Tag Archives: IT jobs

Hays And CBI Release Digital Report On Workplace Flexibility And Communication

Hays and CBI have called on the Government to fundamentally rethink its approach to employment law in order to bolster workplace flexibility and foster better employment relations.

Launching its first ever digital report Thinking Positive: the 21st century employment relationship, produced in collaboration with Hays, the CBI explores how the employment relationship has changed, becoming even more flexible.

The report includes video interviews with employees and staff on the benefits of good communication and flexibility, and looks at how this helped minimise private sector job losses during and post-recession.

Now the CBI says the Government should build on the success of workplace relations forged during the recession by embedding this flexible approach into future employment law and in its Employment Law Review. Rather than automatically opting for legislation, in most cases the Government should specify what it is trying to achieve and set out suggested processes in more flexible guidance or codes of practice. With much of the UK’s employment law coming from Europe, this approach should also be applied to EU directives.

So far, the Government has given some welcome signals on reducing regulation and is looking at ways of improving the tribunals system. But it has also introduced policies that have reduced flexibility, including abolishing the Default Retirement Age without addressing the need for employers to have protected conversations about retirement plans and failing to review the Agency Workers Directive, which has been gold plated to include extra process costs for employers, not required under European law.

John Cridland, CBI director-general, said: “Traditionally when making employment law governments have tried to specify every last detail of what should go on in the workplace.

“With a strong base of employment rights already in place, we simply don’t need the state telling us how to manage every aspect of basic human relations.

“The Government should adopt a simpler approach to future employment law, one which maximises choice for employers and staff and plays up the strengths of our flexible labour market.

“Good communication helped companies and employees work together to make difficult changes to working patterns to get through the recession. These lessons are particularly important now the public sector is facing similar challenges as a result of measures to cut the deficit.”

Commenting on the benefits of greater workplace flexibility for staff, Alistair Cox, chief executive of Hays plc, added: “Flexibility is a key ingredient in driving future economic growth in the UK. It is also a key aspect that more and more professionals look for in their lives and careers, particularly at a time when we want to encourage employers to invest and create more jobs, despite today’s economic uncertainty.”

Via EPR Network
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Hays Reports Millions Being Spent On Coaching Without A Business Purpose

Hays Senior Finance reports that while multi-millions of pounds are spent on coaching across the UK, 15% of organisations admit they have absolutely no measurements in place to assess the impact of their programmes.

A new survey from Hays Senior Finance, working with expert coach/ mentors LeaderShape, shows that coaching is often undertaken without evaluating the return on investment. The survey also shows that 68% of businesses fail to use coaching directly to address corporate objectives and outcomes are often simply referenced at a personal level.

According to the data, the majority of coach-mentoring programmes are for individuals, with 72% deployed to develop individual talents or address personal worries.

Chris McCarthy, director at Hays Senior Finance, said: “In far too many cases companies are leaving it to individuals to set the framework for their own coaching or mentoring – with little or no reference to business needs. They then fail to check the standards of their programmes and show little concern for the outcomes. Support can be extremely effective when a professional starts a new role, but it is essential it is carried out in the right manner by people who understand the specific needs of these individuals.”

The survey showed that if a senior finance professional leaves within three months of starting a new role not only is there a financial cost, but it dampens staff morale. The vast majority of respondents (96%) agreed that these appointments would benefit from confidential support during this period.

One major concern revealed by the Hays Senior Finance/LeaderShape survey is the lack of ongoing professional development for providers. Internal coach-mentors are the preferred choice by those who use coaching, with 73% of companies using in-house support. However, 16% of coaches and 28% of mentors do not receive any training or support themselves, while companies describe 29% of team or group facilitators as untrained.

Chris Gulliver from LeaderShape commented: “This is a very expensive missed opportunity for UK Plc in fast-moving times. Increasing amounts of money are being spent on coaching as a universal panacea but many companies have no comprehensive overview or sense of purpose.

