoid unnecessary costs and for many businesses it’s about doing everything possible to cut cost and regrettably often staff redundancies being inevitable.

But is that the right answer? Well in all honesty we don’t know what the future holds, so important we use the factors that we do know to make an informed decision.

Since opening our doors in 2014, our experience of attracting the best talent has become increasingly competitive year on year, which is evidenced by such a high employment rate and high living costs. Many of the points I raised in my blog about How to Attract Talent in Oxford’s Competitive Employment Market remain, but with so few vacancies being advertised and the furlough scheme coming to an end, which many experts think will result in a huge number of redundancies, could the candidate driven market which has been in place for 10 years be coming to an end?

Having recently successfully completed a ‘head hunting’ search for a senior position on behalf of one of our clients, we found that currently employed candidates were understandably reluctant to entertain moving. Having said that we sourced an incredibly strong pool of candidates that many had recently been notified of redundancy, which has very much been the trend.

My view, and that is all it is, is that there are economic risks to hiring at present but equally, to use a football analogy (my regular readers and friends will know I love to use one!), most companies will be holding ‘smaller squads’ so likely you may be able to hire the premiership striker, into your championship side next season (Oxford United?). Ok enough of football, but the point is very true, the employment market is no different, it’s all supply and demand and if you are one of the ambitious businesses there may never be a better time to get an edge over your competitor.

I hope the above has been useful, but as you can appreciate there are so many variables so if you do need any bespoke advice, I am always happy to meet (virtually via Zoom) for a complimentary session.

Ben Thompson
MD – thompsonandterry.co.uk
e: ben@thompsonandterry.co.uk