Via EPR Network
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Hays Reveals The UK’s Jobs Offering The Best Opportunities

Hays, the leading recruiting expert, has revealed the top ten job areas, which are currently exhibiting the strongest demand for candidates in the UK.

As a result of long development cycles the pharmaceutical industry came out on top of the new “most wanted” list. Areas such as regulatory affairs, health economics and statistical programming are faring particularly well due to the increase in safety measures and the need to check products going into the prescription markets.

The second key area revealed by the research was banking jobs in the city. In particular, the banks are looking for revenue generators who are client-facing, with a strong banking background and appropriate levels of managing risk and control, as the majority of investment, corporate and retail banks are still trying to re-build their businesses.

Doctors, qualified social workers and other healthcare professionals all came out well, benefiting f r o m a more secure job environment due to prevailing shortages. The NHS has an ageing workforce and specialist nurses are particularly in demand across the UK.

The demand for candidates to fill a wealth of IT jobs has risen by nearly 30% in 2010. This is partly down to the release of MS Windows 7, which has helped increase the demand for IT staff to support home users or smaller organisations.

Via EPR Network
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IT Leads Organisational Efficiency – Reports Hays Information Technology

Hays Information Technology, a leading specialist recruitment company, reports a number of specialist IT skill sets have come to the fore during the current climate, as organisations seek to maximise efficiencies.

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Providing technical solutions in a structured and cost-effective manner remains a key priority, particularly for larger organisations and consequently this has led to sustained demand for architecture expertise in the current IT architect jobs market. “Enterprise architects can still command excellent salaries and remuneration levels reflect the substantial cost savings that these individuals can bring to their organisations,” commented James Lloyd-Townshend, Managing Director at Hays Information Technology.

The focus on cost efficiency has also fuelled demand for business intelligence consultants, whose remit is to prepare management information reports, keep senior stakeholders informed on all aspects of company performance and highlight areas where resources need to be diverted in order to optimise financial outlays. “SharePoint experience is a particular skill set that employers are looking for, as this can make a real difference to the way businesses share information, which in turn has a dual knock-on effect on engagement and productivity,” added Lloyd-Townshend.

Virtualisation is a central part of an organisation’s IT strategy in achieving consolidating and standardising infrastructure. This results in server and device consolidation and these reductions mean less capital expenditure, lower power consumption and maintenance costs, fewer human resource support requirements and software licenses. Cloud computing and cloud-based applications are seen as a pivotal part of this economy drive. Other specialist skills that are currently in demand for IT jobs include VMware, C# and .Net.

Some of the larger organisations in particular will be looking to increase their expenditure on IT projects during the second half of the year, in preparation for the upturn. “Businesses will initially look to bring in senior interim professionals to manage these projects and we would then expect them to gradually increase their permanent headcount as and when the market starts to pick up,” added Lloyd-Townshend. “Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are also taking advantage of the current market conditions to attract talent and these organisations offer opportunities for individuals to make a real difference to their businesses.”

While the nature of the current economic climate has altered the parameters for IT recruitment, many organisations are reassessing their requirements in preparation for delivering fundamental strategic projects, as this represents an opportunity to steal a march on the competition and subsequently gain market share. IT professionals can also bring their commercial skills to bear in the public sector, which is keen to hire individuals with a commercial background. “It is important that jobseekers research transferable skills and understand how these organisations operate,” added Lloyd-Townshend as a note of caution.

Finding increasingly cost effective infrastructure solutions, enabling faster data access across organisations and sharing information to gain operational efficiencies have all led to a steady demand for specialist IT skill sets, which will help organisations through the downturn and provide a solid platform for the economic recovery.

About Hays Information Technology
Hays Information Technology is part of Hays plc, specialising in IT jobs including developer jobs and programmer jobs. It is market leader in the UK and Australia, and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe. The Group employs 8,294 staff operating from 380 offices in 28 countries across 17 specialisms.

Via EPR Network
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